Small World is a collaboration project between two South African and three Belgian jazz musicians. The band grew out of my personal and musical friendship with South African trumpet player Marcus Wyatt. We met in South Africa in 2004 when I was there for the first time with Tutu, and we have been working and playing together ever since, in Africa as well as in Europe.
This band has played two tours in Europe, in 2014 and 2016, and has been expanding its audience in Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In November 2016 we recorded two concerts at the Bird’s Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland. A selection of tracks from those sessions was released as a live album in the beginning of 2018, and in August 2019 we took the project on a tour through South Africa.
The music of the project consists of a repertoire of mainly originals written by Marcus, our tenor player Steven and myself. The tunes are very loosely arranged and made subject to the power of the collective, depending largely on our interaction. The groove, creativity and joy of playing together in this band always result in an adventurous and entertaining mix that sounds different on every concert.
Marcus Wyatt (SA) – trumpet / Steven Delannoye (B) – tenor sax / Ewout Pierreux (B) – piano / Romy Brauteseth (SA) – bass / Teun Verbruggen (B) – drums