Jazztime Europe

Binnenkort beschikbaar! Mon Devoghelaere - Jazzlogboek - Notities van een jazzvogel 1960-1968. Verschijningsdatum: 15 oktober 2025. Pre-orders zijn vanaf vandaag mogelijk. Bestel nu je exemplaar via de link in bio. “Van 1960 tot 1968 legde jazzcriticus Mon Devoghelaere nauwgezet zijn jazzactiviteit vast. In twee schriftjes, die hij Jazzlogboek 1 en Jazzlogboek 2 doopte, pende hij minutieus zijn gedachten neer bij elke aan jazz verwante tv-uitzending en film die hij zag, en bij elk jazzconcert dat hij bijwoonde. De logboeken brengen ons niet alleen naar roemrijke clubs als de Blue Note in Parijs, de Golden Circle in Stockholm of Ronnie Scott’s in Londen, maar ook naar concerten van de Gentse Universitaire Jazz Klub, naar jazzkroegen als De Muze in Antwerpen en Pol’s Jazzclub in Brussel, en uiteraard naar de festivals van Bilzen en Comblain-la-Tour. Dankzij Devoghelaeres persoonlijke benadering documenteren zijn jazzlogboeken niet alleen op een uiterst unieke manier de Belgische – en bij uitbreiding ook de Europese – jazzscene van de jaren zestig, maar ook de coming of age van een jonge jazzliefhebber die zou uitgroeien tot een van de belangrijkste jazzjournalisten van zijn generatie.” De schriftjes worden nu, precies 30 jaar na het overlijden van Mon Devoghelaere, voor het eerst gepubliceerd door Vogel Books. Nooit eerder kregen we zo’n persoonlijke inkijk in de Belgische jazzgeschiedenis. Boekvoorstellingen: 15/10 Hnita Jazz Club, Heist-op-den-Berg 29/11 BRAND! Festival, Mechelen

PHAROAH is here! I’m happy to have been a part of the research team of what is the ultimate release of the magnum opus of the genre we now widely call spiritual jazz. With the blessing of Pharoah Sanders, @luakabop has created this beautiful box set that doesn’t only contain the reissue of his now elusive self-titled 1977 masterpiece, but an extra LP with live versions of Harvest Time, recorded that same year during a European tour. I helped out in researching details from the concert at the Jazz Middelheim festival in Antwerp, Belgium, and tracked down the photographs from Rob Miseur and Guy Stevens that are featured on the cover of the Live LP, throughout the extensive booklet and on the reprinted ephemera featured in the box set, which is available as from today. Picture of original copy included for the sake of showing off.

Yes. Yes. YES! I’ve waited years to be able to share this with you, and here it is: Dusko Goykovich - Doo’s Blues. A collection of previously unreleased studio recordings that the great trumpeter made for the Belgian radio in 1967, with the help of fantastic players like Bent Jædig, Fats Sadi, Scott Bradford, Jimmy Woode, Al Jones, etc. It will be out on LP on November 8, of course on @sdbanrecords . Go place your pre-order now on their bandcamp page!

It took me some three years to transcribe the notebooks of Mon Devoghelaere, which he wrote between 1960-1968. It did give me an idea of how time consuming it must have been for him to write them by hand back then. Even more so if you realize that at the same time he was - besides co-editing the Labris magazine - working on not one, but two books: of course there’s his biography about Bobby Jaspar, published in 1967 (when he was 24 years old, mind you) and which has a legendary status in Belgian jazz collector circles, but much less known is that from 1964-1967 he worked on Sitereja, an experimental book that got published around 1968-1969. There’s hardly information to be found on the book online, which is sad because it’s an incredible literary experiment, with hardly any precursors in Flemish literature. Influenced by James Joyce and Kerouac ao., Devoghelaere abondoned all the conventions of literature, using free association and improvisation etc. The book was printed in a run of 100 copies, of which he mailed out 20 to critics, but not a single one wrote a review. Even within his inner circle, the reception was cold. Only his blood brother Max Kazan acknowledged its merits and called it “een soliede milestone in de bestofte, eigenlijk doodmuffe kletskleerkast der nederlandstalige, wat men dan noemt, letterkunde” (a translation would not do justice to this sentence, sorry). I finally managed to acquire a copy of this incredible book thanks to @demian_books (where else?). Cover art: Jozef Peeters. Both Sitereja and the Bobby Jaspar book are exceedingly scarce, but you can still order ‘Jazzlogboek’ via the link in bio.

I sent out my latest jazz ephemera sales list last weekend. Most stuff flew off the shelves, but there are still some very cool things left. Shoot me a DM to get the illustrated catalogue

Cees Buddingh’ - West Coast. Beautiful poetry book from 1959, with all poems inspired by the west coast jazz of the fifties. I was both surprised and amused by the direct attack to Charlie Parker in the opening poem: birdie listen we don’t need you no more we got gerry shorty and bud chet lennie and dave

There’s no use in trying to compete with all the ‘best finds of 2025’ posts from all the collectors who seem to be buying og blue notes, sun ra’s and placebo’s by the dozen, so instead here are the four only jazz ep’s (any of you still know what that is?) that I bought this year but that I didn’t post at the time: • Bob Garcia Quartet - obscure French tenor saxophone player, who plays in the style of Bobby Jaspar. With Benoit Quersin on bass. • Mantequilla y su conjunto - the finest modern jazz from Spain with the hard bop killer ‘Jamboree’, named after one of Spain’s most legendary jazz clubs. • George Joyner - One of the less known releases in the Cetra Jazz in Italy series, with Belgian Jacques Pelzer on flute and sax. It was my top want for years. • Shake Keane and Michael Garrick - A Case of Jazz - mid-sixties madness from Garrick, rumoured to be released in only 99 copies on Airborne Records.

“Sharp opinions of a 17-year-old”: the latest edition of Jazz Bulletin contains a review of Mon Devoghelaere - Jazzlogboek by Bert Vuijsje, who was editor-in-chief of the magazine Jazzwereld in the late 1960s, when Devoghelaere became the Belgian correspondent of the magazine.

Ten inch madness from yesterday’s record fair.

Rest in peace Jef Bierkens (1939-2025). Better known under his moniker Max Kazan, Bierkens was one of the most remarkable figures in Belgium’s post-war literature and poetry scene. He was one of the co-founders of the avant-garde magazine Labris in the 1960s (and its successors Ko-Ko, Tempus Fugue-it etc) in which he, inspired by jazz, the beat generation and underground poetry, published an incredible body of work. His book ‘Goudgeneratief gebopbaar…’ was one of the first extensive studies, worldwide, on the work of Jack Kerouac. It’s a somewhat strange coincidence that he passed away on the exact day that I released ‘Mon Devoghelaere - Jazzlogboek’, as they were brothers in jazz and literature (in a poem that Bierkens wrote on the occasion of Mon’s passing he compares their bond to that of Bobby Jaspar and René Thomas). I’ve yet to discover much of his work, but I consider him one of the greatest figures of Belgian counter-culture.

• OUT TODAY • Jazztime Europe is proud to present the first publication on its new imprint Vogel Books: ‘Mon Devoghelaere - Jazzlogboek. Notities van een jazzvogel 1960-1968’ is the first release of the journals that Belgian jazz journalist Mon Devoghelaere kept during the 1960s. It offers an incredible insight in the Belgian jazz scene of the 1960s. • VANDAAG BESCHIKBAAR • ‘Mon Devoghelaere - Jazzlogboek. Notities van een jazzvogel 1960-1968’ is de eerste publicatie in boekvorm van de jazzlogboeken die de Belgische jazzcriticus tijdens de jaren ‘60 bijhield. Nooit eerder kregen we zo’n persoonlijke inkijk in de Belgische jazz van die periode. Bestel je exemplaar nu via vogelbooks.wordpress.com (link in bio).

The latest edition of the Flemish magazine @jazzandmo contains an exclusive pre-publication of ‘Mon Devoghelaere - Jazzlogboek’, which is coming out later this month. When you think of it, it’s quite amazing to still have a printed jazz magazine in Belgium in 2025. Go get yourself a copy!