Belgian fusion band BRZZVLL (pronounced Brazzaville) are set to release their seventh studio album this autumn, entitled ‘Waiho’, released 6th October via Sdban Ultra.
Founded by Vincent Brijs in Antwerp in 2006, the seven piece interfuse improvised dance music with jazz-fusion, afro funk and rare groove. It is freaky, it is trippy and it follows no rules. Belgium has quite a tradition for jazz and funk infused leftfield grooves from Marc Moulin’s ingenious Placebo to library funksters Les Chakakas / El Chicles to the much sampled JJ Band and BRZZVLL follow in a similar tradition. Initially re-working arrangements from jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris, Freddie Hubbard and Archie Shepp, BRZZVLL eventually began to construct their own forms of free jazz in an attempt to return jazz to its primitive roots based around collective improvisation.
New album ‘Waiho’ is BRZZVLL at its best: excellent psychedelic jazz-funk in which the band’s solid, characteristic sound comes forward. After two inspirational collaborations with poets and ‘Nuff Said brothers Anthony Joseph (‘Engines’) and Amir Sulaiman (‘First Let’s Dance’), BRZZVLL play the instrumental card. With ‘Waiho’, the band express their current cry for solidarity within music as well as their daily lives. Nowadays, music is too often used as an individual consumption product. The band centralise the group experience, both in the creation process and in the interaction with the audience when performing live, by being “in the moment” and lifting the music to a higher level, as one. This way, BRZZVLL go back to the roots of jazz and funk.
