Erik Vermeulen

Erik Vermeulen (born 15 October 1959 in Ypres, Belgium) is a Belgian jazz pianist. He entered the Belgian jazz scene when he was 22 with his trio. At the time, it featured on bass and on drums. Soon after that, he started performing with different jazz bands and musicians including the , and .

He performed with international stars like Slide Hampton, Clark Terry, Joe Lovano, Steve Grossman, David Schnitter, Art Farmer, Bob Mover, Teddy Edwards, Toots Thielemans, Philip Catherine, Michael Moore and Barre Phillips.

He was often a soloist with the BRT jazz orchestra. In 1998, he represented Belgium in the in Stockholm.

During his career, the musicians from his trio have changed: and , then Philippe Aerts and , and .

Since 1995, Erik has toured and recorded with the following bands: , , and .

Since 1995, he has been a member of the Ben Sluijs Quartet, with whom he recorded four CDs. The last one, Flying Circles, is part of the CD box "The Finest in Belgian Jazz" (released on De Werf).

In 1997, he recorded a CD with his band (consisting of , , Nicolas Thys and Stéphane Galland). The project emphasis is on improvisation.

Performing solo or in duo with Pierre Bernard, or Eric Thielemans, led to the founding of the "Groundwork" collective (2000).

In 2001, he recorded his CD "Songs of Minutes" with and . In the same year, he recorded the album Stones with and made recordings with the project "Rrauw" of Eric Thielemans, with Barre Philips and .

In 2002, he got to know (double bass) and (drums). With this trio, he recorded Inner City from the CD box "The Finest in Belgian Jazz".

These days, Erik Vermeulen is teaching jazz piano at the Antwerp and Ghent conservatories.

In November 2003, he received the Belgian Golden Django for musician of the year.

Discographie[]

Erik Vermeulen Trio[]

• Live Chroma (W.E.R.F., 2009)
• Inner City (W.E.R.F., 2002)
• Songs of Minutes (W.E.R.F., 2000)

Ben Sluijs and Erik Vermeulen Duo[]

• Decades (W.E.R.F., 2014)
• Parity (W.E.R.F., 2010)
• Stones (W.E.R.F., 2010)

References[]

• Jazz in Belgium biography