Alex Koo Trio – UK debut, 24 March 2026

When jazz composer and pianist Alex Koo sits down at the keyboard of a morning, he likes to warm up, not with the simple scales and arpeggios with which you or I might begin, but with one or two fugues, by J S Bach no less, committing yet another one, note by note, off by heart, to his repertoire.

Over Zoom from his home in Brussels, the Flemish-Japanese virtuoso expounds thoughtfully upon the ‘essential truth’ of Bach, who, he admits, is a relatively recent passion. Before the classical piano prodigy fell hard for jazz, in his teens at high school in western Flanders, Koo’s musical heroes were the French Impressionist composers, notably Debussy and Ravel, and, in particular, Olivier Messiaen.

“Back then I hated Bach!” Koo explains, “Olivier Messiaen is one of my favourites, especially the pre-World War II period of his. When he was in his 20s, he composed some really amazing pieces. In that particular period, you can really hear the lyrical Impressionist in him.”

Discussing Messiaen’s more mystical and rhythmically complex later work, he concedes: “I guess I am more of a romantic. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all that crazy stuff for me. I mean it can be a little bit crazy, but in that sense, I can be a bit old school, in that I do like a sing-able melody”.

Koo’s own, strikingly contemporary compositions, have many parallels to the French school, with a distinctive atmospheric timbre, instrumental colour and waves of sensory impressions. The most recent album, “Blame it on my Chromosomes”, released in 2025 on W.E.R.F. records (review below), contains a broad, eclectic mix of styles, reinforcing Koo’s reputation as an artist who is impossible to pigeon hole, whose music still defies rigid genres, a verdict Koo himself seems happy to accept.

“It’s a bit of a mix of a bunch of songs,” he explains about the recording. “The distillation would be that these are 10 songs, all a little bit different, which I have been playing for a long time, together with my Belgian trio. I decided, after touring them for seven or eight years, it was about time to release this music.” Koo’s long standing collaborators, and, he stresses, extremely close friends are Dré Pallemaerts on drums and Lennart Heyndels on bass. “We’ve been playing together for such a long time, there is just this great feeling of trust”. American trumpet luminary Ambrose Akinmusire also appears on two tracks.

“We had played these songs many, many times, in many different formats over the years. Now we really had to record them. It’s a very mixed set of songs. Some of them are a little more adventurous rhythmically, a bit more complex, others are sometimes very simple”.

One track on the album is particularly close to Koo’s heart. He explains that “Jonass” was written in memory of a childhood friend, Jonas Werbrouck, who passed away in an accident, a tribute which was warmly welcomed by Jonas’ mother. “And it meant a lot to me? You really do feel as if a part of someone lives on when you write a song about them”.

For this listener, another stand out track in the collection is “Eagle of the Sun”, a laid back, contemplative track with expertly whistled melody and haunting wordless vocal, which immediately conjures the wide, wasteland landscapes and cowboy culture evoked by Ennio Morricone’s most iconic film scores. Downbeat’s Martin Johnson wrote of the album: “Koo’s music is significantly approachable; the idiosyncrasies appear after you’ve settled in for a deeper listen.”

The Alex Koo Trio play Pizza Express Jazz Club in London’s Soho on Tuesday 24 March. It will be their UK debut. What can the audience expect? “We improvise a lot. It can go anywhere. You know, we play this stuff so often, we have found just the sweet spot of where the songs really work. Certain songs play themselves. Other songs are great as a basis for improvisation and that improvisation can go absolutely anywhere”.

Also on the agenda, in April this year, is a tour of his mother’s native Japan, ahead of which Koo professes himself to be fairly nervous, as he claims his Japanese is rather rusty. His Belgian father was a missionary, working in Japan when he met Koo’s mother; both of his elder brothers were born over there. Koo himself was born in Flanders (1990) and grew up in Waregem, a small city which happens to be world famous for horse racing. Koo explains that his childhood, happy and full of music, was very distinctly rural, complete with cows ‘right outside the door’.

Reflecting on the influences of his bi-cultural, bilingual upbringing, Koo says he was always aware that there was something a little bit different about his own home. The food was different; the decoration was different; the traditions were different. One of these traditions, which fascinated and mystified his friends in equal measure was the family’s strict adherence to the protracted routines of Japanese bathing rituals. “They could just never understand why I had to leave them all early, to go home for bathtime.”

Before he leaves for Japan, Koo is also undertaking a mini tour of the Benelux and Germany, including shows at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Handelsbeurs in Gent. When not performing, Koo teaches at the prestigious conservatory in Leuven (Louvain), a role which combines well with his busy gigging schedule.

“I enjoy teaching people who are into their music, as much as I like to be. I often encounter people who are not ‘all in’. It’s already such a precarious choice. If you choose music, you really do have to go all in. There are not that many safety nets. It could really be one of the worst things to pick, in terms of making a living!”

Nevertheless, once you make that choice and go ‘all in’, there are several, if sometimes intangible, benefits, he explains: “When things work out, it’s an amazing feeling to play music with other people. Every time it falls together and it works well, it’s kind of a magical feeling, as if all the stars align, as if you have finally found the missing piece, to make this whole puzzle work”.

Koo admits that, in many ways, it is also a very introspective process, which in some way helps you to understand yourself better. Whatever, he concludes: “It’s a fun game.”