Steve Houben

Steve Houben ( born March 19, 1950 in Liège ) is a Belgian jazz musician ( alto and soprano saxophone, flute) and composer.

Life and work

Houben comes from a musical family, but was particularly influenced by the saxophonist Jacques Pelzer, his uncle. From him he learned the saxophone after he studied classical flute at the Conservatory. With Pelzer, he later founded the band " Open Sky Unit" ( self-titled album in 1975 ). Mid-1970s, he attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston. After his return to Belgium, he founded with composer Henri Pousseur the jazz seminar at the Conservatory in Liège. With U.S. musicians he formed the funk band " Solstice" and " Mauve Traffic" ( inter alia with Bill Frisell, Vinnie Johnson, Michel Herr ). In 1982 his album " Steven Houben with Strings ", in which he builds bridges to classical music. He played with pianist Charles Loos and singer Maurane (Group " HLM " ), with the " PIROTTON / Houben / Pougon Trio" and with his own bands like the fusion band " Cocodrilo ", "Cuban Breeze " or with Luc Pilartz founded band "Panta Rhei ", which is (especially from Eastern Europe) dedicated to the interpretation of European folk music. Houben stepped on, inter alia, with Paolo Fresu, Bobo Stenson, Toots Thielemans, Daniel Humair, Alan Skidmore, Aldo Romano, Chet Baker, Mike Stern, Gerry Mulligan, George Coleman, Brown has D' Hollander and the Czech pianist Emil Viklický. He is a member of the Belgian- Tunisian band " Anfass " ( self-titled album in 2000 at Igloo ).

Currently (2007) he heads the saxophone class at the Conservatory in Brussels.

2000 he received the Django d' Or ( Belgium).