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Jef Neve
CAREER
- After Jef Neve graduated “cum laude” in 2001 for piano in both the classical and jazz departments, as well as for chamber music, at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, he soon made his first jazz albums with the Jef Neve Trio. Since 2006 he signed with the major record label Universal Music and his career took an international turn.
- With the 'Jef Neve Trio' he makes successful tours, from Denmark to Australia, from Canada to Japan.
- The collaboration with Gabriel Rios and Kobe Proesmans resulted in a series of great performances during 2008. Rios again asked Jef Neve to collaborate on compositions for his CD “The Dangerous Return” which was released at the end of 2010.
- In 2009 he toured through Flanders with his first piano concerto, with the Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Michel Tabachnik.
- The CD “Face to Face” of the Duo with vibraphonist Pascal Schumacher was released in January 2010 on Enja Records. The duo made a 'Rising Star Tour' along a dozen important European venues. Jef Neve also contributed to Pascal Schumacher's albums.
- Also in 2010 he made the album “For all we know” together with the American singer José James, and the Impulse label was restarted especially for this album. This album took them to just about every major jazz festival worldwide, from Japan, Canada and America, to all of Europe.
- Jef Neve was asked by the National Belgian Radio VRT-Klara to make a weekly jazz program. Between January 2008 and August 2010, the program "Neve" was recorded live and broadcast every Friday night.
- In February 2012, Neve wrote the music for the theater production 'De Tocht van de Olifant' by Stefan Perseval with the actors Sien Eggers and Marc van Eeghem.
- In 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, Jef Neve is the curator of the 'Neve Festival' in the Warande at the cultural center de Warande in Turnhout, where he was given carte blanche to program the whole weekend.
- In 2012 he toured through Flanders with his 2nd piano concerto, accompanied by the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dirk Brossé.
- During the 2014 edition of Leuven Jazz, Jef Neve was still the great trendsetter with a unique occasional combo including Richard Galliano and Dré Pallemaerts. Neve was also present in the 2015 edition.
- Jamie Cullum, England's best-known and most talented jazz artist, invited Jef Neve to play music together at the North Sea Jazz Club in Amsterdam on 24 November 2014.
- Jamie also took the time to interview Jef extensively for his radio show, on which Jef also brought his film crew to interview Jamie for Café Corsari, where he was a guest during the 2014-2015 season.
- 'Piano meets hip-hop': In 2016, 2017 and 2018 Jef already played several concerts with the famous Dutch rapper Typhoon. The Tour with Typhoon and Amsterdam Sinfonietta at the end of 2017 and spring 2018 was a resounding success.
- Spirit Control: this album was presented in 2017, this time with an extensive band. Jens Bouttery on drums, Lennart Heyndels on bass and a string quartet join Jef Neve on stage.
- Jef Neve conducted his own orchestra at Pukkelpop 2018 and played 'The 4 Seasons', adapted by Max Richter at Pukkelpop, the Nevefestival 2018 and ‘Lekker Klassiek’ 2018, of which he was the artistic director.
- Since 2019, Jef has been playing in duo with the famous trumpeter Teus Nobel, in Kenya, Canada, Japan, Czech Republic, Latvia. In 2022 the concerts were a homage to Toots Thielemans with the subtitle 100 years Toots, , which he would have turned 100 years old on 29/04/2022. In February 2023 they were guests in Hungary
- duo concerts with the Dutch top trumpeter Teus Nobel, at home and abroad.
- In recent years, Jef has also focused more and more on composing. In 2021 he wrote 3 piano books: “Start”, “2” and “Play for the 3 different degrees in the music academies. There is also a deluxe edition, “Sharing Life Stories”: a collection of the 3 books, in combination with illustrations by Oswald Cromheecke. All compositions are 2x on Youtube, 1x in the "concert version" played by Jef, 1x in a "tutorial version" where Jef explains the difficulties per song. There is the accompanying solo album on Spotify, Sharing Life Stories.
- In 2022 he again composed 2 piano books: "Reflections in Black and Reflections in White", in addition to the previous 3 books. These new books will be fully presented by Jef in the various music schools in the spring of 23.
- Jef Neve composed the next album “Mysterium”, which was released in August 2020. It was supposed to be released in March 2020, but the lockdown due to the corona pandemic decided otherwise.
- During the 2020 corona year, Jef Neve focused on live streaming from his own studio. He delivered no less than 150 live streamed concerts, first on Facebook, then on his own new subscriber website, www.jefneve-live.com, where people could register per series of 10 concerts. This continued until spring 2021.
- In the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2021 he performed “Ochtendglorenconcerten”, with soprano Hanne Roos, saxophonist Andy Dhondt and a string quintet. Neo-classical and minimalist music performed outdoors at dawn.
- In the autumn and winter of 2021, Jef played several concerts: “Jef Neve plays with you”, in which Jef improvised on stories that the audience provided.
- The “Mysterium tour” was finally kicked off with a headliner concert at Gent Jazz in July 2021, before touring throughout Flanders and the Netherlands from September to the end of December 2022.
- In March 2023: release of the documentary film “Rebound”, the story of Sebastien Bellin, the former basketball player who was seriously injured in the attack on the airport on March 22, 2016.
- April 21, 2023: release of his new album “That Old Feeling” an album on which Jef invites 8 international singers to sing a song with him. The first live shows in large venues are planned for May 2023.
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Jef Neve Trio: It's Gone
![Read "It's Gone" reviewed by AAJ Staff](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/old/styles/jneve2005.jpg)
by AAJ Staff
From Belgium comes Jef Neve, an explosively gifted young pianist whose second album, It's Gone, is without question one of the best I've heard in 2005. It's an exhilarating ride through a varied program of Neve's creative original compositions, offset by a standard and a brace of tunes by Neve's bassist, Piet Verbist. The music is consistently excellent, a joyous and very swinging tour through the unexpected.
Neve's improvisations often seem to burst forth in a shower of ...
read moreJose James and Jef Neve at Regattabar in Cambridge on June 16
![Jose James and Jef Neve at Regattabar in Cambridge on June 16](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/9053b783e09c2d3bbe99bf8a681dfb37.jpg)
Source:
MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
Jazz vocalist Jose James and Belgian pianist Jef Neve are performing at the Regattabar Jazz Club at Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, Cambridge, on Wednesday, June 16 at 7:30 p.m.Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online or by calling 617 395-7757.The show celebrates the release of their new CD, For All We Know, issued by Impulse! Records.James, born and raised in Minneapolis, is the son of a jazz saxophonist from Panama. James studied ...
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New Release from Jose James & Jef Neve "For All We Know" on Impulse
![New Release from Jose James & Jef Neve "For All We Know" on Impulse](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/logo/7a6ff0ab78ea209e5f86d13084130705.jpg)
Source:
Verve Label Group
"This record is all about capturing the moment," Jose James says of For All We Know, his upcoming Impulse! release. The album, a collaboration between James and noted Belgian pianist Jef Neve, finds the charismatic young vocalist applying his warm, rich baritone to a sterling assortment of timeless jazz and pop standards. The result is an eloquently spare, effortlessly expressive set, with James' vivid performances and the intimate duo format lending new emotional depth to such beloved classics as Tenderly," ...
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“ The Jef Neve Trio has developed to one of the most acclaimed pianotrio’s of today”. - JazzEnZo, 15.1.2012 (Holland) “London Jazz Festival. “In two very contrasting Saturday night sets, Belgian pianist Jef Neve demonstrated why his stock has steadily been rising in Europe over the last decade. (..) In a world that some may consider to be overcrowded with piano trios, this group puts forward a compelling case that they deserved to be heard.” - LJF2011. Review by Tom Gray - Nov 24, 2011 (UK) Amsterdam. “Belgian jazz trio shines in Concertgebouw.” (..) “Neve's compositions are melodically strong, harmonically surprising and rhythmically catchy