"Pianist, Eva Novoa, was born in Barcelona, Spain. She is a jazz pianist and composer but was classically trained as a kid. She studied Jazz in ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya). In 2005 she traveled for the first time to New York where she studied at Ralph Alessi's school SIM (School for Improvisational Music). In 2005 Eva moved to the Netherlands where she studied at Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague/ Royal Conservatoire (Bachelor in Jazz Piano, Master in Jazz Composition while she was awarded with a full scholarship of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science).

Eva has recorded and produced eight albums with her own music as a leader. All her albums have been released on the international jazz label Fresh Sound New Talent since 2012. Her two most recent albums released in 2016 and 2018 got very good press, including two four star reviews on DownBeat, other relevant reviews on The New York Jazz City Record, Jazziz gave a special mention to her track "Déjà Vu" as song of the month in 2018 or Jazz Weekly in California also published great reviews. Her last album Live At IBeam with her Ditmas Quartet was also selected in two All About Jazz radio shows in January 2019 and April 2019 amongst other free avant garde artists. DownBeat magazine selected this same album as one of the best jazz albums of 2018. Her next quartet album recorded in Miami has just been released on Fresh Sound New Talent, Satellite Quartet in 2020. She is also producing her next double trio album release on 577 records label with her New York Trio which she recorded in 2019 with Drew Gress on bass (and modular synth) and Devin Gray on drums. She works with sound engineer and five times Grammy Award winner Jeremy Loucas. She recently went into the studio again at Oktaven Audio where she recorded another trio with world known jazz drummer Gerald Cleaver and Masatoshi Kamaguchi on bass, also to be released on 577 records. Also, in 2021 she has recorded another trio of improvised music with Daniel Carter on saxophones, trumpet, flute and clarinets and Francisco Mela on drums. This project is soon to be mixed and to be released.

Since she arrived to NY, Eva Novoa has performed at venues like The Stone, Barbès, Korzo Konceptions Music Series, IBeam, Nublu, Cornelia Street Café, Soapbox Gallery, ShapeShifter Lab amongst others. She regularly plays with drummers Billy Mintz, Gerald Cleaver, Jeff Davis, Devin Gray, or Satoshi Takeishi, saxophonists Daniel Carter, Ingrid Laubrock, bass players Drew Gress, Matt Pavolka, saxophonist and drummer Oscar Noriega, drummer Tom Rainey amongst others. She has been a student of classical teacher Sophia Rosoff since 2006. Eva is currently based in New York City since 2012.

While in The Netherlands Eva was invited to play with her quartet Eva Novoa Quartet in the Dutch Jazz Competition 2006. She has been a steady pianist of the West Coast Big Band. They presented their third cd New Dutch in October 2009. With this band she got the chance to play with singers Greetje Kauffeld, Deborah J.Carter and Dutch chromatic harmonica player Hermine Deurloo. She regularly plays in Holland where she has played with musicians like Ruud Jacobs, Greetje Kauffeld, Sjoerd Dijkhuizen, Marcel Serierse, Simon Rigter, Ruben Samama, or Frits Landesbergen and has toured with different projects in Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Poland and Belgium. She was on tour with Portuguese singer based in New York Sara Serpa in 2011, on the European presentation of her album Mobile. In Holland she also worked for the Dutch multi awarded musical production Soldaat van Oranje, De Musical which is the longest running and by far the biggest theatrical production ever staged in The Netherlands with millions of visitors."

"Drew Gress (born November 20, 1959) is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey, raised in the Philadelphia area, and currently based in New York City.

Biography

Gress became interested in jazz and the double bass while a teenager, joining the Pennsbury Concert Jazz Band, a nationally-prominent high school jazz ensemble, in 1975, spending two years as bassist and arranger for the group. His interest in composing original material for large ensembles, such as those of Johnny Richards, Billy May, and Pat Williams, led him to Baltimore's Towson State University in 1977, where he studied composition and counterpoint with Hank Levy, known for his work with Don Ellis and Stan Kenton. While at Towson, Gress established a playing relationship with saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, with whom he cofounded Joint Venture with Paul Smoker and Phil Haynes. They released three albums on Enja Records between 1987 and 1994.

During the 1980s in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, he played with Sonny Stitt, Clifford Jordan, Albert Dailey, Mose Allison, Zoot Sims, Cab Calloway, Buddy Hackett, Phyllis Diller, and pianist Marc Copland, with whom he still plays today. He also served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, Towson State University, and the Baltimore School for the Arts. He formed a quartet, Tekke, in 1989 with David Kane, Glenn Cashman, and Michael Smith.

In 1997, he cofounded the cooperative improvising trio Paraphrase with saxophonist/composer Tim Berne and drummer Tom Rainey. Together, they pursued a compositional approach to free improvisational practice. They recorded three live albums together and toured extensively.

In 1998, he released his first album as leader, Heyday, with his band Jagged Sky (featuring David Binney, Ben Monder, and Kenny Wollesen). 2001 saw the release of Spin & Drift with Uri Caine, Berne, and Rainey, in which he played pedal steel guitar for the first time.

Earlier in the 1990s, he served tenures as artist in residence at University of Colorado-Boulder and at Russia's St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Since 1992, Gress has maintained an extensive touring schedule, traveling to Europe, Asia, and South America. Those with whom he has and continues to work include Tim Berne, Ravi Coltrane, Uri Caine, John Hollenbeck, Fred Hersch, Marc Copland, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Jack DeJohnette, John Surman, Ray Anderson, Erik Friedlander, Kenny Werner, Bill Carrothers, Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, Steve Lehman, and Edsel Gomez. To date, he has appeared on over 140 recordings, 4 of which have received Grammy nominations.

Gress' own ensembles have toured Europe four times since 2002, in addition to isolated festival appearances in Italy and Portugal. In 2004, the UK's BBC Radio and London's Guardian selected his quartet's live radio broadcast as Jazz Concert of the Year.

Composition awards include an NEA grant (1990), funding from Meet the Composer (2003), a Chamber Music America New Works Grant (2005), a CMA French-American Exchange Grant (2007), and an Encore Grant from that same organization (2008). He continues to compose for larger groups and has begun experimenting with virtual synthesizers."