Belgian jazz pianist Jef Neve transcends technique to achieve tender melodic beauty

Belgian jazz pianist Jef Neve transcends technique to achieve tender melodic beauty

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Belgian jazz pianist Jef Neve: it's impossible not to feel awe each time he executes those extraordinarily fleet ripples or plunging, dramatic chord progressions that either build to rhapsodic climaxes or subside to a barely audible whisper. Photo: Jesse Willems

Jessica Nicholas

This time last year, the magnificent Sun Ra Arkestra landed at the Forum Theatre and played to a wildly enthusiastic audience for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival's inaugural Summer Sessions.

For the 2015sessions, festival organisers eschewed a large-scale concert for six intimate shows at Bennetts Lane. On Friday night, Belgian pianist Jef Neve demonstrated his versatility in two different settings, performing solo and in trio mode with two Melbourne musicians.

This is Neve's fifth visit to Australia, and fans who have seen him on previous occasions would be familiar with his intricate, classically informed playing style. Still, it's impossible not to feel awe each time he executes those extraordinarily fleet ripples or plunging, dramatic chord progressions that either build to rhapsodic climaxes or subside to a barely audible whisper. 

Yet it's precisely because Neve's technique is so prodigious that the most affecting moments in his solo set come when he sets technique aside, focusing instead on the tender melodic beauty of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You or his own Never Give Up

Neve's gifts as a composer/arranger were again on display in the second set – as was his ability to form an instant connection with musicians he'd never worked with before. Bassist Philip Rex and drummer Danny Fischer turned out to be far more than accompanists, nailing the idiosyncrasies of Neve's arrangements while creatively embellishing the gentle insouciance of Sofia, the straight-up swing of I Mean You and ecstatic energy of Endless D.C.

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