Moers Festival Interviews: Bart Maris

Bart Maris is a heroic Belgian trumpeter, deeply committed to the art of improvisation, treading a wilder jazz path, and possessing a mighty appetite for road-life, gigging prolifically and always seeking out unfamiliar collaborators, knowing that this act will force his own playing into a continual sense of vital change. Therefore, he is a fine choice for this year's Improviser In Residence, a position that's been connected to the Moers Festival for nearly two decades. The concept involves an artist infiltrating the local cultural scene, beginning with actually residing in the city, and continuing via the discovery of their own individualist interpretation of this year-long placement.

Maris also knows composition, being a key member of two ensembles, the Belgian massive of the Flat Earth Society, satirical gobblers of wide musical thought, masters of the conceptual coup, as well as being amongst the power-horn presence of the pan-European combo Spinifex, who mainly lurk around Amsterdam, ramming scaly rock pustules against bewilderingly free-funked themes, making riffs for abstracted headbangers. The good news is that the latter band will also appear at this year's Moers Festival, in their new Spinifex Maxximus incarnation (Friday 6th June), with an expanded line-up leading to greater chances of sonic crashing and bending. Maris himself will, of course, be racing across the festival grounds, running workshops and winkling out improvising opportunities.

Starting in January, the trumpeter has already played fifteen or more gigs, at first in his centrally-placed house-of-improvisation, and then around various Moers venues, joints which are either specifically concerned with music, but also environments where Maris might be bringing in something new, to a non-dedicated edifice. When your scribe interviewed him, he'd just been playing an afternoon gig with visiting pianist Motoko Honda , who was touring around Europe after taking a break from her San Francisco home.

The pair played at Peschkenhaus, a Moers art gallery space. "It's on the second floor," Maris explains. "They have a small concert venue with an electric piano, so for Motoko it was kind of hard, but she did a splendid thing, by really abusing every sound on the electric piano. It was great!"

In 2025, Maris hasn't moved far: from Gent to Moers. Your scribe wonders what it's like actually living in this festival city. "Completely different," concludes Maris. "During the year there is nobody [compared to festival-time], so I invite, and organise everything. This is the part of the job that I underestimated. It's really heavy work!"

How is this so? There doesn't appear to be too much 'red tape.' " I have a list, too long, of musicians that can [potentially] come, but there are often minor complications."

The Italian reeds specialist Virginia Genta broke the ice in this new location last year, as the former parkside haunt was retired in 2023. This new improvisers house is way more centrally located, and has ample space for performance, rehearsal and lodging of musicians for sleepovers. Situated on a main shopping street, there are restrictions regarding the loading of equipment in and out of the house. This is only allowed before 11am and after 5pm. Maris is also dwelling on the second floor, in a walk-up situation, which makes rolling bass and drums up the stairs a continual effort. Parking can be problematic. Nevertheless, it has many qualities that make it an inviting venue-space.

Except that there appears to be one of those lone beings (they exist in every city) who has made official complaints about the noise levels attained (or achieved, your scribe chortles). So Maris has embarked on a dedicated mission to go venue-hopping. This is partly a strategy to ensnare virgin audiences, folks who aren't already embedded in the local improvising scene, perhaps reeling in younger acolytes, or connoisseurs from other musical areas.

Maris says that artist availability is often an obstacle, as tours are tinkered with, to line up all of the venues, cities and countries, logistically. He has a fee to bestow, but still needs groups to potentially have other dates to add, most often managing to organise an in-tandem show at the Hot Club Of Gent.

Amongst the gigs happening since January, Maris has pulled in Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone), Tobias Klein (alto saxophone), Jasper Stadhouders (guitar) and Peter Jacquemyn (bass).

There has been time, now, to contemplate the Improviser's role in Moers. "He's looking to create his own world, but this world should be in contact with the city. This can only happen when I can link what I do, what I create, to existing situations, where people will come along. Otherwise, you will always connect to the same people."

Maris is organising gigs, but he's also active with workshops, sometimes with non-musicians, featuring percussion and overtone pipes. "It's about creating an atmospheric density, giving me the kind of landscape that I can improvise over... "

Spinifex Maxximus involves new compositions and a new approach, with the core six-piece augmented by Jessica Pavone (viola), Elisabeth Coudoux (cello) and Evi Filippou (vibraphone). "Gonzo [Gonçalo Almeida] becomes part of the string section," Maris elaborates. "The music sounds different, it's a different approach. Spinifex has kept growing. We have a mentality of evolving the music. I want to support that..."

Spinifex tenor saxophonist John Dikeman, an American living in Amsterdam, will be bringing his Swiss-slanted combo to Moers on the 14th of June, to play at the record exchange joint Vinyl Treff, as a soundtrack to the thumbing-through of its racks. Maris also played there in April with the Italian drummer Giovanni Barcella, who lives in Gent. Zero cash is exchanged, and swapsies are king.

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