---
title: "Nostalgia In Grand Place : Johnny Hodges & Ben Webster • Tribute"
url: "https://toots.brussels/en/concert/11741/nostalgia-in-grand-place-johnny-hodges-and-ben-webster"
locale: "en"
type: "concert"
date: "2026-04-19T14:00:00+00:00"
site: "Toots Jazz Club"
---

# Nostalgia In Grand Place : Johnny Hodges & Ben Webster • Tribute

- **Date** : Sunday 19 April 2026 · 16:00
- **Venue** : Toots Jazz Club, 6 rue des Chapeliers, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
- **Line-up** : Antoine lissoir (sax) ; Mathieu Najean (sax) ; Wouter Vandenbroeck (pn) ; Victor Foulon (cb) ; Fred Vandenbergh (dms)
- **Genres** : mainstream, swing

## Biography

As part of the _‘Nostalgia in Grand Place’_ series, Antoine Lissoir and Mathieu Najean pay tribute to two major, yet very different, figures of the jazz saxophone: Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges.

Both pillars of the swing era, they embodied, each in their own way, the art of instrumental singing taken to its highest level. Johnny Hodges, the iconic voice of Duke Ellington’s orchestra, redefined the alto saxophone with a sound of unprecedented suppleness, characterised by sensual glissandi and an almost vocal lyricism. Alongside him, Ben Webster, one of the great architects of the tenor saxophone, commanded a rich and visceral sound, capable of shifting from the most earthy roughness to a deeply moving tenderness.

Two aesthetics, two instantly recognisable styles, which have left a profound mark on the history of jazz and continue to enrich its language today.

Through this programme, Lissoir and Najean do not seek to imitate, but to recapture the spirit of this music: an elegance of phrasing, a sense of time and sound, where every note tells a story.

A journey into the golden age of jazz, where the breath becomes a voice.

---
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