Steev Cris
Steev Cris was Born on December 19, 1979 in Belgium. He began playing the guitar at just 13 by listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, and Robben Ford, but his biggest influence would come from his first guitar teacher, Michel Leclercq.
"Michel Has always been like a father to me. He really showed me the depths of music"
In 1998, Steev moved to London where he got his first contracts with bands : steal blue and milk.
After a couple years of jamming in london's hottest night clubs, a love story would take him to Brazil, where he began studying with guitarist, Heitor Castro in Rio De Janeiro. He also immersed himself in records by jazz artists Joe Diorio, Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Mike Stern. This type of intensive period is also known as "woodshedding".
"Heitor is a wonderfull musician, he really changed my life musically"
After a few month in south america, Steev moved to Los Angeles and began studying with Jeff Richman, Frank Gambale and Ed Lucie at the Los Angeles Music Academy, in Pasadena California.He also began attending clinics and master classes at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, where he met up with Carl Verheyen, Scott Henderson and Robben Ford among others.
His time in LA turned out to be the most important period of his life. Other than walking down the streets of Sunset Boulevard, and going to the hottest 'spots' , Cris learned things that would change his whole style of music to his own.
"i've learned so much with all these great musicians, especially Jeff Richman. Jeff has a very modern musicality,...his phrasing had a huge impact in changing mine."
Back to Europe in after a few years of travelling and study around the world, he started performing in a wide variety of musical situations ranging from rock to jazz and latin to fusion with several bands and toured in France, Spain, Turkey, Africa and Switzerland both as sideman and leader.
He also taught in different music schools and music workshops in Belgium.
Today, steev is working as a composer and producer for the swiss label, Color World Music and dedicates his time left for his personal projects.
During the year 2007, Steev Cris and Stephane Martini known as "Cris-Martini" have released their first album for Color World Music, "Signs"
“I would like to give a special thanks to my mother and father,for their love,for bringing me into this world and giving me the opportunity to find and nurture my passion for the art of making music;to my brother François Crispin, François Coppens..., Anne, Jean Pierre, Marie, Sophie, Gilles Jaquemyns, Priscila Gaido, Rafael Parada, Karen Leiberman, Samia Bentayeb and Caroline Roelandts for having such an important place in my life; to Michel Lecqlerq, Mourad Dehas, Luke Saitz, Mykola Mishurenko, Stéphane Martini, Dave Park, Max Barnett, Ralph Howl, Wally Minko, Lee Fortuyn, Pat Metheny, Joe diorio, Jeff Richman and Heitor Castro for their contribution in my musical life.”
Steev
