BIG BROMO PROMOTIONS
groundbreaking collaborations | music without borders
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Big Bromo Promotions is a cultural organisation that brings people together through music, producing industry-leading live jazz, world and contemporary music events and tours, creative engagement projects, and talent development schemes. Founded by the trumpeter and composer David Mowat (Big Brother Mowat), it works with artists and musicians from the UK and internationally, focusing on unorthodox collaborations and sharing music with a bold authenticity. Big Bromo Promo is the booking agent for BEJE/British European Jazz Ensemble.
BEJE is a unique world music-tinged jazz ensemble; its distinctive and energetic contemporary jazz performances are always about collaboration, whether with other players or other cultures. BEJE’s pan-European line-up of different sensibilities and skills, its cross-cultural camaraderie, its widespread influences, and its union of eclectic styles, manifests in powerful creations of improvisation and composition alike.
'A vibrant contemporary jazz argument for international cultural exchange.'
Venue Magazine
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As part of Disapora! Festival 2024, Big Bromo Promo, in association with Palmusic UK and the Palestine Museum & Cultural Centre Bristol, presented two solidarity concerts for Palestine: Faris Ishaq (Solo) and Faris Ishaq x BEJE: In The Spirit Of ’Trane.
In the former, self-accompanied by leg-percussion and frame drums, the playing of nay-reed master Faris Ishaq was extraordinarily beautiful, the compositions exquisite, be they contemporary or traditional. In the latter, BEJE gave characterful support on music channelling the spirit of saxophone visionary John Coltrane, both meditative atmospherics and primal improvisation.
Also, as part of Disapora! Festival 2024, Big Bromo Promo presented Moussa Kouyaté: The Bristol Griot, an exquisite showcase by distinguished kora master Kouyaté and dazzling balafonist Ben Badoo, celebrating the release of Kouyate’s studio album ’Tumultuous Journey’.
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In September 2024, in association with the Relativity Concert Series, Big Bromo Promo presented the Stravelli/O’Leary/Kern Ensemble at St Stephen’s Church, Old City, Bristol, an unforgettable evening celebrating vocal and instrumental jazz at its finest. Two highly accomplished veteran musicians, the New York jazz stars Gabrielle Stravelli (vocals) and Pat O’Leary (double-bass) joined Swiss jazz saxophonist Martin Kern and guest performers, trumpeter David Mowat, pianist Tom Berge, and drummer Jon Whitfield.
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In Autumn 2024, Big Bromo Promo presented BEJE’s ‘Siblings Not Fools’ tour, a celebration of the creative energy and unity possible when cultures meet through the medium of music, and a testament to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1964 declaration: ‘live together as brothers or perish together as fools’. This series of collective collaborations with international artists from Korea, Palestine, Italy, and Wales took place primarily at grassroots and non-traditional venues, with concerts recorded live for an anthology album to be released in 2025.
BEJE worked with the formidable Korean jazz duo of pianist-singer Yunmi Kang and guitarist Sangyeon Park, distilling their technical precision and cool soulfulness into an elegant and original weave of K-jazz and Europa-jazz; Zaid Hilal, a compelling and expressive Palestinian singer and master of the ear-catching bağlama, on spellbinding, otherworldly jazz-folk with a Middle-Eastern edge; the prodigiously talented Italian guitarist, and acclaimed Miles Davis authority, Enrico Merlin, for shows of progressive and thrilling ‘soundscape’ jazz at its most dynamic, playful, impressionist, and innovative; renowned Palestinian nay reed-flute virtuoso Faris Ishaq for a masterful meld of traditional Palestinian folk music and transcendent ‘spiritual/cosmic’ jazz; and the superb troubadour Alun Sanger, with an exquisitely crafted and beautifully performed ‘riverology’ song-cycle, a commanding spoken word/rap/jazz suite reflecting on the reverential place rivers hold in our culture and the stories hidden in their depths. It drew inspiration from the Welsh concept of 'milltir sgwâr' ('square mile'), of how a people come to be shaped by the histories, culture, and traditions of a place, and how human connection shapes a place in return.
'Musically gifted... creative and technically excellent musicians.'
Black Mountain Jazz (Wales)
bejejazz.com
BEJE is a unique world music-tinged jazz ensemble; its distinctive and energetic contemporary jazz performances are always about collaboration, whether with other players or other cultures. BEJE’s pan-European line-up of different sensibilities and skills, its cross-cultural camaraderie, its widespread influences, and its union of eclectic styles, manifests in powerful creations of improvisation and composition alike.
'A vibrant contemporary jazz argument for international cultural exchange.'
Venue Magazine
-- --
As part of Disapora! Festival 2024, Big Bromo Promo, in association with Palmusic UK and the Palestine Museum & Cultural Centre Bristol, presented two solidarity concerts for Palestine: Faris Ishaq (Solo) and Faris Ishaq x BEJE: In The Spirit Of ’Trane.
In the former, self-accompanied by leg-percussion and frame drums, the playing of nay-reed master Faris Ishaq was extraordinarily beautiful, the compositions exquisite, be they contemporary or traditional. In the latter, BEJE gave characterful support on music channelling the spirit of saxophone visionary John Coltrane, both meditative atmospherics and primal improvisation.
Also, as part of Disapora! Festival 2024, Big Bromo Promo presented Moussa Kouyaté: The Bristol Griot, an exquisite showcase by distinguished kora master Kouyaté and dazzling balafonist Ben Badoo, celebrating the release of Kouyate’s studio album ’Tumultuous Journey’.
-- --
In September 2024, in association with the Relativity Concert Series, Big Bromo Promo presented the Stravelli/O’Leary/Kern Ensemble at St Stephen’s Church, Old City, Bristol, an unforgettable evening celebrating vocal and instrumental jazz at its finest. Two highly accomplished veteran musicians, the New York jazz stars Gabrielle Stravelli (vocals) and Pat O’Leary (double-bass) joined Swiss jazz saxophonist Martin Kern and guest performers, trumpeter David Mowat, pianist Tom Berge, and drummer Jon Whitfield.
-- --
In Autumn 2024, Big Bromo Promo presented BEJE’s ‘Siblings Not Fools’ tour, a celebration of the creative energy and unity possible when cultures meet through the medium of music, and a testament to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1964 declaration: ‘live together as brothers or perish together as fools’. This series of collective collaborations with international artists from Korea, Palestine, Italy, and Wales took place primarily at grassroots and non-traditional venues, with concerts recorded live for an anthology album to be released in 2025.
BEJE worked with the formidable Korean jazz duo of pianist-singer Yunmi Kang and guitarist Sangyeon Park, distilling their technical precision and cool soulfulness into an elegant and original weave of K-jazz and Europa-jazz; Zaid Hilal, a compelling and expressive Palestinian singer and master of the ear-catching bağlama, on spellbinding, otherworldly jazz-folk with a Middle-Eastern edge; the prodigiously talented Italian guitarist, and acclaimed Miles Davis authority, Enrico Merlin, for shows of progressive and thrilling ‘soundscape’ jazz at its most dynamic, playful, impressionist, and innovative; renowned Palestinian nay reed-flute virtuoso Faris Ishaq for a masterful meld of traditional Palestinian folk music and transcendent ‘spiritual/cosmic’ jazz; and the superb troubadour Alun Sanger, with an exquisitely crafted and beautifully performed ‘riverology’ song-cycle, a commanding spoken word/rap/jazz suite reflecting on the reverential place rivers hold in our culture and the stories hidden in their depths. It drew inspiration from the Welsh concept of 'milltir sgwâr' ('square mile'), of how a people come to be shaped by the histories, culture, and traditions of a place, and how human connection shapes a place in return.
'Musically gifted... creative and technically excellent musicians.'
Black Mountain Jazz (Wales)
bejejazz.com
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