Kris Defoort

Kris Defoort is a Belgian avant-garde jazz pianist and composer. He was born on 30 November 1959 in Bruges. He also teaches at the Brussels conservatory. His brother is Bart Defoort (saxophonist and composer). He entered in 1978 the Antwerp conservatory to study early music and recorder. He graduated 4 years later and he then decided to study contemporary music and jazz at the Liège conservatory. Frederic Rzewski, Henri Pousseur and Garrett List were among his teachers. In 1986 Defoort released his first recording with his quintet Diva Smiles. The next year, he went to New York to study at New York Long Island University, Brooklyn. He recorded there with Vincent Herring and Jack DeJohnette. On his return in 1991, he founded his own ensemble named K.D.'s Pretty Big Basement Party. The following year, he recorded the first CD for De Werf label (based in Bruges) with K. D.'s Basement Party. They toured in France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1991 and then released a CD called "Sketches of Belgium" the next year, a reference to Miles Davis's "Sketches of Spain". The album, the first edited by De Werf, included an instrumental cover of Sting's Roxanne as well as two songs written by Thelonious Monk. In 1995 Defoort composed (with Fabrizio Cassol) the Variations on a Love Supreme. Defoort took part in the Octurn project in 1996 (he had already composed their 1994 album) and began to play with Mark Turner. A year later he recorded with Aka Moon on Elohim. He then formed a new ensemble (Dreamtime). He also has his own quartet with Mark Turner (tenor saxophone), Nicolas Thys (bass guitar and double bass) and Jim Black (drums).