Jef on home turf

Pics and text by Neal Gowen, CJ’s foreign correspondent in Belgium

Yes we are in Belgium again and catching some more music. Two weeks ago we went to see a free concert by Jef Neve. It was in the Gent suburb of Sint-Martens-Latem and was part of a celebration for the official opening of the refurbished riverbank area of the Leie River, which runs through Gent. The event was organised by the local Sint Martens-Latem Flemmish equivalent of the town council. Free beer, food and music. The Belgians know how to organise a do! Jef only played a short 45 minute set consisting of compositions such as Kundalini and Solitude from his new CD. The PA was great and a top quality sound for the reasonably large crowd. I caught up with him and his manager Pieter for a quick chat afterwards. Sint-Martens-Latem is quite a wealthy suburb and home to many artists, sculptors and musicians. Jef’s practice studio is actually the white building in the second photo, nice location right next to the river. The sculptures are typical of what is dotted around the suburb. / Neal Gowen

Beer Belgian

Jef Neve was passing through Canberra again and it was Belgian beer for a performance at the Belgian Embassy. I notice Jef is also playing on this tour with the JazzGroove Mothership Orchestra. He's written for, and performed with a dance studio in Antwerp Belgium. His new CD, One, has a photo of one of these dancers and includes tracks written for them. But also interesting was chatter about recording several tracks for that CD in Studio 2 (the Beatles studio) at Abbey Road: talk about what pianos there are, mic stores, who was recording following him (Shirley Bassey), minutiae of a musician's fascinations. Jef played two sets. The first was tracks from this CD, entitled One. These were all originals except for a take on Lush life. Jef is classically trained, and it's obvious in his playing. A friend suggested a resemblance to Chopin (I heard Gershwin at times) but it was definitely a virtuosic style with roiling left hand arpeggios and rapidly repeating notes and flourishing right hand licks and a heavy, broody atmosphere and intense, lengthy crescendos and releases. All full handed chords and rich arpeggiation and dissonant blends thrown in fairly often to colour the intensity of it all. So it was a surprise to hear some more standard jazz piano in the second set with John Mackey, when Jef dropped into stride and left hand bass lines and sax-line solos. John sounded airy and understated at first and you could hear the two players developing together, melding, coming to an understanding as they played through a few standards - Monk, Body & soul, All the things you are, Sentimental mood, Tenor madness. Just a short set and not long enough but it was an interesting match. Then a final original to end. You could wonder how loud a piano can be. It can be loud and, as I say, it can be an orchestra in a box. Jef's piano is like this, loud and self-contained as a soloist, but there's plenty of awareness and divergent skills to sit with others, especially a sensitive player like John. So this was two sides of Jeff and a wonderful pairing to boot. ArtSound was recording so you can expect to hear the concert sometime soon on Friday Night Live with Chris Deacon. And just to justify an oblique title, Jef is Belgian and this concert was at the Belgian Embassy and the beer was Belgian. Jef Neve (piano) played solo and with John Mackey (tenor) t the Belgian Embassy.

Today's broad repertoire

Jef Neve started with the Beatle’s Blackbird. It’s a beautiful song and much loved but it’s not jazz. Or at least so say the jazz police. Herbie Hancock didn’t say it with his album New standard, but by then he’d been well written off over synthesizers and jazz rock. I’m not sure there’s much life in this argument anymore. We were talking of crossing genres and Jeff was saying that the new generation doesn’t even recognise them. Pop and jazz and classics are all intermingled on their mp3 players. Strength to that! I’m even learning of Radiohead (not that I can always count it).

Jef didn’t play Radiohead, but Blackbird was joined by a quirky collection. The uber-standard Lush life and a few originals (When spring begins, on longing for warmth after a damp Belgian winter, and Endless d.c., on constructing a good life) and Joni Mitchell’s A case of you and Kandalini. Also Goose – they are an electro-pop outfit from Belgium, apparently. Jef had written out a piece based on one of their their auto-arpeggiated tunes. It’s much more challenging when played manually but Jef had chops. He was playing solo, but this was a full and busy sound. I thought of Gershwin for a few tunes, with bass lines and long arpeggiated accompaniment and attractive melodies. But perhaps also Ravel or Rachmaninov with rolling busyness and melody passing between the hands, or even Liszt when there was some very busy right hand work. Someone else mentioned Brad Meldau. I got touches of all this at times. But amongst the busyness, I was most impressed by the clarity of melody, how lines would appear in one hand or another, clear, ringing, then pass elsewhere. Jef has a classical background; he’s recorded film music; he’s recorded with classical and jazz instruments and just as a piano/vocal duo. His recordings seem an eclectic mix. He’s even written a few piano concerti and recorded with the Belgian Philharmonic. I shouldn’t be surprised that he’d promote an inclusive view of music. I listened with closed eyes and the screeds of notes just dissolved into texture and presence (this was loud for a solo piano) and melodic movement. Mostly consonant, although just some colour from symmetical scales or leading notes or hanging chromatics. Jef had told me of recording standards with NYC singer, José James, so I was interested in his encore with our local, Liam Budge, on Don’t stand a ghost of a chance with you. Liam had had a lesson in the afternoon and this invite resulted. We know Liam as a committed and able singer with a future. But what beautiful and unstrained accompaniment we got from Jef. Perfectly balanced and delicate and responsive. A lesson in comping.

This was loud and forceful and busy solo piano playing, but always clear in melody and virtuosic in performance. This is not Jef’s first visit to Australia, so we can expect him some more. Catch him at Wangaratta or 505 or when he returns. Jef Neve (piano) played solo at Cnaberra Grammar School. Liam Budge (vocals) sat in for an encore.

This is CJBlog post no. 1,100