2/02/2019 – 19:30
Museum Vleeshuis
To start off the Oorstof season with a bang we asked iconic piano player Fred Van Hove, celebrating his 82nd birthday, to come and play the fabulous Günther grand piano at Antwerp’s superb sounding Museum Vleeshuis. To make it even more special, that day only, visitors of the concert at Museum Vleeshuis will get the chance to pre-order the 3x cd / book ‘Fred Van Hove at 80’ at an exclusive discount rate ! The official release on Dropa Disc is scheduled on August 23rd.
This unique release (Dropa Disc #006) will contain:
– Fred Van Hove in trio with Evan Parker and Hamid Drake, recorded at the ‘Fred Van Hove at 80 Festival’ deSingel, Antwerp, February 2017.
– Fred Van Hove piano solo recorded at the Nona, Mechelen, April 2017.
– Fred Van Hove organ solo recorded at Bozar, Brussels, December 2017.
– An essay/book on Fred Van Hove written by long time friend, promotor, jazz and improvised music aficionado Hugo de Craen.
– An introduction written by Dropa Disc/Oorstof/Sound in Motion collaborator and freelance music journalist Joachim Ceulemans.
Fred Van Hove (1937) is an improvisor and composer, plays piano, (church) organ, carillon and accordion. After his studies in music theory, harmony and piano he plays diverse styles of jazz and dance music before he forces a breakthrough with local musicians (Van De Ven, Wanders, Zinzen) in the field of improvisation. Since 1964 he works as a professional freelance musicians and belongs to the first generation of European free improvisors. In 1968 – with Peter Brötzmann, Buschi Niebergall, Peter Kowald, Han Bennink, Sven-Åke Johansson, Evan Parker and Willem Breuker – he puts European improvisation on the international map with the legendary Machine Gun lp. Later he confirms his status as innovative improvisor as part of a trio with Brötzmann and percussionist Han Bennink.
In the early seventies he recorded a solo album for the Belgian Vogel Records followed by a duo album with the Antwerp saxophone player Cel Overberghe. Complete Vogel Recordings – reissued by Atavistic Records – is labeled as one of the all time classics of European improvised music. Fred Van Hove is one of the founding fathers of WIM (Werkgroep Improviserende Musici) – a nonprofit organisation that since 1972 actively supports and defends the interests of musicians in the field of jazz and improvised music. Van Hove and the WIM organisation also initiated and organised 34 editions of the highly influential Free Music Festival.
Since then Fred Van Hove works on a continuous base with just about all the big jazz and improvised music players: Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Steve Lacy, Tony Oxley … In 1996 he was appointed as Cultural Ambassador of Flanders by the Flemish Government, in 2010 he received the Sabam award as established artist and on January 28th 2017 he received a Radio Klara award for his career. The 3 x cd/book release Fred Van Hove At 80 on Dropa Disc is scheduled for release on August 23rd 2019.