Maxime Lessens

Maxime LENSSENS was born 22th June '76 in Ghent (B)

Started playing the drums at the age of 15 (after briefly experimenting on saxophone, bass and piano). Came in contact with jazz while participating twice to a summer workshop organized by Jazz Studio (Antwerp). At the age of 20 he went to New York to take private lessons with Billy Hart (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock) and Gene Lake (Steve Coleman, Me'Shell, Marcus Miller). After that, he took a few lessons from Stéphane Galland (Aka Moon).
You could say that Maxime is self taught, apart from the fact that He's had a couple of private lessons. Miles Davis and everyone who played with him, John Coltrane, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Jazzanova, The Roots, Eryka Badou, Meshell N'degeocello,

Steve Coleman, Aka Moon, Chris Whitley, Lewis Taylor, Jeff Buckley, Oumou Sangaré, Zakir Hussain, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, Black Uhuru, Israel Vibration, Hariprasad Chaurissa, D'angelo, Sizzla, Timbaland, Arto Lindsay, Björk and may others...
Maxime has been touring through out Belgium, France, The Netherlands, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Corsica, Kenya, Marocco, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Madagascar, USA, Canada,..
Although his background is jazz, Maxime has always taken an interest in a wide variety of music. His first band was a Jimi Hendrix-cover band, followed by a great number of bands, including:

**Recent Projects**

Dalton Drum Syndicate: (4 drummers-band) (rhythm)

Tony O'Malley (UK): Soul (Recording+concerts)

Mattis: Modern jazz

Marco Locurcio band (I): Modern Jazz

Rip Rhymes (F): Instrumental Funk/R'B

Stéphane Mercier 5-tet: modern Jazz

Freelance: Maxime shared the stage with:

Tino Gonzalez (Guitarist for earth, wind & fire)

Adam Phillips (Guitarist for Tina Turner, Lionel Ritchie,..)

Takuya Nakamura (keyboards, trumpet for Arto Lindsey, Ravi Coltrane)

Charles 'skipp' Pitts and Jimmy Kinard (Guitarist and bassist for Isaac Hayes)
**** Previous Projects ****
Pop/Rock/Urban

Tom Robinson (UK) 2001 Tour (Singer/Songwriter)

AxelleRed: concerts 2000tour+summer festivals (Belgian soul diva )

Moiano: album recording, concerts and festivals (hip hop-soul)

Zap Mama: Africa tour (Madagascar, Djibouti, Kenya,..) 1998 (urban ethnic)

Pieter-Jan De Smet: album recording & live concerts 1999 (singer-songwriter)

Alice's 5 Moons (Nicholas Thys): live concerts 1999 (jazz-R&B)

Neeka: 'home from home' tour 2001 (double bill with tom robinson)

Krewcial: live concerts, recording new album (hip-hop)

Anton Walgraeve: Holland tour 2001 (singer/songwriter)

World Music:
Worked with a lot of African bands from Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Nigeria, Congo, Burkina Faso, working with Béh Palm from Farafina, Feso from Fela Kuti, Dizzy Mandjecu from Oké-Jazz. Also played in a lot of Reggae bands.

Jazz Music:
Live concerts with Greetings from Mercury, Ntoumos band (UK-B), Erwin Vann, Jeroen Van Herzeele, Stéphane Galland, Sal La Rocca, Nicolas Thys, Peter Hertmans, Erik Vermeulen, Ivan Paduart, Vincent Bourgeyx(F),Thomas Gromaire (F), Tino Gonzalez(USA), Marco Locurcio(I), Robert Mitchell(UK), E-space:Duo with Erwin Vann on Sax & fx (free impro) ...

Theatre:
Performed in a play by Kamagurka Gives school-workshops and performances with 'The Colour of Percussion'.

Dance:
Produced 'DDDS' featering Dalton drum syndicate & 4 Dancers (2003) Played with African choreographers Mama Adama Camara (Mali) and Chokri Ben Chikha (1997-1999).Different collaborations with urban dance collective 'Mad Spirit' (2000-2003) 'I will dance' Dance piece featering Pape & Bor N'diaye Rose on Sabars and Maxime on Drums.(2002)
Electronic Music KRETEK: Produced and performed in this project with Olivier Abbeloos, who sold millions of copies with 'T99' and 'Quadrophonia'(1988-1990 ). Three KRETEK Maxi singles were released.

Maxime has been teaching drums since 1997