Welcome at the Honky Tonk Jazz Club's website.

               Honky Tonk Jazz Club has been an international institute for Traditional Jazz and also "roots oriented" music in general for 50 years now!

Honky Tonk offers concerts of Belgian and international artists. The atmosphere and the acoustic qualities of the 19th century army bunker where all concerts are organised, ensure motivated musicians, an enthousiastic audience and consequently unforgettable musical highlights.
We sincerely hope you'll enjoy a visit to the legendary Honky Tonk Jazz Club!

sa  16/09/2023	Second Line presents: Reggie "King" Sears (USA)
	Tickets via second-line.be Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
sa  30/09/2023	Freetime old Dixie Jass Band (NL)
	New Orleans / Dixieland Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 25€ - Members: 20€ - Students: 8€
sa  14/10/2023	Live is a Joke (B)
	Swing Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
sa  21/10/2023	Second Line presents: SUGAR QUEEN (USA/NL)
	Chicago Blues Tickets: second-line.be Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
sa  28/10/2023	New Orleans Roof Jazzmen (B/NL)
	New Orleans Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
sa  11/11/2023	Monsieur Fernand (B)
	Traditional Jazz & Blues New Orleans style Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
sa  18/11/2023	Second Line presents: HADACOL TREMBLERS & a boy named Johnny (B)
	Western & Country Tickets via second-line.be Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
sa  25/11/2023	Ginger Pig (UK)
	New Orleans Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 25€ - Members: 20€ - Students: 8€
sa  09/12/2023	Second Line presents: A LUCKY PUNCH (AUS/LUX)
	Tickets: second-line.be Starts: 20u30 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€
su  10/12/2023	Norbert Detaeye & Guest (B)
	Kerstconcert - ROOTS Starts: 15u00 Tickets: 20€ - Members: 15€ - Students: 5€

  Honky Tonk Calendar

The NOMA CD !

Site produced & published
by Honky Tonk Jazzclub.

** Webdesign:

Many thanks to:

Honky Tonk Jazzclub Leopoldlaan 12 A Bastion V B-9200 Dendermonde BELGIUM	info@honkytonk.be
By car, Honky Tonk is about 30 minutes away from Brussels, Antwerp as wel as from Ghent.
Brussels:             N9 untill Asse, then N47 untill Dendermonde. Antwerp:             E17 untill St-Niklaas, then N41 untill Dendermonde. Ghent:                  E17 untill Lokeren, then N47 untill Dendermonde.
Here's a little map.
The Dendermonde train station is just a 10 minutes walk away.
Honky Tonk is easy to find. We are just behind the building of "Jazz Centrum Vlaanderen" and the big water tower. If you can't see those, just ask a local. Everybody knows where it is...

Membership

Becoming a member of Honky Tonk is possible during a visit or by e-mail to info@honkytonk.be. Membership is 15 € per person or 25 € per couple for a season. A SUPPORTER membership is 50 € (2pers) and a VIP-membership 100 € (2pers) Our magazine (Honky Tonk Info) will be sent to your home (once a month, except for in July and August). At concerts you will get a reduction of 5 € for each member. Getting the Honky Tonk Info magazine without becoming a member costs 10 € per year. Payment is possible by transfer to IBAN BE49 4428 6650 5171 : Honky Tonk Jazz Club vzw, Leopoldlaan 12A, 9200 Dendermonde.

Regular Bunker Concerts

Concerts start at 8.30 pm and are 20 € per person. So in fact 15 € for members. Youths (student /-24 years old) have to pay 5 €, without any guarantees cocerning seating. On occasion we have to raise the entry fees slightly in order to be able to book bigger (more expensive) international acts. Changes in entry fees will always be mentioned in our calender whell in advance!

There's no sunday like a lazy sunday.

A nice way to visit Honky Tonk is on a "Lazy Sunday": free gigs held on select Sunday afternoons, organized by our youth division Second Line. Sometimes you'll find a renowned band on stage, though sometimes the stage is lent out to young promising artists as the formula reaches out to a wider crowd of young and older people. Perhaps good to know is that Second Line usually does not program jazz as they rather go for Roots, Rockabilly, Cajun, Blues, Country and Americana alike. Please note no reservations can be made for Second Line events.

Postal adress:	Only for reservations:
Honky Tonk Jazzclub Leopoldlaan 12 A Bastion V B-9200 Dendermonde BELGIUM	reservering@honkytonk.be
For concert requests or offers, demo's and general informations: info@honkytonk.be
Calling for reservations works best between 10 and 12am or between 6 and 8pm on +32475/699416 (Albert). Voice or text messages possible We do advise you to make your reservations by e-mail via the top e-mail link in this frame. Reservations can be made 1 month in advance at the earliest.
For Lazy Sundays, no reservations will be accepted.

Honky Tonk's History (1965 – 2010)

Until present times, the Dendermonde based Honky Tonk Jazz Club can be literally considered as a real bastion of traditional jazz music in Flanders. In addition, she also fulfilled a pioneering role within the current Flemish music scene.

Back in 1962 Bert Heuvinck, together with his three brothers Mon, Piet and Jan, founded "The Jeggpap New Orleans Jazz Band". Their first gigs took place in the cave of their parental home at the Leopold II Laan in Dendermonde, which thus became the very first known jazz club in town. Soon this location became too small so they went looking for a suitable rehearsal room which was found only a few meters further in a forgotten town bunker. The year is now 1965. Jeggpap took off for a successful historical career and shook off some of its musical pioneers by dropping them in an new organization which they named "Honky Tonk Jazz Club". It would be the start for more than 1350 bunker concerts, 215 festival acts, 406 pub crawl bands and for 51 jazz cruises on the Schelde river.

New Orleans icon and clarinet player George Lewis visited the club in 1966, but the great breakthrough finally came with the yearly organization of the International Jazz Festival (1971 – 1990). A lot of legends found their way to Dendermonde, such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jack Bruce (Cream band), Charly Watts and Ian Stewart, BB King, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ray Charles (with his Raelettes and complete Big Band), Toots Thielemans… the list seems to be endless. Honky Tonk was living his golden years and the city of Dendermonde got his very own spot on the world map of music.

As if all this was not enough, the club took also care in offering a real prime. Nowadays every city or village seems to have its very own pub crawl, but it was Honky Tonk who was the first to introduce this great formula to Flanders in 1980. It was not entirely a homemade creation as the concept was copied from our Dutch friends from Breda.

Today, almost fifty-five years after its foundation, the club is buzzing like never before. On an average the club hosts a club concert every two weeks. There is always a high demand for tickets so making a reservation to assure a seat is a wise thing to do. Wendell Brunious, Leroy Jones, Lillian Boutté and Charmaine Neville are a few of the well-known international names who recently appeared on the bunker stage.

Also there is piano virtuoso Norbert Detaeye who became in many ways inseparable with the club and who is acting as 'Resident Pianist of the Club' while "The New Orleans Roof Jazzmen" (Flanders' oldest New Orleans band of the late Pierre "Pitou" Claessens, now with Bruno Van Acoleyen as leader) became 'Resident Band of the Club'. And then there is "Second Line", a bunch of highly motivated young members of the club who grouped together to assure the future. They bring out a very own program, mainly focusing on roots and rockabilly events as they go out to attract a younger and wider crowd to the club.

The Dendermonde Honky Tonk Jazz Club is hopeful and confident about the future still. A future which is assured and which looks more ambitious than ever again… and that's just a good thing to know.