Gent Jazz announces first names for 25th anniversary edition: Terence Blanchard & Ravi Coltrane, Celeste, Marcus Miller and Alabama Shakes
Next year, Gent Jazz will be celebrating its 25th anniversary plus the 100th birthdays of jazz titans Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Marcus Miller, Terence Blanchard & Ravi Coltrane will be celebrating and reinterpreting their legacies for the occasion. However, the festival’s line-up also includes headliners like Celeste and an exclusive Benelux show by Alabama Shakes. The 25th Gent Jazz will take place from 2 to 18 July 2026.
On 2 July 2026, Gent Jazz will open with a tribute to two pioneers of modern jazz, namely Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Jazz icons Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane (the son of) will join forces for a contemporary interpretation of the birth of the cool, in which jazz’s living tradition and innovation are blended. They will be flanked by Terence’s E-Collective band, including pianist Julian Waterfall Pollack, guitarist Charles Altura, drummer Oscar Seaton and David “DJ” Ginyard on bass.
Alabama Shakes will be playing their only summer show in the Low Countries at Gent Jazz on 5 July. This is great news for fans, who last saw them in Belgium in 2015. The rock band, with lead vocalist Brittany Howard, will be returning with new songs, with ‘Another Life’ already proving a tantalising teaser of what’s coming.
On 10 July, Gent Jazz will be honouring Miles Davis again, with legendary bass player Marcus Miller’s ‘We Want Miles!’, a tribute to his former mentor and friend. Miller has assembled an impressive group of musicians, including the original members of Davis’s comeback band in the 80s, featuring Bill Evans on saxophone, Mike Stern on guitar, Mino Cinelu on percussion. Flanked by the talented trumpet player Russell Gunn, who has been touring with Marcus Miller for over ten years, Brett Williams on piano, Anwar Marshall on drums, they will perform classics from Miles Davis’s career, along with new interpretations that show how his spirit of innovation continues to live on.
On 11 July, Celeste will stop in at Gent Jazz for a rare Belgian show. The British soul revelation shot to fame with her début ‘Not Your Muse’ and releases today her long-awaited second album ‘Woman of Faces’. The first singles, ‘This Is Who I Am’, ‘On With The Show’, ‘Woman Of Faces’ and ‘Time Will Tell’, have already confirmed her status as one of the most intriguing artists of today.
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