Speaking with Spirits

A day dedicated to the mystical side of jazz, for devoted followers of the genre and for a new generation of listeners. Contemporary voices of the scene enter into dialogue with the spirits of the past, in an encounter between the avant-garde, poetry, and the ghosts of jazz.

At the center is Shabaka Hutchings, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and one of the defining figures of the new British jazz scene. Through projects such as Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka & The Ancestors, he has opened up new paths for jazz towards African roots, spirituality, and cosmic intensity. In his music, tradition never remains static; it transforms and returns as something embodied and entirely of the present.

Alongside him are Irreversible Entanglements, the avant-jazz collective coming to the Onassis Stegi with a sound that is raw, politicized, and explosive. A band moving between free improvisation and social tension, with music born in the very moment it happens. At its core is Moor Mother, also known as Camae Ayewa, poet, musician, and performer, who connects the explosive energy of Afrofuturism with collective memory, noise, jazz, and political discourse, creating a stage language entirely her own. With a compelling presence, she transforms each performance into an experience of intensity and collective catharsis.

Τhe Onassis Stegi becomes the site of a contemporary musical ritual. Hypnotic sounds, psychedelia, improvisations, and voices come together in an experience to be lived, not explained. All it asks is that eyes and soul remain open.