@qwest_tv: Belgium may be one of Europe's smaller countries but has had an outsized impact on jazz history, from the hot club of Django Reinhardt and romantic stylings of Toots Thielemans to Fred Van Hove's avant gardism and Philip Catherine's fusioneering. This art-style documentary, recorded for Belgian television, presents native jazz in three cities from April 1973. The tight shots and slightly grainy quality lends intimacy to the featured groups, each getting 15 minutes of screen time. Interspersed are stark vignettes of scenes from Belgian life: pedestrians, canals, a young girl on a fire escape, traffic. One of the country's original beboppers, vibraphonist Fats Sadi, leads a quartet, all dressed in matching suits and blue and pink polka-dotted cravats, on three of his tunes in a small restaurant. Modern jazz comes in a rough-hewn café via guitarist René Thomas, embracing the period's aesthetic with the electric bass of Freddy De Ronde for two originals and Jobim's seminal bossa nova "Chega De Saudade". And a European take on '70s funk-jazz—landing somewhere between Chicago and Soft Machine—is essayed by keyboard player Marc Moulin's seven-piece Placebo, playing music from their period albums in a hip jazz club. Those that know these artists will be entranced by this precious footage. Newcomers will want to dig deeper in the country's jazz scene, maybe with a side order of pommes frites. Jazz in Belgium feat. Placebo, René Thomas, Quartet Sadi, RTBF 1973

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Sunday 07 June 2026 23:46:55 GMT