Cosmic and spiritual
The Sun Ra Arkestra reached a turning point in the 1960s. The group performed at the first edition of North Sea Jazz and is also present this year.
Sun Ra’s Afrofuturist vision transforms jazz not only into a musical space, but also into a philosophical and cosmic one – a place where identity, history, and the future all come together.
In parallel, saxophonist John Coltrane developed an equally influential but more spiritually charged approach to jazz. In his later work, his music shifted from form to intention: improvisation became a means of expressing something greater, a quest for the universal. This spiritual dimension has been a lasting influence on generations of musicians.
That legacy lives on at the festival, notably through musicians directly or indirectly connected to Coltrane. Charles Lloyd, who performed with him, serves as a living link to that era, while his son Ravi Coltrane carries on the legacy from a personal perspective in a show with Terence Blanchard. Among the younger generation, musicians like Tomoki Sanders and Isaiah Collier are breathing new life into this spiritual tradition. Artists such as Amaro Freitas and Shabaka also reflect this, by placing spirituality, rhythm, and cultural identity at the center of the music once again.
