British European Jazz Ensemble, including Enrico Merlin:'SIBLINGS NOT FOOLS'TOUR 2024

About

BEJE's distinctive and energetic contemporary jazz performances are always about collaboration, whether with other players or other cultures. A unique world music-tinged jazz ensemble, its line-up of different sensibilities and skills from all over the continent, its widespread influences, and its union of eclectic styles manifests in powerful creations of improvisation and composition alike. It acknowledges no boundaries, is relentless in its exploration of innovative ingredients for sonic fusion, and embraces humanity by mirroring diversity in its music.

A VIBRANT CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ARGUMENT FOR
INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL EXCHANGE.
VENUE MAGAZINE

This Autumn, BEJE tours 'Siblings Not Fools', a celebration of the creative energy and unity possible when cultures meet through the medium of music, and a testament to Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1964 declaration: 'live together as brothers or perish together as fools'. This series of collective collaborations with international artists from Korea, Palestine, Italy, and Wales, is presented (and recorded live for an anthology album to be released in the new year) primarily at grassroots and non-traditional venues, and is supported by skills/experience development workshops.
BEJE works with: the formidable Korean jazz duo of pianist-singer Yunmi Kang and guitarist Sangyeon Park, distilling their technical precision and cool soulfulness into elegant and thrillingly original performances; Zaid Hilal, a compelling and expressive Palestinian singer and master of the ear-catching bağlama, on spellbinding, otherworldly jazz-folk with a Middle-Eastern edge; the prodigiously talented Italian guitarist Enrico Merlin for shows of innovative and dazzling 'soundscape' jazz; renowned Palestinian nay reed-flute virtuoso Faris Ishaq for a masterful meld of traditional Palestinian folk music and spine-tingling jazz; and the superb Welsh troubadour Alun Sanger, with an exquisitely crafted and beautifully performed 'riverology' song-cycle.

MUSICALLY GIFTED...
CREATIVE AND TECHNICALLY EXCELLENT MUSICIANS.
BLACK MOUNTAIN JAZZ
www.bejejaz.com
ENRICO MERLIN x BEJE

Progressive and thrilling 'soundscape' jazz: music without boundaries.
World-class guitar-jazz at its most dynamic, playful, impressionist, and innovative; evocative and electrifying sonic worlds fizzing with surprises, and turning from delicate cinematic dreamscapes to fierce maelstroms of music. Every performance is unique and unrepeatable.

★★★★☆
All About Jazz

From Milano, Italy, guitarist-composer Enrico Merlin is a powerhouse improviser of boundless invention, and an acclaimed Miles Davis authority. He plays rich, complex and restlessly curious contemporary jazz, here underpinned by the superb musicianship of global-jazz collective BEJE. A leading voice in Italy's jazz and improv scene, Enrico's signature guitar sound, astonishing technique, distinctive composing vision, and freely spontaneous playing, are justly acclaimed. Journey into the great musical unknown; this is exploratory music of rare and intense beauty, infused with wonder.

'A tour-de-force.'
Mono & Stereo Magazine