Jeanfrançois Prins

Jeanfrançois Prins (born February 18, 1967) is a Belgian jazz guitarist. He has spent most of his adult life as a professional musician, composer, arranger and producer; performing, recording and collaborating with many of today’s Jazz giants including Toots Thielemans, Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Judy Niemack, Gary Bartz, Darmon Meader, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans, Kirk Lightsey, Gerard Presencer, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Eddie Gómez, Jay Anderson, Peter Herbolzheimer, John Ruocco, Ernst Ludwig Petrowski, Bruno Castellucci, Ivan Paduart, Victor Lewis, Adam Nussbaum, Billy Hart, Gene Jackson, Andy Middleton, Jiggs Whigham, Bob Dorough, Jay Clayton, Sheila Jordan, Danny Grissett, Kelvin Sholar, Quincy Jones, and Mal Waldron.

Since his musical vocabulary is not limited to jazz, he has also collaborated with such diverse artists as Erwin Schrott, Beethova Obas, Philippe Lavil, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, Sacha Distel, Henri Salvador, and Patti Austin.

Education

At age 17, Jeanfrançois Prins started playing music as a self-taught improviser. At age 19, he was already leading his own professional band, performing his original tunes and arrangements. In 1991, he graduated as a Sound Engineer from the world famous I.N.S.A.S. School for Performing Arts in Brussels, Belgium. The same year, he was awarded the First Prize for Instrumental Performance at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles, as well as the "Golden Sax", awarded by both the French- and Dutch- speaking Jazz journalists in Belgium.

Career

Jeanfrançois Prins' music has a large variety of styles, from solo to big-band with orchestra. His lyrical fusion of romance and hard-swinging guitar is influenced by his encounters with World Music, Latin jazz, French chanson, contemporary Classical music, Avant-Garde and pop.

Prins has recorded six CDs as a leader.

The fourth one, All Around Town (TCB), was conceived as his own musical photo album of New York City. He recorded it in trio with bassist Mike Richmond and drummer Adam Nussbaum, plus saxophonist Lee Konitz as a guest. His fifth CD, Light (GAM Records), is co-led by drummer Steve Davis.

Prins' latest release El Gaucho (Challenge Records 2012) was recorded in New York City, with his NYC trio: Joris Teepe on bass and Victor Lewis on drums, with tenor saxophonist Rich Perry as a guest. El Gaucho is an example of his concepts of interactive trio and quartet playing with originals, standards and modern jazz compositions.

Prins' compositions are often performed and recorded, not only by his own bands, but by several other European and American musicians.

"New York Stories" was recorded by his own quintet, Toots Thielemans, Judy Niemack, Kenny Werner, Michel Herr and Jack Van Poll, the WDR Big Band (arranged by Grammy-Award-winner Jim Mc Neely), the Danish Radio Big Band, and has been used for several years as the title song of the Radio Judaïca Jazz Program in Belgium and was used in a TV commercial for the Belgian Postal Service. It was also arranged for big band by Grammy-winner arranger Jim McNeely, and by German top arranger Peter Herbolzheimer. "Cat's Eyes" was recorded and performed by his own quintet, by singer Mary Kay, then featured in Belgian TV game show Génies en Herbe, which aired world-wide on the international TV5 channel.

"What" was recorded and performed by his own quartet, trumpeter Richard Rousselet's quintet, Andy Middleton's 4tet, and by Lee Konitz.

"Central Park" was recorded and performed by his trio, Ulli Jünemann's quartet, as "Music Calls Me" by Judy Niemack (with her original English lyrics), and as "Sommar" by Lisa Werlinder (with her original Swedish lyrics).

Being a sound engineer, Prins produced and arranged Mary Kay's CD, Make Someone Happy, featuring Toots Thielemans. He co-produced three CDs for Judy Niemack, Richard Rousselet's CD Waitin' For You, and Sören Fischer's CD Don't Change Your Hair For Me. He produced and arranged Judy Niemack's recording "About Time" (Sony JAZZ), her recent CD Blue Nights (BLUJAZZ), and her newest album In the Sundance (BLUJAZZ). His most recent productions include What's Goin' On? by the Terrassa Big Band, and pianist Walter Norris' new project Elements 'n Motion (Sunburst).

Prins has been featured on television in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Estonia, the U.S., and on the satellite channel Muzzik, both in interviews and performing. In 1994, he was an actor and musician in the Belgian movie Just Friends, which won several prizes and was nominated for an Oscar in the United States as "Best Foreign Film". In early 1999, the French-speaking Belgian television (RTBF) produced a special documentary feature about his international career, both as a musician and an educator. Brussels - Berlin – New York - Jeanfrançois Prins was aired on the worldwide French language channel TV5 in the summer of 1999. He was followed and interviewed in NYC by a team of the RTBF News for a few days in 2006, for a report about the fifth anniversary of September 11.

Jeanfrançois also writes original music for movie soundtracks as well as television (for example for the Discovery Channel in 2000, and the short film Coriolis in 2008).

Prins is featured in the book The Great Jazz Guitarists – The Ultimate Guide (Scott Yanow © 2013).

He has also been teaching private instrument lessons and classes in Berlin's Music Universities, where he led the Jazz Guitar Departments for over a decade, and gives workshops and master-classes in Europe and the U.S.

Projects/Groups

Current projects as a leader

Groups as a co-Leader

Groups as a Musical Director

Discography

Discography as a leader

Selected Discography as a sideman

References


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