Belgian pianist Ivan Paduart discovered jazz when he was 17. A masterclass with Michel Herr (then pianist with Toots Thielemans) convinced him to pursue jazz full-time and in 1988, after six months at Antwerp's jazz-studio, and one year at Rotterdam's Royal Conservatory (where he studied with Rob Van Kreeveld), he joined the groups of American guitarist John Thomas, Italian trumpet player Gino Lattuca and Belgian trombone player Phil Abraham.
In 1989 he won the 2nd prize at "International Jazz Competition at La Défense" in Paris, and 1st prize at "Brussels's Jazz-Rallye". That same year Ivan formed the quintet Aftertouch, to play original fusion music. From 1990 to 1992 he toured Europe with his own group, played support for Bill Evans and recorded three albums. With his compositional mix of straight-ahead jazz and lyrical impressionism spiced with Latin influence he was awarded the 1993 Nicolas Dor prize for composition at the International Jazz Festival of Liège. In 1995, after tours of Italy and Canada, Ivan began a two-year international stint with Toots Thielemans. From 1996 onwards, the focus becomes almost exclusively the trio format with Hans Van Oosterhout as regular drummer and a variety of bass-players. He recorded his first cd’s with Challenge Records “White Nights” and "Clair Obscur" (both sold out), followed in 1998 by "Belgian Suites" (AL 73122) The trio occasionally calls on the collaboration of soloists like Rick Margitza or Toots Thielemans, Toon Roos, Bert Joris and Fay Claassen in the double album Live "A night at the Music village" (BMCD 395) in 2003.

HEIN VAN DE GEYN (1956) studied classical violin for 15 years, playing pop and blues on guitar, and changed to bass-guitar in. his late teens. Soon Hein played in dixieland-bands, but with his self formed bebop group he got awarded "best soloist" on the 1977 Laren Jazz festival. This made him pick up the double bass, and start a career as jazz musician. In 1980 Hein moved to the USA, played and recorded with many great musicians and in 1983 returned to Europe to become one of the most sought after bass players. In 1990 Hein made the first album under his own name, a duo with Lee Konitz. Hein toured and recorded with Philip Catherine, Chet Baker and many years with Dee Dee Bridgewater until he decided in 1996 to pursue his own career as a leader and a bass-teacher. On some 80 records his name can be found as composer, arranger or solo bass player. In 1994 he created his group BASELINE with John Abercrombie and Joe LaBarbara and co-founded with Anne de Jong and Joost Leijen the Jazz label CHALLENGE JAZZ , for which he is still producing a growing number of successful recordings. He received the Bird Award and the prestigious Prins Bernhard Fonds Music Prize (for the stimulation of young musicians and his merit for European Jazz in general) and was elected as "Best European Acoustic Bass Player".

Hans was born in the Netherlands in 1965. He started playing drums at the age of seven. After graduating from high school, he is immediately admitted to the Jazz Department of the Rotterdam Conservatory. Even before finishing his studies, he is offered a position as a drum teacher at the Rotterdam Conservatory, a position today he still holds. Currently also teaching at Fontys in Tilburg.
Over the years Hans has established himself as one of the much sought after drummers in Europe. He has been performing with Toots Thielemans, Philip Catherine, Ralph Moore, Mark Murphy, Spike Robinson, Nat Adderley, Bob Malach, Victor Lazlo, Lee Konitz, Rick Margitza, Denise Jannah, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Madeline Bell, Kenny Wheeler, Marlena Shaw, Benny Golson, Magic Malik, Red Holaway, James Moody, Bobby Watson, Nelson Veras, Harmen Fraanje, Benny Golson, Jesse van Ruller, Deborah Brown, Dee Daniels, The Metropole Orchestra, Kenny Werner, Pete King, Peter Hertmans, Chico Freeman, Von Freeman, Anne Ducros, David Sanchez, Johnny Griffin, Randy Brecker, John Scofield, Gino Vannelli and many others.
Now performing regularly with: Toots Thielemans, Philip Catherine-4, Hein van de Geyn’s Baseline, Harmen Fraanje,Enrico Pieranunzi-3, Cor Bakker, Bert van den Brink-3, Vaya Con Dios , Mona Lisa Overdrive, Gino Vannelli and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
With these groups he travels all over Europe and performs in the USA, Japan, Canada, Corea and Europe. Next to his stage activities, Hans has been recording quite a lot over the last years. His music is heard on more than 70 CD’s.Both critics and fellow musicians appreciate Hans for his great flexibility and ability to adapt himself to almost any musical situation. Always offering musicality and sensitivity as well as enthusiasm and an open mind to music.
In 1998 The Belgian Jazz Magazine voted Hans ‘Best European Jazz Drummer’.
Endorsed by: Yamaha ,Istanbul and Evans

Jean´Toots´ Thielemans (1922 - 2016) was born in Brussels, Belgium. He immigrated to the USA in 1952. At the age of three he could already play the accordion and started playing harmonica as a hobby. Toots was `hooked´ on Jazz during German occupation and his first big idol was Django Reinhardt.
Another early influence was Charlie Parker. The first international breakthrough was him joining Benny Goodman on European concert tour in 1950. Other early US jobs: member of Charlie Parker's All Stars in Philadelphia; George Shearing Quintet; ...
Thielemans once started his career as a guitar player. In 1949 he joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. It all started there: after tje jam session in Paris he participated in European tours with Benny Goodman, making his first record in Paris with fellow band member, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims. A year later he became a band member of the singer-songwriter and compatriot Bobbejaan Schoepen (at the time still as a guitarist). He moved to the US where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars and worked with Miles Davis and Dinah Washington. He played and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Jaco Pastorius, Peggy Lee, The George Shearing Quintet, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, The Happenings, Astrud Gilberto, Shirley Horn, Elis Regina and others.
A jazz standard composed by Toots Thielemans is "Bluesette" where he used whistling and guitar in unison. It was first recorded by Toots, now 50 years ago, with lyrics added by Norman Gimbel the song became a major worldwide hit. His harmonica playing can also be heard in film scores such as Midnight Cowboy, Jean de Florette, Sugarland Express, The Yakuza, Turkish Delight, The Getaway, French Kiss, Dunderklumpen, and in various TV programs, including Sesame Street, the Belgian TV series Witse, and the Dutch TV series Baantjer. He composed the music for the 1974 Swedish film Dunderklumpen! in which he also voiced the animated character Pellegnillot. His whistling and harmonica playing can be heard on Old Spice radio and TV commercials that have been made over the years.
During the 80's Toots performed with bassist and composer/bandleader Jaco Pastorius in ensembles ranging from duet to the Word of Mouth Big Band. In the early 80's he contributed to Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man, and his trademark harmonica can be heard on "Leave a Tender Moment Alone." A year later, he appeared on the Julian Lennon song "Too Late For Goodbyes" from the album Valotte. In 1984, he recorded the final album of Billy Eckstine (I Am A Singer), featuring very beautiful ballads and standards arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo.
The 90's Thielemans embarked on theme projects that included world music. In 1998 he released a French flavoured album titled "Chez Toots" that included the Les Moulins De Mon Coeur (The Mills of my Heart) featuring guest singer Johnny Mathis. Apart from his popularity as an accomplished musician, he is well liked for his modesty and kind demeanor. In his native Belgium, he is also popular for describing himself as a Brussels "ket", which means "street kid" in old Brussels slang. He received a joint honorary doctorate from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and in 2001 Thielemans was ennobled a baron by King Albert II of Belgium. In 2005 he was nominated for the title of The Greatest Belgian. In the Flemish version he ended 20th place, in the Walloon version he ended 44th place. In October 2008, he was honored with the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship. On 23 January 2009, he joined Philip Catherine on stage at the Liberchies church (Belgium) in memory of the 100th anniversary of Django Reinhardt's birth.

Philip Catherine could so easily never have been born. His maternal grandfather, Mr. Brennan, a member of the first violin section of the London Symphony Orchestra, was supposed to travel to New York on the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic in April 1912. He had booked his ticket, but by the time he got to Southampton, the ship had already sailed without him. Not long thereafter, Philip Catherine's mother came into this world, and Catherine himself was born on the 27th of October 1942. This story, which gained the status of myth in his family, helped his mother to instil a love of music in him. Now, at the age of nearly 73. Philip Catherine has been able to fulfil a long-held wish to have his music performed with a large orchestra, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, conducted by Frank Braley. Nine arrangers made orchestral versions of his tunes, the guitarist/bassist Nicolas Fiszman was tireless in helping with the preparations, which enabled the new work to receive its premiere after just six hours of rehearsals, in the Brussels Jazz Festival on January 13th 2015. “I was so entranced by the sound, by the beautiful new cloak which my tunes had been given to wear, I missed my entrance in “Transparence,” says Catherine. “I just sat there for four bars, listening instead of playing- that's something which has never happened to me before.” Catherine re-captured those four bars in a session afterwards, and that was the only tune which needed to be patched in the studio. Everything else is exactly as it was played and heard in concert on January 13th. “We had never imagined that we would make a CD of this concert – mainly because we had had so little time to prepare it. But the Flemish TV station VRTCanvas had made a complete recording, and when we heard it played back, we all thought: Hey, this has to be a CD. “ Ever since the 1970's, Philip Catherine has had a decisive influence on the sound of the guitar in jazz. This period – four decades – has also been the time during which the guitarist has worked together with Siggi Loch, which made his the appearance of first CD on ACT feel like such a natural step. That album “New Folks,” a duo album with the bassist Martin Wind, is now followed by “The String Project - Live in Brussels.” Philip Catherine is one of the finest exponents of the melodic way of playing the guitar. Having been schooled in the music of Django Reinhardt, Catherine took his playing to another level in his duo with guitarist Larry Corryell, and several albums which he made with Chet Baker constitute a major recorded legacy. “With this string project, I didn't feel that I wanted to prove anything to anyone, so I consciously avoided playing anything showy. The sound of the arrangements, plus what the orchestra and the conductor were creating from them, was all so fascinating, that my only ambition was to put myself at the service of the project, to use my instrument and my abilities to complement and to enrich the overall sound.” That said, Catherine's highly individual sound is instantly recognizable, whether he is in a 'pas de deux' with the violins (in “Philip a Paris”) or with the cellos (in “Toscane”). “I spoke about complementing, but that doesn't mean that I blend in to the point of being unrecognizable. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was important to me that the orchestra should be able to maintain its own identity - and that my band should too.” Catherine's quartet was integrated into the project, and assures that there is variety and contrast. In “Transparence” the band temporarily takes on the leading role. There are fascinating duo sounds alternating with the full orchestra, for example in “December 26th”. Catherine's co-organizer Nicolas Fiszman takes the bass part in “Virtuous Woman” and plays the second guitar in “Isabelle.” The alternation of sounds is always subservient to the idea of hearing the full orchestra. “The String Project - Live in Brussels” brings classical music and jazz together – you would never know they had spent time apart.