“I was there, screaming and shouting,” says a smiling Marc Scheer, describing younger days playing in a hardcore band in the late ’90s. But his real passion in music, professionally speaking, turned out to be elsewhere: the Luxembourger went on to run the Wiltz cultural centre for ten years, then worked as a booker for the Kulturfabrik before returning to his prior post.

Scheer is at home in various forms of rock, as well as metal and electronic music, but not--by his own admission--jazz. How did it happen, then, that his latest project is a jazz festival?

“Over the last several years,” he says, “I discovered more and more bands coming from jazz and going into completely other directions.” At rock, electronic, alternative, indie and hip hop festivals, he explains, jazz, jazzy or jazz-influenced acts have been cropping up. Naturally pulled in by some of those non-jazz elements, he started to take an interest in the genre. “I felt quite connected to these kinds of bands.”

The malleability of jazz, or the way in which it can act as a vector for hip hop and electronica and etc., was arresting enough that Scheer had the idea to devote a festival to it. Naturally, the Wiltz native thought of Wiltz, a location that additionally made sense because the Éislek’s jazz needs are currently underserved: “I mean, Cube 521 in Marnach does a very good jazz programme, and Cape [arts centre] in Ettelbruck… but in the north there’s not really a festival.”

Furthermore, Wiltz--which may surprise some people, given that the town and its population of under 6,000 are often classed as out-of-the-way--has a touch of jazz fame in its history: the likes of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock have all played the prestigious Festival de Wiltz.

Jazz… or whatever

“I think I’m quite a creative person in the sense of developing events and bringing up ideas for projects and stuff,” says Scheer by way of a caveat. “But I’m very, very bad at naming.” After compiling ideas of his own, those of musicians and co-curators John Wolter and Mateus Wojda, and even a few from an AI text generator, he stuck them in an email with the subject line jazzorwhatever!?.

“And I think, out of the eight people I sent it to, six of them said: but ‘jazzorwhatever!?’ would be nice!” The other suggestions were either too limiting, too technical or too complicated, he says.

“And this is like: okay, it’s jazz… or whatever.”

The accidental suggestion chimed with the ethos of the festival--probably explaining the buzz around it--going back to Scheer’s original inspiration: the kaleidoscopic integration of other genres into jazz in ways too varied to fit under any other lexicographical marker than “whatever.”

Wolter and Wojda, whose nu-jazz band LINQ will perform on day two, embody the ethos as well: “I think they are very representative of the idea of this festival,” says Scheer of his co-curators. “I think they could play in all of the bands playing at Jazzorwhatever!? this year--and still have a punk show afterwards.” The pair grew up playing punk, he explains, before expanding their style. To boot, they hail from Wiltz as well, localising this concept of sonic mashup and its new home in Luxembourg’s north.

Lineup: day one

Anneleen Boehme; the Wajdi Riahi Trio; Esinam

Anneleen Boehme, well known in the Belgian jazz scene (particularly as part of LABtrio), will play a solo set. “There’s always room for improvisation in my music,” she told Europe Jazz Network in an interview in 2022. “But I can’t hide my classical background… I don’t make any difficult fancy chords, I want to create a nice melody and for people to understand what I [try] to say.”

The Wajdi Riahi Trio has made a name for themselves through a sound that marries two horizons, those of Tunisia (where Riahi was born) and Brussels (where the trio are based). The trio plays with silences, trancelike sequences and percussive colours.

Closing out day one is Belgian-Ghanian Esinam and her “futurist flute” (as described on her website). “Her compositions traverse an electronica spectrum of loops, samples and field recordings that funnel into Afro-rhythms and entrancing melodies,” wrote Jazz Revelations in 2021.

Lineup: day two

Radiohop; Aka Moon; LINQ; Kuna Maze

Radiohop are a quartet out of Amseterdam, looking to explore “the merge between grooves and jazz,” in their own phrasing. Locating themselves in the fusion and hip-hop subgenres, they draw on influences ranging from Herbie Hancock and Kaidi Tatham to J Dilla and Azymuth.

While most of the festival acts are relatively new on the scene, Aka Moon--formed in 1992--are steadfastly not. “The seasoned sax/bass/drums outfit makes the most of the freedom that comes from its chord-less line-up, with a focus on rhythmic interplay and powerful melodies,” wrote Jazzwise magazine in 2019.

LINQ are the only Luxembourgish group booked this year, though Scheer specifies that this small proportion wasn’t by design. The “fusion potpourri,” as Neimënster Abby coined them, have a nu-jazz sound whose flavours include funk, hip hop and electronic music. Several names in the quintet might be familiar to local jazzheads: John Wolter, Mateus Wojda, , Pit Dahm and Pierre Cocq-Amann.

Trained in the trumpet, Kuna Maze (aka Edouard Gilbert) now mixes electronica, hip hop and jazz, making--in the phrasing of Brussels Jazz Alert--“a cocktail that easily allows him to take over the dance floor and hypnotise the audience.”

All shows will be held in the Brandbau building in Wiltz. Find more information on the event website ( and ).