(JOHN) COLTRANE 100: A TRIBUTE TO ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL JAZZ INNOVATORS
 
AB, Bozar and Kaaitheater join forces to present a unique tribute to John Coltrane: one of the most influential innovators in the history of jazz. Coltrane sculpted an entirely inimitable signature sound with his saxophone (a Belgian invention by Adolphe Sax).
 
His rich oeuvre is now considered a sacred legacy: “Many artists achieve greatness but very few produce work that is so moving that it’s considered sacred.” To mark Coltrane’s 100th birthday, in 2026 we honour his legacy with a series of dance performances, concerts, screenings and artist talks. 
 

7:00-7:40 pm
SCREENING: JOHN COLTRANE - LIVE A COMBLAIN-LA-TOUR (1965, RTBF, 38 MIN) 
 
John Coltrane only performed once in Belgium, though not at Bozar in Brussels (where virtually all the jazz icons of the time - Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk or Billie Holiday – had triumphed). However, Coltrane did give a brilliant performance in the picturesque village of Comblain-La-Tour in Liège. 
 
Come again? It was there, in 1959, that the very first European open-air festival took place, organised by WOII veteran Joe Napoli (USA). As a gesture of gratitude for the local hospitality, he founded a charity event years later (the roof of the parish church was in need of repair) under the name Festival International du Jazz. Jazz greats like Chet Baker, Nina Simone were welcomed in the period 1959-1966, and on 1 August 1965 … John Coltrane. 
 
These historic recordings not only captured Coltrane’s single visit to Belgium, they were also the very last filmed footage of Coltrane’s so-called Classic Quartet with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison. 
 
The intense and physical performance – one literally sees the steam rising from their bodies – shows a band at a turning point in its career. A few months later, the quartet split up due to artistic differences.
 

7:50 - 8:00 pm
MUSICAL PRAYER/ODE TO TRANE: ALICE COLTRANE - SOMETHING ABOUT JOHN COLTRANE (1971)
To set the tone, on every (JOHN) COLTRANE 100 evening we’ll listen together to a musical tribute to John Coltrane that touches us deep in our souls.

Something About John Coltrane appeared on Alice Coltrane’s groundbreaking album Journey In Satchidananda (1971), with the album title referring to the influential Indian yoga guru Swami Satchidananda Saraswati. Alice Coltrane in the liner notes: “I know that to this day there remains something inexplicable and elusive about John Coltrane. “Something About John Coltrane” is written in the key of D minor and will sound familiar to John’s followers. It is beautifully played.”

8 PM - 8:50 PM
OLA TUNJI
OLA TUNJI (B/FR) is a quartet based primarily in Brussels, centred around saxophonist Ornella Noulet. Their shared passion: Coltrane’s spiritual jazz. But Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler are also palpable in their music. OLA TUNJI thus exudes the intensity and openness of ‘The New Thing’, the radical musical innovation movement that emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was essentially synonymous with avant-garde or free jazz.

Incidentally, the band’s name is a tribute to Babatunde Olatunji, the Nigerian-born percussionist who was a close friend of Trane’s. What’s more, Coltrane once wrote the composition Tunji as a tribute and helped fund the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem.

OLA TUNJI’s love for Coltrane runs deep. Noulet: “Since we cannot truly experience peace collectively in this world, we have Coltrane’s music to, at least, hear and feel it. Coltrane is a messenger of God; with love and light, he offers us what we so desperately lack in our human condition: a glimpse of eternity.”

Listening to their debut EP Untitled EP (2024), it felt as though Coltrane had walked into the room with his Classic Quartet. In autumn 2026, we expect their full-length debut to be released on W.E.R.F. records. Ready for a sneak peek?

9:15 - 10:30 PM
SHABAKA
In late 2023, there was widespread consternation in Hutchings-land: London saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings had put away his beloved sax. He did so in style at the Hackney Church in London, with a complete performance of A Love Supreme (1965), John Coltrane’s iconic masterpiece.

Noteworthy: he turned his back on Belgian Adolphe Sax‘s invention at the height of his popularity. In 2022 and 2023, he had sold out AB with his band Sons of Kemet and his flagship The Comet Is Coming, thrilling a total of 4,000(!) young music lovers.

What followed were the soothing (sax-less) albums Afrikan Culture (2022) and Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (2024), not coincidentally released on the iconic jazz label Impulse! Records that rightly received the nickname ‘The House That Trane Built’. After all, the label was of course home to Coltrane’s groundbreaking albums: A Love Supreme, Ascension, Crescent, Live at the Village Vanguard, … and more.

Enter 2026: Shabaka is back on the saxophone for his latest album Of The Earth, to be released independently via his brand new label Shabaka Records. Shabaka: “This record is my celebration of freedom in creative self-expression. Before the pandemic, I could only play the clarinet and saxophone and knew nothing about music production (or how to play the flute), so this has been a journey of learning and a reflection on the music that’s been created as a result.”

The Wire about Of The Earth: “The result is a genuinely experimental record, with more than a dash of cheerful craziness. … A burst onto fresh terrain.” Loud and Quiet: “It’s Shabaka’s most punk record yet.” Stereogum on the advance track Marwa The Mountain: “It reminds me of a more stripped-down Los Thuthanaka.”

Just like his greatest source of inspiration, John Coltrane, Shabaka never looks back: “You’ve gotta keep it moving with music, and that’s what typifies all the heroes of the music that I really respect”, he once confided to Jazzwise.

Lastly, a nice quote from De Standaard (about Sons Of Kemet at Pukkelpop in 2018) that perfectly captures Shabaka: “Praise the Lord for Shabaka Hutchings. This was bursting with life, this kicked shins, this was just as much punk as it was dance as it was jazz. John Coltrane was surely watching from above with a big grin.”