About
Pianist/composer Jef Neve (1977) has become a prominent figure in his homeland Belgium and his reputation is rapidly spreading to the rest of the world. He studied at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven and graduated in 2000 as Master of Music in Jazz and classical piano, both with great distinction. In 2001 he specialized in Chamber Music and was rewarded the diploma 'cum laude'. He followed master classes with Brad Mehldau, Martial Solal, Lew Tabackin, Billy Hart, Bill Carothers, Kenny Werner, Bruce Barth and others.
CAREER:
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From 2008, Jef Neve's career brought him onto the international stage. With the 'Jef Neve Trio', he has traveled on successful tours, from Denmark to Australia, from Canada to Japan.
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Collaboration with singer-songwriter Gabriel Rios and Kobe Proesmans resulted in a series of beautiful performances during 2008, which ended with a sold-out concert in the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. Rios invited Jef Neve to collaborate again on the music for his album «The Dangerous Return » which was released end 2010.
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In 2009 he toured Flanders with his first piano concerto, accompanied b the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Michel Tabachnik.
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The duo album with vibraphone player Pascal Schumacher’s « Face to Face » was released January 2010 on Enja records, followed by a ‘Rising Star’ tour through a dozen European classical venues. Jef Neve also worked with Pascal Schumacher for his quartet albums.
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Still in 2010, he created the album “For all we know” with the American singer Jose James, and the Impulse label was resurrected especially for this album. This album took them to just about every jazz festival in the world, from Japan, Canada and America to all of Europe.
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Jef Neve was asked by the Belgian National Radiostation VRT-Klara to create a weekly jazz broadcast. Between January 2008 and August 2010, the program “Neve” was recorded and broadcasted live on Friday nights.
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In 2011 Jef Neve wrote the music for the story: ‘The Piano’. Seppe Gebruers give the performance, together with 2 puppeteers and 50 rod puppets;
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In February 2012 Neve wrote the music for a theater: ‘the Tour of the elephant’, from Stefan Perseval, with actors Sien Eggers and Marc van Eeghem.
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In 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, Jef Neve is the curator of a music festival, named Neve-Festival (after himself) at ‘de Warande’ in Turnhout, where he was free to put a full weekend program together.
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In 2012 Jef Neve toured Flanders with his second piano concerto, accompanied by the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dirk Brosse.
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During the first edition of the Leuven Jazz festival (2014), Jef scored a big hit curating an evening with an occasional combo with Richard Galliano and Dré Pallemaerts. He also performed (solo) at the 2015 edition.
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Jamie Cullum, Britain’s most popular jazz artist, invited Jef to play together at his concert at the North Sea Jazz Club in Amsterdam, November 2014. Meanwhile they took the time to interview each other, Jamie for his BBC radio show, Jef interviewed Jamie while he was the musical host during the 2014-2015 season of Café Corsari.
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Piano meets hip-hop: In 2016, 2017 and 2018 Jef played several concerts with the Dutch hip hop phenomenon Typhoon. The tour with Typhoon and ‘Amsterdam Sinfonietta in January 2018 was a big success in 10 sold-out large Dutch concert halls.
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Spirit Control: Most recent album, presented in 2017, this time with a larger band: Jens Bouttery on drums, Lennart Heyndels on bass and a string quartet join Jef Neve on stage.
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At Pukkelpop 2018, Jef Neve conducted his own orchestra and played “The four seasons” in an arrangement by Max Richter. This was also performed at the Neve-Festival 2018 and Lekker Klassiek, another festival for which he was artistic director.
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In 2019-2020 Jef Neve is playing several concerts in duet with the Dutch trumpet player Teus Nobel. This combo can be seen during a theatre-tour in Flanders and the Netherlands, as well as in Australia (June 2019) and around the world.
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Jef is concentrating more and more on composition the last few years. He wrote 3 piano books for three music learning grades. They are: “Start”, “2” and “Play”. He also has a special edition book with several of his compositions, enhanced by wonderful illustrations and even manuscripts from when he started writing music as a little boy, signed Wolfgang Amadeus Neve.