For a weekend each July, a vast warehouse complex in Rotterdam becomes home to the biggest names in jazz. The North Sea jazz festival, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, has hosted Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Etta James, Wayne Shorter, and Prince, among countless others.
A Festival Built by a Jazz Lover
Founded in 1976 by publishing magnate Paul Acket, the festival initially took place at a concert venue in The Hague, with acts playing from 4pm until 4am. Highlights included three-hour performances from Ray Charles and Count Basie, as well as Dutch composer Misha Mengelberg.
“We’ve had every major figure in jazz play for us over the past five decades,” senior programme manager Sander Grande says. “It’s the place where all the musicians want to hang and where audiences come to see art that is true and beautiful.”
Growth and Evolution
“When it started, there were no other jazz festivals in the Netherlands,” festival director Irene Peters says. “Now we’ve grown to have more than 1,000 artists playing to 90,000 attendees.” The festival moved to Rotterdam’s Ahoy complex, a labyrinthine, windowless space that becomes a musical hub.
Grande, who joined as an intern in 1993, recalls the 1990s as a decade of warring jazz factions. “You had people from the Marsalis family who were brought up in the New Orleans tradition complaining that jazz had become too pop,” he says. “And then you had acid jazz with Gilles Peterson and Galliano, or rappers like Guru sampling jazz all on the same lineups at North Sea. That’s basically the beauty of what we do: bringing together all spectra of Black music that have been influenced by jazz and seeing what new combinations might arise.”
The Bird Club: Late-Night Jams
After the headliners finish each night, the nearby Bird club opens for impromptu performances. Late trumpeter Roy Hargrove famously turned up in the early hours to play with Erykah Badu and D’Angelo, who made some of their earliest international performances at the festival in the late 1990s. In 2011, Prince took charge of the venue from midnight for three consecutive nights, inviting everyone from Seal to Carlos Santana to play until dawn.
“Having a jam session is integral to a jazz festival, and to what this music actually is, which involves coming up with material on the spot,” says Grammy-winning pianist Robert Glasper. “At 1am, after your shows are done, you know the cool kids will be over there at the Bird, chopping it up and waiting for legends to drop by. It’s one part of what makes North Sea the best music festival in the world.”
Memories from Musicians
Glasper has played the festival about 15 times, both as a bandleader and sideman. In 2026, he plans three shows in different configurations, including one with jazz and hip-hop stalwarts Christian McBride and Questlove, playing all-new material. “I’ve had a lot of firsts at the festival, like going to see Herbie Hancock play with D’Angelo and his band, as well as having my head blown off by Nicholas Payton’s quintet,” he says. “Even in the hotel lobby you’ll meet your heroes on their way to breakfast, which is a lot to take in when you’re a young player. I remember seeing Mulgrew Miller just sitting, waiting for a car to pick him up, and being speechless!”
Veteran bebop pianist Kenny Barron’s early experiences in the late 1970s and early 1980s were also shaped by chance encounters. “I remember seeing everyone from James Brown to Cesária Évora passing through,” he says. “One year after a show, I was waiting to head to the airport and the drummer Grady Tate and singer Marlena Shaw came over and asked if I wanted to play the rest of their European tour with them since their pianist had just dropped out. I changed my flight – these are the kinds of things that can happen over there.”
New Generation Joins the Lineage
Preparing for her debut performance at the festival this year, American saxophonist Alden Hellmuth hopes for her own starstruck encounters. “I grew up studying clips of masters like Joe Henderson and Kenny Garrett playing on the North Sea stage and I don’t know if I’ve properly processed yet that I’ll be joining that lineage now,” she says. “It feels like a place where everyone is at the top of their game. I’m looking forward to running over to catch Charles Lloyd who is playing at the same time as us – I have to see him, since he’s such a pioneer.”
Balancing Tradition and the Next Generation
Given that jazz has never been the most profitable or youth-skewing genre, the festival increasingly brings in big-name R&B, soul, and Afrobeats acts alongside jazz luminaries such as Chick Corea and John Zorn. “It’s not something that pleases everyone, but around 80% of our attendees return each year, which means we always need to draw in the next generation,” Sander says. “This year we have Burna Boy but we also have Pat Metheny and Kris Davis: it’s about striking a balance and always paying homage to music from the Black tradition.”
Although other jazz festivals like Montreux and New Orleans jazz & heritage have embraced pop headliners such as Zara Larsson and Lorde, North Sea organisers aim to keep roots in jazz. “We have to reflect the changing times, but I actually believe we’re currently in a golden age of jazz,” Sander says. “You have the UK jazz scene and people like Kendrick Lamar using Robert Glasper in his records. Audiences will always seek out this music and no matter what we do, it will live on and be enjoyed for a very long time to come.”
The North Sea jazz festival is at Ahoy Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to 12 July.
