Flat Earth Society Orchestra (FES)

In 2026, John Coltrane would have turned 100. To mark the centenary of one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz, the Flat Earth Society Orchestra (FES) accepted Bozar's invitation to dive into Coltrane's musical universe and create a tribute worthy of his work — free, restless, and impossible to categorize. In The Coltrane Mutations, FES approaches Coltrane's legacy from its own territory: an eccentric, unpredictable orchestral universe deeply rooted in experimentation. His classics are deconstructed, reinvented, and traversed by the orchestra's singular language, alongside new compositions infected by the so-called "Trane virus." Coltrane was a tireless explorer. Throughout his career, he challenged conventions, expanded the possibilities of jazz, and continuously sought new forms of expression. It is precisely this restlessness — the will to question, search, and move into unknown territories — that brings his work close to the identity of the Flat Earth Society Orchestra. The result is much more than a conventional tribute. The Coltrane Mutations is an encounter between two free spirits: that of a musician who radically transformed the language of jazz and that of an orchestra that continues to challenge the boundaries between composition, improvisation, jazz, and contemporary music. Intense, spiritual, and without borders, Coltrane's music takes on new forms in the hands of FES, in a celebration that is simultaneously respectful and irreverent. A concert where the past is not simply revisited, but set in motion — transformed, expanded, and returned to the present.