Great that we’ve got our first decent coverage in the jazz press. The flyers arrived last week and I’ll start going round to get an audience in each location. Get in touch if you want to help.
Author Archives: BEJE Jazz
Yunmi Sang and the BEJE Trio Feb 2026 UK tour
After 3 months of preparation I’m finally ready to start the marketing for this exciting tour which has been my main focus this autumn. Tour organisers will know the feeling of dozens of emails going out into the void with no return, like satellites leaving the solar system. And there were several near misses of the ‘it doesn’t quite fit’ genre, or offers of nights where we’re already booked, or double-booked venues who changed their minds, and venues just too pricey to afford. Still I persisted and we have five smashing gigs lined up.
CARDIFF The Flute and Tankard Feb 18
LONDON St Cyprian’s Church Feb 20
BRISTOL St Paul’s Church Clifton Feb 21
LYME REGIS Marine Theatre Feb 22
BATH The Bell Inn Feb 23
In the interval since our three city tour of South Korea August 2025 Yunmi has published and received reviews for her wonderful sensitive duo album with acclaimed American guitarist John Stowell. Yunmi Kang × John Stowell Duo Album — A Timeless Place
“A living dialogue between voice and guitar—music where spontaneity and depth coexist.
Even in moments of instant reaction, the two musicians shape a larger structure together, creating a true conversation in sound.” Shin Saem-i, @lovecoexist Jazz People @jazzpeople_magazine
I’m composing new tunes too. And both of us are thinking about the join between our humanitarian concerns and our art. It feels so hard to stay being an artist focussed on creativity whilst my heart and finance and time are taken by responding to the genocide in practical ways, and in dialogue with victims in Gaza. I want to express these growing relationships in my music and find a common humanity to overcome the divide between us. I know Yunmi is thinking and feeling the same with social fault lines in her own country. She applied for a culture grant from her government and wasn’t successful this time, but it sharpened our thinking meanwhile. We’ve been starting discussions with a visual artist too, but probably won’t involve her yet, before the summer when we’ll retirn to Korea all being well, to make our 2nd album, the expression of this search for common humanity across dehumanizing divides.
I hope BEJE fans, and bigbromo promo fans and friends will catch us at one of our gigs. There’ll be an update in January I expect. Meanwhile to Korea tour -featuring the tune I wrote this year to honour my mother’s passing- is on the website front page. (If the gremlin angels keep it there).
BEJE ‘Mesmerising’ at Cotham Club
We had a great time before a large audience at Cotham Club on 24th October 2025. I had wanted to dig out more danceable numbers, recent and past compositions, but in that respect only a few responded. “If only we could be as uninhibited as the children” who danced joyously with no inhibition, was one comment. But people loved it. “A Lovely set, haunting jazz, poetry, beautiful sounds, that mesmerised the audience ” Claire Nuttall Club manager. Pic Duncan Cruikshank
Yunmi Sang and the BEJE trio South Korea tour
From August 11 to 21 Paolo Adamo and I travelled to South Korea, invited by the Chuncheon Arts Festival and by our friends Yunmi Kang and Sangyeon Park. It was a long-awaited reunion, sparked by Yunmi and Sangyeon coming to the UK a year before. Landing in the hot humid summer, full of the sound of cicadas, a gastronomic road-trip with futuristic tower blocks and towering forested mountains flashing by and bowls of delicious things dripping from chop sticks in every pit stop, we spent a happy 10 days preparing for and performing three gigs.
We were delighted to meet Sungsu the bassist who instantly got to grips with my spidery charts and fitted in so well. The first gig was in Seoul, the Cotton Club, where cool couples sipped cocktails and a giant screen played silent jazz clips in the interval. We were well received, short of table-dancing. The second gig was in Chuncheon in a large church-cum-arts centre where we were treated like royalty and went down very well to a packed house. I’ve never experienced such an in depth interest, from a festival director, local press and national TV in what I’m trying to do in and through music. A day later we were in the city of Kunsan, guests of Songjin, the coolest jazz-loving dude ever, who’d converted a Japanese-era elegant house, once the home of seven shamans (and who’d predicted he’d appear to buy the old place) to the Muddy Jazz Club. That’s where we recorded my new song ‘Soul Set Free’ featured in the video linked here. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FRHnrVUFPlFE%3Fsi%3DlGoWYWjzeB2dTjs6%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExTWdFeDhTWElHajNEbmJJcwEehLEeVFtFRBwXANH7ZOnVnNX0pP78V5glMNzdltZMVM1fd7IGQj57ij74DYg_aem_oPCXrIKeRWOdxfFOQQA2mA&h=AT0uEZUAuI4CkMqxy7mEv8i2cBciFijhyrVZbXgxGEQE4AcKMCgpGHuEWWGOjr1QGnRc_SjAXa7TFPeccLKZXEvINNrVtDEsqEwe4E2LcPABeOEXa8k14oEEAFB9_YDB_YgXhVBhEfd9sELM790
We can’t thank enough Yunmi and Sangyeon for their dedicated hospitality in their mountain home, for organising the gigs, and above all for being our soul sister and brother in this amazing collaboration. We have great plans for the future: a UK tour in February 2026, an album and gigs back in South Korea in August and a return in 2027. Below is a transcript of the news article about our Chuncheon Festival appearance.
Yunmi Sang and BEJE trio at Chuncheon Arts Festival 15 8 25 Review and interview by Jin-Hyung Kim https://www.kado.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=1328730
What can music do when society is shrouded in darkness? There are times when music approaches us like a prayer. When the music of artists, created for those weary of life, resonates with the audience, it gives them the strength to carry on.
On Liberation Day, August 15, at Seongam Church in Chuncheon, the Chuncheon Performing Arts Festival presented a performance by “Yunmi Kang & David Mowat BEJE Reunion.” Trumpeter David Mowat, vocalist/pianist Yunmi Kang, guitarist Sangyeon Park, and drummer Paolo Adamo formed the group in 2018.
David Mowat is an artist who has practised social solidarity, refugee support, and anti-war activism through music for more than 30 years. He once made a year-long pilgrimage from Bristol, England to Jerusalem, playing the trumpet along the way to deliver a message of peace. Their performance unfolded as a serious form of jazz that transcended nationality and culture. Though ways of life differ, the philosophy that we are all alike and essentially one was deeply embedded in their music.
In an interview with this paper, David Mowat spoke of Korea’s painful history and the ongoing massacres in Gaza, explaining the value of connection. Jazz vocalist Yunmi Kang, who joined the interview, also said: “I hope our music can move people’s hearts and minds to become a tool for creating a better world.”
Q. “What is this BEJE ‘Reunion’, and how did it feel to perform with Korean artists?
DM “In Europe, musicians often try to assert themselves through their playing. My personality doesn’t fit well with that. Korean musicians are very delicate, calm, and composed. Instead of rushing to convey their stories, I appreciated how they could step back and reflect through the music.”
Q. You have continued to raise your voice for Gaza. What can music do?
DM “Music has the power to move people and awaken humanity. I am not only a performer but also a political activist. Music crosses borders. While I speak out for the oppressed in Gaza, I am also a scholar of Jewish music, which is beautiful in its own right. Music transcends boundaries and plays a role in opening hearts and transforming relationships of division and hostility.”
Q. How do you see the current situation in Palestine?
“First, I must speak about the role of journalism in telling the truth. Those in power do not want the truth revealed. If journalists disappear, they can do as they wish. Today’s media and social media create distortion, undermining the value of journalism. The Israeli government is targeting Palestinian journalists for elimination. A journalist friend of mine was recently murdered in what was clearly an assassination. The role of reporting what is really happening is vital. If journalists vanish, the powerful will dictate the narrative, and most people will believe and follow it. Journalists who tell the truth of what happens in a single day hold an invaluable and dangerous role.”
Q. Today is Korea’s Liberation Day. Are you aware of Korea’s history?
DM “It is inspiring. The Korean people are well organized, modern, and proud. Commemorating independence and freedom is not only about the past but also meaningful for the present and future. I’ve studied Korea’s political situation: the people have repeatedly fought corruption and power, raising their voices in the streets. Koreans cherish freedom and know how easily it can be lost—that it is never simply given. I didn’t fully grasp this in Europe, but being in Korea I felt the nation’s independent identity. This is an important message to send to the world. For the oppressed people of Palestine, Korea’s example can deliver the message that ‘if we unite, we can win freedom.’”
Q. The concert’s theme was loss and recovery, coexistence and solidarity. You performed ‘With No Petals’, dedicated to Comfort Women. [Tell us about it]
DM “That piece was composed by our guitarist, Sangyeon Park. It was meaningful to perform it on such an important day. The very process of performing it together strengthens the connection within our project. We wanted to express the hidden pain and dignity beyond it in a solemn yet restrained tone. I believe music is not a tool for self-display but a way to address the realities and social issues we live with.”
Q. The final piece, Gig for Gil, seemed to encapsulate the group’s message….
DM “Yes. We are not so different, but if we don’t yield and only collide, coexistence is impossible. The piece starts with simple motifs, but each voice enters differently, clashing in dissonance until the drum solo leads into harmony. Building a team is about faith and conviction beyond music.”
Q. What is in your mind when you play the trumpet?
DM “On stage, sincerity is everything. The instrument is the amplifier of my soul. I must express the reality I see and feel through music.”
Q. What gives you the strength to continue such passionate work?
DM “Music itself. What drives us is the hunger to express truth and the desire to comfort others. And the fact that we can share those stories together, that alone is reason enough for music.” —Reporter Jin-Hyung Kim
For excerpt from our first album ‘Modernised Sacrifice’ see below
BEJE Birth Of A Cool Band
As I, trumpeter, growled and prowled my beloved Bristol jam sessions twelve years back my ears noticed the boys from Europe, my semi-Swiss roots attuned to foreign twangs: the off-beat swing of double bassist Pasquale Votino, Paolo Adamo’s restless drumming, and the smoothly does it alto-ease of Julien Alenda; BEJE was born in my head, a Bristol European Jazz Ensemble. A niche concept on a jostling stage. ‘Collective’ whispered Pasquale in my ear at a pizzeria gig. It was years later that it became thus.
Now BEJE brims with international collaborations. Faris Ishaq the ney wunderkind from Palestine, Enrico Merlin wizard guitarist of Trento, Yunmi Kang Seoul soul singer and many more. It’s been an edgy progression from being the Bristol EJE to the British EJE. How did it start?
Jon Taylor at the Bristol Fringe booked us first in 2013 and marvelled at the jazz-rock chops of drummer Marco Anderson. Suave Swede Anders Olinder held it together for a while as the rhythm section fit wasn’t quite right, and Marco left to be replaced by Paolo. That was the European BEJE line-up for quite a while, ironically playing ‘all-American jazz, all of the way’ as Bath jazz voice Charley Dunlap once put it. Italian bassist Pasquale was often replaced by Italian bassist Federico Leonori, such is the draw of the city’s benevolent musical mafiosi. In those days BEJE played my compositions, influenced by my travels in the Balkans and the Middle East, but also by Keith Tippett who’s ‘Seedbed Jazz Workshop Orchestra’ I’d played in alongside Kevin Figes, Pete Judge and many others, and inevitable hero Miles Davis. Monk was a formative voice too, via a chain-smoking Chemistry teacher jazz enthusiast at school.
At the time of BEJE’s formation Bristol was bidding to be Europe’s Capital Of Culture and I fondly imagined we’d be its icon-actually it was the firebrand James Morton who’d wowed us all as an 18 year old at the East Bristol Jazz Club (I’d started in 1999 and still front). Another attempt at a marketing hit was presenting an anti-Brexit spoken word suite at one of Bristol’s Jazz and Blues Festivals at the time of the vote. Good gig but media flop, and astonishingly it failed to sway the result. Still, our marketing failures didn’t stop us getting great gigs over several years in the region. Jazz Lines Birmingham, Cardiff, Taunton CIC, Bocabar Glastonbury, Prema Arts Centre, Black Mountain Jazz Club and many others.
In this period there were two albums, ‘Live At The Fringe’ and ‘BEJE bites’. I’ve sold multiple dozens of cds at gigs but have felt very 20th century in my ambivalence to the fast changing world of technology. So these albums are not yet on bandcamp. I did sign up to a dubious crypto currency- earning website where allegedly I have 15,000 listeners who all seem to be pretty American teenagers. Being on there is more like being parked in a dodgy Musk space station than the wild reaches of the blue ether.
Another attempt in that phase of the band’s life to ‘break through’ with a would be ‘hit single’ – another naive strategy that floppped-was an investment in a video recording of my tune ‘Redfield Carnival’, deliberately more popular in style than other compositions of mine. I was pleased with the results. https://youtu.be/bIDmuRfYL1w
In my next blog I’ll tell the story of how BEJE started collaborating with international artists outside of the Bristol vortex, and what the 60 shades of ‘collaboration’ look like…
YUNMI KANG SANGYEON PARK +BEJE video: ‘Reunion’
Live recording from Aug 30 concert in St Stephen’s Church Bristol, part of BEJE Siblings Not Fools tour. Reunion was composed by Yunmi on the plane over from South Korea, so freshly minted. We were delighted to be reunited after our aborted UK tour in 2020, cancelled due to the pandemic. We’re looking for tours in South Korea, UK or Europe in 2025 or 2026. David Mowat trumpet, Paolo Adamo drums, Federico Leonori double bass, Yunmi Kang piano and vocals, Sangyeon Park guitar.
FARIS ISHAQ + BEJE
Faris Ishaq is quite simply the unique master of the contemporary jazz ney. The ney is an ancient flute originally from Egypt and ubiquitous in Arabic cultures. Faris took it to Berklee for his World Jazz Masters and blew Dave Liebmann away. Faris and I met in 2018 in Occupied Palestine when I toured a British Council-sponsored musical show about the consequences of Balfour’s impossible promise to both Zionist Jews and the indigenous Palestinians, a promise broken. Under Faris’s leadership BEJE play a unique set with both his and my compositions, grooving poignant and lyrical, though I say it myself.
Nov 29th Redbrick Building 8.00pm https://redbrickbuilding.co.uk/event/faris-ishaq-x-beje/
Nov 30th The Old School Room Curry Rivel 7.30pm https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/beje
Dec 1st 5pm St George’s Bristol TICKETS and descriptor https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/whats-on/faris-ishaq-x-beje-siblings-not-fools-tour-performance/
HOW CAN WE TOUR WHEN REFUGEES BURN?
BEJE SIBLINGS NOT FOOLS TOUR 3rd leg: Enrico Merlin x BEJE
Why at a time of genocide should music still matter? When Israel is burning refugees in tents why I should I be flyering Street high street about a gig?
We are all exiled from the land of inalienable human rights assembled after WW2. It looks more and more like it was only ever a podium built by hypocrites in a sea of shit. O look, the ICJ has broken off and is listing badly.
How can we sing in this strange land? As a declining morally bankrupt USA throws its last hurrah of violent proxy horror, what good our harps? (I realise the vantage point of sister Yunmi and brother Sangyeon in South Korea up against China is different).
‘Siblings Not Fools’ is short hand for the Martin Luther King quote “We must learn to live as brothers or we perish as fools”, which has resonated with me since I painted a 1980 banner with this for an anti-apartheid march in Sheffield.
Every time I play with musicians, particularly since the BEJE project started in 2013, it’s like I re-affirm a new family. We are brothers and sisters in music making. And in BEJE the stretch of inter-cultural and international connection is particularly broad. The experience of working with Senegalese griot Moussa Kouyate was particularly challenging during lockdown, as we came from such different places, but apart from a very fine album it has left Moussa and I feeling closely connected.
Connection is the thing. That’s what keeps me motivated. I hope that what we generate together, so much more than the bond between the performers, really delivers the message that we are indeed already brothers and sisters, we feel it through the music, through the shared experience of the gig, and that this empowers up to reaffirm in every place our shared humanity. It helps me that at each gig I read a poem by my little brother Ibrahim Yaghi, journalist and poet holed up in Deir Al Balah, Gaza.
So to gig with Enrico and Fabio Freddy and Mattia (full descriptions in the link above) at this time (Oct 25 to Nov 1st) is a big cry of “No!” to the immolation of refugees and of hope, and a big “Yes!” to what makes us human, with joy love fellow-feeling and purpose. A big “Yes!” that begins in sound and spirit and travels to the political and social realm too.
So later today I will resume my PayPal giving to families I know in Gaza knowing that there isn’t a tension between politics, charity and music. Music turns the tap to the source. Spirit, the Divine, call it what you will. All else follows.
#musicpurpose, #musicandpolitics, #EnricoMerlin+BEJEtour, #BEJEjazz,
Enjoy the music. Our lives depend on it.
David Mowat
ZAID HILAL + BEJE
The Bristol European Jazz Ensemble 