Eve Beuvens started off wanting to play the double bass, but at 13 she switched to the piano because it seemed to require less effort! She was drawn to jazz straight away, and started taking lessons with Nathalie Loriers.
After a philosophy degree, Eve entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, studying with Diederik Wissels, John Ruocco, Kris Defoort, Garrett List, and John Taylor (the last while on an Erasmus exchange in Cologne). She graduated in 2005.
Her first CD, “Noordzee” (North Sea), released by Igloo in 2009, featured Eve in a quartet with Joachim Badenhorst, Yannick Peeters et Lionel Beuvens. This debut recording showcased her strengths as a and composer untroubled by clichés and a versatile, multifaceted pianist. Critics were pleased and surprised by the freshness and fluidity of her performance style, which audiences appreciate for its poetic intensity. She has travelled with the quartet in Belgium (2009; Jazz Tour / Lundis d’Hortense), Norway (2010; 12 Points Festival) and Germany (2011; Jazz Lab and Jazz Ahead). Building on the success of her trio and quartet performances, Eve has gone on to be part of projects in a wide variety of styles (including the Cezariusz Gadzina Quartet, Sidewinders, and Alex Beaurain Quintet), all of which have helped her move from strength to strength, blossoming as a rounded pianist of remarkable conviction.
In 2013, having been given free creative rein ahead of the Gaume Jazz Festival, Eve founded the Heptatomic septet, playing with Laurent Blondiau, Grégoire Tirtiaux, Sylvain Debaisieux, Benjamin Sauzereau, Manolo Cabras, and Lionel Beuvens. The group was set up to perform original pieces composed specially for it; its debut album, Heptatomic, appeared in September 2015, again released by Igloo. Since then, Heptatomic has performed at Belgium’s leading music venues, including Bijloke Gent; Concertgebouw Brugge, and Flagey in Brussels, as well as several international festivals, both at home (Jazz à Liège; Tournai Jazz Festival) and abroad in France (AJMI Avignon; Jazz sous les Bigaradiers, Cannes). A French CD release in 2017 was met with critical acclaim.
Eve has collaborated with the Swedish saxophonist Mikael Godée since 2010, first as a duo, then in a quartet. The group has an impressive list of performances in Sweden and Belgium under its belt, as well as a CD, MEQ, released on the Spookhuis label in 2013. Their second quartet recording, Looking Forward (Igloo, February 2019), was born from a Jazz Tour / Lundis d’Hortense performance. The group has also taken part in the Belgian Jazz Meeting, which has opened doors further afield — in Morocco, Italy, France, and beyond.
In August 2018, the Gaume Jazz Festival expressed the wish — nay, command —that Eve give a solo performance the following year. She triple-double-checked her piano, and the verdict was: challenge accepted! First Eve threw herself into the solo albums which have had the greatest influence on her from her teenage years on: not just Herbie Hancock’s The Piano, Thelonious Monk’s Solo Monk or Keith Jarrett’s Live in Rio, but also recordings by Myra Melford, Paul Bley, Masabumi Kikuchi and Dollar Brand. Then she started writing. Eve has been composing ever since she started playing the piano – first for trio, then for quartet, then for septet – but never, until now, for her alone! She has been enjoying a voyage of delight and discovery, exploring the richness of the tonal possibilities that are open to an instrument as orchestral as the piano. In her music, Eve seeks out the harmony of contrasts: clashes of vivid colour alongside melodies that warm you from the inside out. Occasionally, of course, she throws in a nod and a wink to her idols, be they Thelonious Monk or… Dolly Parton.
In 2020, she recorded her first solo album, it will be released in October 2021.
www.evebeuvens.com
