Robben Ford meets Licks & Brains

Five-time Grammy-nominated guitarist plays blues and jazz rock with eighteen-piece big band.

American guitarist Robben Ford is regarded as one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. He has received five Grammy nominations, co-founded the Yellowjackets and has played with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and John Scofield, among others. The blues always comes through in his playing, but in song structure and style he keeps looking beyond what a traditional blues or R&B album has to offer. He takes risks with his sound without losing the soul and energy of a live performance.

Licks & Brains is an eighteen-piece soul, funk and jazz big band led by Rolf Delfos. It has seven albums to its name, has played at almost every Dutch jazz festival and has toured France and China. The band has previously worked with Eric Vloeimans, Benjamin Herman, Anton Goudsmit, Ntjam Rosie and Joseph Bowie of Defunkt, among others. ‘A match made in heaven,’ Ford said when he first joined the band. After a sold-out tour in 2024, they now bring compositions from his albums Two Shades of Blue, Pure and Common Ground to our stage, in special arrangements by Delfos and his long-time musical partner Erwin Hoorweg.