Jean-Pol Steffens
It is at age 11, that he starts learning solfeggio, percussion and trumpet.
Two years later, he joins his village band (Dolhain-Limbourg) as trumpeter. At age 15 he becomes a drummer, appearing with a group which plays in local dance parties.
In 1981 he enters the Liège Royal Conservatory for Music where he wins first prize for solfege, percussion and trumpet. As of 1983 he igets steadily hired as percussionist with the Philharmonic orchestra of Liège.
He pursues his studies of the drum with Bruno Castellucci.
It’s his decisive encounter with Richard Rousselet that pushed him to inscribe in the jazz class, at the Brussels Royal conservatory, where he attends lessons in harmony, trumpet, analysis, history and gets first prize for jazz trumpet in 1991.
Meanwhile he is hired by the Musikakademie der Deutschesprachingen Gemeinschaft as teacher for percussion and by the Académie César Frank, in Visé, to teach jazz.
He practices and will continue for a long time to come the role of trumpeter and drummer within different formations of jazz and pop like:
KOKO GANG
ANDRÉ BORLÉ (CD “Les Malheur de Cécile”, “Dans La Lune”)
CLARIKA (CD “J’attendrai Pas cent Ans”)
EAST BELGIAN SWING BAND (CD “Just For Fun”)
POL’S BAND (CD “Brass Machine”)
STARDUST ORCHESTRA (CD “A Tribute To Glenn Miller”)
DR. DUES & CO ORCHESTRA (CD “Glenn Miller In The Mood”)
LÉOPOLD NORD (CD “Le Bonheur C’est Quand Tu Veux”)
MAGIC PLATTERS (concert at the Olympia in Paris)
JAZZ ADDICTION BAND (Mimi VERDERAME) (CD Nice Cap)
