Artist Info

Frederik Leroux (born 1980, Gent, Belgium) started playing guitar at the age of twelve. He started out taking some lessons at the local guitar store. It didn't take long before he started playing in high school rock bands where he got his first experiences in group playing.
From the age of sixteen on he began listening to jazz and discovered the likes of Jim Hall, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery,… Faithfully attending the Jazz Summer Courses in Dworp (B), only strengthened his ever growing appetite for this music.
After finishing high school Frederik began his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (B) (1998) where his main teachers were Fabien Degryse and Peter Hertmans. He also studied at the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag (NL) with Eef Albers (2002). In 2003 Frederik graduated at the Conservatory Cum Laude. He was granted the prestigious BAEF (Belgian American Educational Foundation) scholarship to follow a master program at the New School University in New York (2003-2004). At the New School University Frederik studied with Ben Monder and Paul Bollenback. Especially interesting were his composition sessions with Kirk Nurock and the eye opening classes of tenorman George Garzone. He also attended quite some masterclasses : Jim Hall, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Steve Coleman, Michael Brecker, Mark Turner, Jesse Van Ruller, Dave Liebman, Chris Cheek, etc… Apart from constantly keeping track of the lively contemporary music scene, Frederik played with local musicians and frequently jammed at numerous sessions at places like the Up Over Jazz Cafe (Brooklyn, NY) and Cleopatra's Needle (NY).

Over the years Frederik Leroux has played/performed with the following people either as a leader or as a sideman : John Ruocco, Peter Hertmans, Michel Bisceglia, Bruno Castellucci, Bruno Vansina, Teun Verbruggen, Jean-François Prins, Bart De Nolf, Christophe Devisscher, Yves Peeters, Lieven Venken, Dirk Schreurs, Roman Korolik, etc…

Since June 2004 Frederik has been mainly working with his own band. The Frederik Leroux Quartet tries to diversify the approach to each tune as much as possible and tries not to rely on standardized structures and forms too much. Besides improvisation, composition plays a crucial role in the concept of the band. The bandmembers are Frederik Leroux on guitar, Peter Ehwald on tenor- and sopranosaxophone, Robert Landfermann on bass and Jonas Burgwinkel on drums.

When Frederik is not playing guitar or composing, you might bump into him at some small movie theatre at a late night viewing…