Tutu Puoane Quartet
Pianist EWOUT PIERREUX - °1978 Halle, Belgium
From a very young age Ewout started playing piano and alto saxophone. He got a traditional training at the music academies of Halle and Gooik, where he graduated in 1996. As from that moment he chose for the piano and continued his studies at the jazz department of the Lemmensinstituut in leuven, where he was taught by great Dutch pianist Ron Van Rossum. He graduated in 2001. During his studies he followed masterclasses of a.o. Brad Mehldau, Bobo Stenson, Kenny Werner, Bruce Barth and Bill Carrothers. At this moment he's teaching himself at the music academy of Sint-Agatha-Berchem and at the Kunsthumaniora (Antwerp).
He plays piano in the quartet Jazzisfaction and in t-unit 7, a new project of saxophonist Tom Van Dyck. He's the regular pianist of a new big band project called 'tuesday night orchestra'. As a leader he has his own trio (ep3) with Yannick Peeters on bass and Steven Cassiers on drums.
He also plays keys in the rockproject Upperlip Orchestra and he’s busy as a sideman in several projects, among which ‘Goddam: a tribute to dr. Nina Simone’. Ewout played concerts with the Brussels jazz Orchestra and the High Voltage Sextet and with a.o. Toots Thielemans, Frank Vaganée, Kurt Van Herck, Bart Defoort, Bert Joris, Philippe Aerts, Dré Pallemaerts, Martijn Vink... He played on major festivals such as the Blue Note Festival Ghent (Joost Zweegers Sings Chet Baker, 2005), Jazz Middelheim (Maria Schneider Big Band Workshop, 2001), Gaume Jazzfestival (Jazzisfaction, 2004), Park Jazz Kortrijk (Tutu Puoane Quartet, 2004) and is named as one of the promising Belgian young jazz pianists.
Bassist GUUS BAKKER - °1970 Doesburg, Netherlands
Guus started to play guitar at age 11 and dedicated himself to the electric bass at 14. In 1989, he started to study at the Rotterdam Conservatory with electric bass as his main subject ànd double bass, an entirely unknown instrument for him at that time. He was taught by Wim Essed, Koos Serierse and Pieter Douma. He graduated in 1996. Ever since then Guus has been active especially as a performing musician, both in the Dutch and Belgian music scene, besides some teaching at SKVR (Rotterdam) and at ‘de Stoep’ (Spijkenisse).
The Netherlands: E.T. (Jeroen van Vliet), Pascal Vermeer 5tet, DTX (a.o. Berthil Busstra, Spencer Croes). As freelancer with a.o. Michiel Borstlap, Eric Vloeimans, Dick De Graaf, Ben Van Den Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk.
Belgium: Frederic Delplanq 4tet, Robin Verheyen trio, Quintessence, Pentachrome, Bruno Vansina 4tet. As freelancer a.o. Kris Goessens, Bart Van Caenegem, Kurt van Herck, Tom Van Dyck, Dré Pallemaerts, Mimi Verderame, Teun Verbruggen.
Drummer JASPER VAN HULTEN - °1981 Breda, the Netherlands
Jasper started playing drums at age 7, getting a degree in classical percussion from the local ‘Koninklijke Harmonie Cecilia’ in 1990. After that he began taking lessons at the music school in Breda during, which made him discover a wide range of styles. At home his mom was a classical singer and his father played guitar and sang songs of the beatles and French chansons. All of this made him into an allround drummer, with interests from jazz to pop, latin, brasilian, classical, rock and R&B.
He studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, graduating in 2002 summa cum laude. Among his teachers were Hans van Oosterhout, Peter Ypma and Fred Krens. After finishing his studies, Jasper has been playing a lot around the Netherlands, gaining experience with Dick de Graaf, Michiel Borstlap, Bert van den Brink, Lydia van Dam, Harmen Fraanje, Angelo Verploegen and many others.
At this moment he’s the drummer of ‘Sensual’, ‘State of Monc’ and ‘Young Sinatra’s’. He’s playing on a regular basis with great musicians like a.o. Eric Vloeimans, Ad Colen and Jeroen van Vliet.
