ABOUT
Most praised for his unique style and his unerring consistency as a drummer, Tuur has developed a highly diversified artistic palette ranging from jazz and latin to African and Brazilian music. He mesmerizes audiences, performing in a deeply charged pace that begets soulful perfection.
STORY
Born in Duffel, Belgium (1985) music has been a pervasive presence in Tuur’s upbringing, during which his father, passionate for the blues, played the guitar and drums while his mother was immersed in her love for world music. She would take Tuur as a child to an annual world music festival, Sfinks. Where Tuur could admire big names live at a young age, like Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Baba Maal, Goran Bregovic, Buena Vista Social Club, Rubén Gonzáles… Tuur reminisces about laying on the couch as a child, listening to Miles Davis, Bobby Mc Ferrin, Salif Keita, Paul Simon, Gilberto Gil, Tower of Power, Wayne Shorter, Daniela Mercury, and such varied influences. After hitting improvised paper boxes, mother's pans and "Fisher Price" drum sets from age of 3, and taking over daddy’s drum set on the attic, Tuur’s musical journey began at the age of 8, when his parents subscribed him for classical percussion at the music academy of Mechelen (BE).
He prospered rapidly as a young musician and began to play concerts abroad already at the young age of fifteen with a few of his bands such as a percussion duo, performing in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
His love for travel complemented with opportunities to perform live in various countries and continued to expose him to differing styles and rhythms which had initially lead to the development of his signature mode and is part of the reason why the powerful, innovative and creative core of his music speaks perfectly to the demands of the new collective music.
After continuing his studies at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven (BE) and later on Dé Kunsthumaniora in Antwerp (BE), department jazz and pop, Tuur decided to move to The Netherlands to delve more into jazz and world music. During his studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory Codarts from 2005, Tuur has attended several workshops and masterclasses with some of world’s finest musicians, such as: Richard Bona, Ernesto Simpson, Joshua Redman, Horacio "el negro" Hernandez, Hidalgo, Ed Soph, Randy Brecker, Dave Liebmann, Dave Valentine, Cyro Baptista, Nosso Trio, Kiko Freitas and many more.
On March the 22nd 2009, Tuur got awarded with the Erasmus Jazz Price.
During his studies at Codarts, Tuur started to find his way in the music scene and started touring the globe quite soon with diverse bands such as, invited by a Dutch jazz saxophonist Ben van den Dungen: State of Monc, Cameroonian singer Ntjam Rosie and Mozambican singer Neco Novellas.
Tuur was to be admired at major music festivals like Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, Ollin Kan Festival in Mexico City, Bangkok Jazz in Bangkok, Thailand, Shanghai Jazz Festival in Shanghai, China, various Sesc music festivals in Brazil, North Sea Jazz Festival (since 2009-2017 every year) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Jazz au Chellah festival in Rabat, Morocco, and much more.
In the following years Tuur remained very active in the music scene with artists like Ntjam Rosie, State of Monc, Rogier Teldeman Trio, Teus Nobel,… and it was in 2012 when he created his own band, Tuur Moens & Syndicate: an 11-piece fur band of international musicians. With this project he recorded, produced and released under his wings, the EP album ‘Colckwise’. The same year as the album release, Tuur performed with his syndicate at the North Sea Jazz Festival (2012), Breda Jazz Festival, Delft Jazz Festival, amongst others. Due to busy schedules and band members that no longer lived in The Netherlands, it became rather difficult to continue development of this band, so Tuur decided to stop the project in 2013.
Over the years, Tuur's composition style has changed and evolved considerably.
In 2012 Tuur met a musician who will bring his musical career to a higher level. Via YouTube he connected with Munir Hossn, a Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer known from his work with Mayra Andrade, Daniela Mercury, Alfredo Rodriquez, Roberto Mendes and his own project ‘Made in Nordeste’, to name a few... The rendezvous took place after via YouTube after Tuur added drums and percussion to a song ‘Tudo bala’ that originally only consisted of guitar and vocals. Watch video here. Since then, Tuur and Munir became good friends and share the stage often. Through this encounter Tuur met many musicians in the French, Spanish, Cuban, Brazilian and African music scene.
Since 2014, Tuur has been composing more and more music. His compositions became more coherent and clearly acquired more identity.
During this period Tuur remains very active as a sideman in various groups in The Netherlands, such as: Rogier Telderman Trio, trumpet player Teus Nobel, Mn’ Jam Experiment, Ntjam Rosie, Dina Medina where he takes the drumparts and some arranging roles for his account in various albums, like ‘Elle’, ‘At the back of Beyond’, ‘The One’ of Ntjam Rosie, ‘Contours’ of Rogier Telderman Trio, ‘Pegam na Mô’ of Dina Medina, ‘Social Music’ of Teus Nobel, ‘Live with a boom’ of Mn’ Jam Experiment (CD & DVD) etc.
It was in 2016 that Tuur was asked to be regular drummer with the Cape Verdian singer Lura, a new challenge that opened new international roads.
In 2018 Tuur decided to create a new full album ‘Nebula’ with a completely new project consisting of João Frade, an accordionist from Algarve, Portugal, Munir Hossn from Brazil on the bass and the acoustic guitar, the Belgian Thomas Maasz on the grand piano, with special guest the Spanish Jorge Pardo on the flutes. The album is dedicated to a dream about the universe.
Tuur played or plays with Lura, Munir Hossn, Paulinho Lêmos, Jorge Pardo, Hélio Batalha, Blick Bassy, Yonathan Avishai, Adriano Dd, Nelson Faria, Rick Margitza, Dave Valentine, Randy Brecker, Don Braden, Pepe Romero, Izaline Calister, Ntjam Rosie, Jesse van Ruller, Benjamin Herman, Teus Nobel, Rogier Telderman, Ben van den Dungen, Neco Novellas, Jeroen Vierdag, Joris Teepe, amongst others...
Today Tuur keeps on being active in the jazz, fusion and world music scene, playing internationally with artists like Teus Nobel, Munir Hossn, Antonio Lizana, Mariana Ramos and many more.