Chris Joris Experience

Chris Joris (percussion), Frank Vaganée (saxophone), Nico Schepers (trumpet), Fré Desmyter (piano), Axel Gilain (bass)

Although Chris Joris is best known as a percussionist, he is also a composer and band leader. Already back in 1997 he played a stunning set with his New Experience at Jazz Middelheim. The band now has a new line-up although Joris’ approach is still the same.

Chris Joris can look back on a long career that began in the mid-seventies. That was when he met the South African bassist Johnny ‘Mbizo’ Dyani with whom he also recorded. Up until then he had mainly played piano in local bands. He switched over to percussion and has since grown into the uncrowned king of percussion in Belgium. He would come on stage with an arsenal of percussion instruments and also introduced other more unusual percussion instruments like the berimbau, a Brazilian single-string and percussion instrument, of which he is a master.

For a time he lived in Paris where he formed a percussion trio with Ajib Bieng and Cheikh Tidiane Fall. Chris Joris grew to be an exciting percussionist that loved to give a tap to every pot and pan he might have brought along with him.

Although he was much in demand as a session musician he could still be seen regularly playing with a host of great jazz musicians such as Toots Thielemans, Steve Houben, Bruno Castelluci, Michel Herr, Diederik Wissels, Frank Vaganée, Richard Galiano, Ivan Paduart, Charles Loos and Erwin Vann.
Joris is no stranger to Jazz Middelheim. He played at the festival with Dyani in 1986 and in 1991 he formed an octet with the American tuba player Bob Stewart as guest. They went on to make the album ‘Songs for Mbizo’, a homage to Johnny Dyani. He also recorded various albums with his Bihogo quartet. He later met Djembe master Adama Dramé and they teamed up and went on to tour together and released an album, ‘Benkadi’.

The Chris Joris Experience was the next step in his career; a quintet whose ranks were swelled regularly with other percussionists. In 1998 ‘The Chris Joris Experience ‘Live’ at the jazz Middelheim Festival & Stockholm '97 ‘ was released. He also worked together with the legendary pianist Mal Waldron and also formed a quartet with  pianist Walter Lampe.

Joris’s world was dealt a cruel blow when his wife died following a traffic accident. The grieving process can be heard on ‘Out of the Night’, an album that was also awarded the Klara listener’s prize. That album was one of the most homogenous that he ever made. Jazz and Africa will always be the breeding ground for his music. Although Joris sometimes still likes to lose himself in free improvisation, over the years his playing has become more restrained, though he remains a master of his music.