Two Generations, One Legacy: the Toots Thielemans Jazz Award

Yarno Matoka Hoedemaekers (laureate 2024): rhythm, electronics and an open ear

When Yarno Hoedemaekers graduated in 2024, he did not expect the Toots Award to come his way. Laughing, he recalls: “I wasn’t thinking about it at all. Four months after my master’s thesis, I suddenly received an email saying: ‘You’ve won.’ For a moment I even thought: oh right, that prize still exists.”

The jury praised his strong compositional vision and the bold sonic experimentation presented in his final recital. Yarno’s trajectory stands out for its openness to electronic music, a world he was already active in before discovering jazz. When teaching activities came to a halt during COVID, that pause became a turning point: “I suddenly had time. I started transcribing, practising, making music together… That’s when jazz really became an obsession.”

A style built on rhythm and layering

Yarno’s musical identity is deeply rooted in rhythm. His first instruments were percussion instruments, and that remains audible in his playing: pulsing, layered and energetic. “I’m basically a sponge,” he says. “I pick up little things everywhere: jazz, club music, electronics, R&B… All those influences come together in how I play and write.”

His background in electronic music also forms the foundation of a new project to be presented in January 2026 in Studio 4 at Flagey. In this project, he explores the fusion of acoustic instruments and live electronics.

“We work with contact microphones on the drums, live effects, layers that evoke club music. But it always has to serve the music. It remains a jazz project, just with new building blocks.”

Teachers and training

Yarno cites Diederik Wissels, Jeroen Van Herzeele and Kurt Budé as key figures in his artistic development: “We sometimes came from very different worlds, but that led to fascinating discussions. Those lessons really opened my ears.”

He is currently continuing his studies in the Educational Master’s programme at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.

His definition of jazz reflects his own path: “Jazz is freedom. Few boundaries. A world that keeps reinventing itself.”

Adinda Hertmans (laureate 2025): a voice charting its own course

When Adinda Hertmans graduated magna cum laude in June 2025, she convinced the jury with a final project that fused personality, research and musicianship into a coherent whole. “Apparently they were looking for a strong individual, not necessarily the most polished project,” she explains. “I explored who I am as a singer on stage, and everything came together there.”

Her master’s research started from a striking question: why do jazz vocalists generally improvise less than instrumentalists? “I want to be able to improvise as strongly as a saxophonist. For me, improvisation is not a technique. It’s an identity.”

Influences and growth

Adinda grew up in a household filled mainly with guitarists and pianists, no singers. This partly explains her instrumental approach to singing: phrasing, interaction, rhythmic tension and a true band mindset matter to her just as much as text and timbre.

“I don’t always need to be the frontwoman. I want to carry as much weight as a bassist or pianist, to be part of one whole.”

Her musical role models are strikingly instrumental: Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Aaron Parks, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Michael Brecker and Chris Potter, to name just a few. Among vocalists, she cites Esperanza Spalding as an exception. “She thinks so broadly. That inspires me enormously.”

She also emphasises the impact of her teachers: “David Linx saw me walk in as an insecure young girl and pushed me forward for four years. And Diederik Wissels helped me grow into a true artist. I’m not the same person I was six months ago.”

Looking ahead: original work and a Flagey debut

For Adinda, jazz is a deeply personal process, a space in which identity is shaped by “laying yourself bare at the deepest level.”

In 2025, she released her first single Feel, and she will soon record her debut album. Thanks to the prize money, she is able to realise this production. The project will premiere at the Brussels Jazz Festival at Flagey in January 2027, where she will present her own music.