Fred Van Hove

All Music Guide:

Fred Van Hove studied theory, harmony, and piano at the Music Academy in Belgium and began playing professionally in 1964. He experimented with various jazz and dance music idioms before adopting free improvisation as his principal mode of expression. Van Hove began playing with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann in 1966. Their collaboration took different forms, eventually settling into a trio format with drummer Han Bennink, which lasted approximately five years. The solo format would become important to Van Hove; he played his first solo concert in 1970. In the early '70s, Van Hove helped found Werkgroep Improviserende Musici (WIM), a musicians' collective dedicated to furthering the interests of improvisers in his home country. Since 1976, Van Hove has played solo accompaniment for silent movies, specializing in films by such groundbreaking directors as Murnau, Griffith, Lang, and Dreyer. In 1978, Van Hove formed Musica Libera Antverpiae (MLA), a group of variable configuration. MLA became one of the pianist's primary performing units. Members of the group and its offshoots have included trumpeter Marc Charig, trombonists Paul Rutherford and Radu Malfatti, violinist Philipp Wachsmann, and percussionist Günther "Baby" Sommer, among others. He has played in duo with a great many famous players, including soprano saxophonists Steve Lacy and Lol Coxhill, and trombonists Albert Mangelsdorff and Vinko Globokar. Van Hove has been active in Berlin, where he's taught and performed with local musicians; and Japan, where he's toured often since the mid-'80s. He's also performed in a group called the Belgische Pianokwartet (four pianists at two grands), and in a trio with trombonist Johannes Bauer and singer Annick Nozati. Van Hove has also collaborated with poets and painters and held seminars and workshops on improvisation. Van Hove was given the title Cultural Ambassador of Flanders in 1996 by the Belgian government. In 2000, Van Hove embarked on a new project, the Pistri Ensemble, with Wachsmann on violins and electronics, Gunther Christmann on cello and trombone, Joëlle Léandre on double bass, and Van Hove on piano and accordion.

Wikipedia:

Fred Van Hove (born 1937) is a Belgian jazz musician and a pioneer of European free jazz. He is a pianist, accordionist, church organist, and carillonist, an improviser and a composer. He is known for his work in the 1960s and 70s with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Han Bennink and for his subsequent work in various duos and as a solo artist.

Biography

Van Hove studied musical theory, harmony and piano in Belgium. He began an association with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann in 1966, playing on his early quartet and sextet recordings including 1968's Machine Gun album, and then as part of a trio with Brötzmann and drummer Han Bennink. Van Hove has since played in a number of duos, notably with saxophonists Steve Lacy and Lol Coxhill and with trombonists Albert Mangelsdorff and Vinko Globokar. He has composed for film and theatre and taught local musicians in Berlin. He has held workshops in Germany, France, England, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and has held studios at the University of Lille III. Van Hove has collaborated with a number of his fellow Belgian musicians and in 1996 he was given the title of Cultural Ambassador of Flanders by the Belgian government.