Kris Defoort
Kris Defoort (born November 30, 1959 in Bruges ) is a Belgian pianist of avant-garde jazz and composer , who became known through two operas in Western Europe.
Live and act
Defoort comes from a musical family (his brother is the saxophonist Bart Defoort ). Since 1978 he has been studying early music and recorder at the Antwerp Conservatory . In 1982 he decided to continue studying contemporary music and jazz at the Liège Conservatory ; there Frederic Rzewski , Henri Pousseur , Garrett List and Borah Bergman were among his teachers. In 1986 he presented his first album with the jazz quintet Diva Smiles, before moving to New York City in 1987 for further training . There he recorded with Vincent Herring and Jack DeJohnette , but also worked with Barry Altschul , Michael Formanek and Tito Puente and went on a world tour with Lionel Hampton . In 1991 he returned to Belgium, where he founded his band Basement Party , some of which he expanded into a large formation (with Judy Niemack and David Linx, among others ). In the next few years he toured Western Europe and put on the album Sketches of Belgium (alluding to Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis and Gil Evans ). In 1995 the Variations on A Love Supreme followed , which he composed with Fabrizio Cassol and premiered at the Jazz Festival in Middelheim. He founded Kris Defoorts Dreamtime with Mark Turner , Nicolas Thys and Jim Black . He also played with Octurn , with the Garrett List ensemble and with Aka Moon, and toured several times with Lee Konitz .
Since the late 1990s, he has increasingly concentrated on composing for theater and opera. In addition to ballet and chamber music, he wrote the operas The Woman Who Walked into Doors (2001), which was also internationally successful, and The House of Sleeping Beauties (2009), which premiered at the Brussels Opera House La Monnaie and was also played internationally. In 2014 his circus opera Daral Shaga premiered.
Defoort teaches composition, arrangement and free improvisation at the Brussels Conservatory .
Prizes and awards
With his quintet Diva Smiles he won the 1984 jazz competition in the province of Liège. In 1998 he was named the best Belgian keyboard player of the year by the Walloon critics. In 2012 he received the SABAM Jazz Award and the Jazzmozaïek Award.
Discographic notes
- Sketches of Belgium (1992)
- Variations on A Love Supreme (1995)
- Passages (1999)
- Dreamtime Sound Plaza (2002)
Web links
- Web presence
- Site Aubergine Artist Management
- Portrait of the Flemish Composers' Archive ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Portrait at Jazz in Belgium
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Defoort, Kris |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian pianist and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1959 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bruges |