North Sea Jazz Festival, 07/10/2026

Concert information

Rating

Day 1 of my favourite festival.

Jalen Ngonda was a wonderful surprise, delivering beautiful Motown music with the perfect voice to match. Next up was Questlove, who had a busy day, joined by guests Robert Glasper and Christian McBride. Hip-hop meets jazz. There was a great sense of mutual admiration on stage, which was wonderful to witness.

There was plenty of neo-soul today, a genre that is very close to my heart and has produced some truly outstanding albums (D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Common), including Bilal. Unfortunately, his performance showed that his repertoire is too limited and that not everyone is equally suited to putting on a compelling live show. A shame really, I had expected much more.

After Steve Coleman & Five Elements, who proved that complex music doesn’t have to be difficult to the ears. I headed to Anaiis, who performed her delicate songs in an incredibly sweltering venue. Beautiful, but the heat was simply too much. Then it was on to Kokoroko, a band I had previously checked out because of their afrobeat label. Whereas afrobeat is energetic and can induce an almost trance-like state, Kokoroko sounded far too gentle, bland, predictable and even sleep-inducing. I left quickly.

Then came The RH Factor, who released one of my all-time favourite albums in 2003: the magnificent, soulful Hard Groove. Roy Hargrove passed away some time ago, but his band keeps his legacy alive. After brief but enjoyable visits to Sia y su Ritmo Caliente and Gallowstreet, I ended the day with the Joshua Redman Quartet, delivering jazz at the very highest level, a phenomenal concert.

I also skipped several performances today because I’d already seen the bands before (at North Sea Jazz), including Snarky Puppy, De La Soul (although I did catch the extremely funky ending), Esperanza Spalding and The Roots.

Artist	Seen whole show?	Rating
Jalen Ngonda	Nee
Questlove with Robert Glaspar & Christian McBride	Nee
Bilal	Nee
Steve Coleman & Five Elements	Nee
Anaiis	Nee
Kokoroko	Nee
Roy Hargrove’s The RH Factor	Nee
Sia y su Ritmo Caliente	Nee
Gallowstreet	Nee
Joshua Redman Quartet	Nee

Setlist

Jalen Ngonda

Burning Temptation / Hannah, What’s The Matter? / Just As Long As We’re Together / Anyone In Love/ Come Around And Love Me / The Look Of Love / Doctrine Of Love / I Need You / Illusions / Hang It On the Shelf/ If You Don’t Want My Love

Questlove with Robert Glaspar & Christian McBride

Butterfly / Fire Eater / In A Silent Way / Red Clay / ?

Joshua Redman Quartet

A Message To Unsend / Borrowed Eyes / She Knows / So It Goes / Amica / No Other Way / Corcovado

Concert ticket

North Sea Jazz Poster Competition 2026

North Sea Jazz Festival 2026 Poster Competition 1st-Prize