This duo is formed by two talented young artists who have found each other in flamenco, classical and jazz music: Jeff Heijne (flamenco guitar) and Mauro Cottone (double bass).
Jeff followed a unique bachelor and master at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with flamenco guitarist Eric Vaarzon Morel as main subject, has toured Spain and has given several performances in prestigious Dutch concert halls such as the Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Ahoy and Bimhuis. Recently Jeff was one of the five winners to receive the YAA-award 2018 (Young Artsupport Amsterdam); an annual prize awarded to young and special artists in the fields of film, music, theatre and art. With the amount of money he won, Jeff has self-produced the CD: "Reflejos del Alma": intimate, passionate and genuine. The new album Reflejos del Alma, also called reflections of the soul, is a musical journey through the world of Jeff Heijne, a quirky guitarist who is looking to blur the boundaries between flamenco and other music styles. In his self-written and arranged compositions Jeff talks about profound experiences which influenced his development as a person and as a guitarist. Armed with the guitar, he tackles stereotypes, existing conventions and themes such as loneliness, love and escape from reality.
Mauro Cottone is a double bass player who currently works in the Netherlands and Italy. Born in Palermo (Italy) in 1992, he started playing the classical guitar at the age of five. In 2010 he switched to playing the double bass, taking lessons at "Open Jazz Club" and "Palermo Jazz". From that time on he also performed with some of the greatest musicians from Sicily. From 2011 to 2013, Mauro studied classical double bass at the conservatory "Vincenzo Bellini" in Palermo. During this period he also worked and toured in Italy and Turkey with the Balkanian music project "Makarna Havasi". In 2013 he moved to Amsterdam, where he was admitted to the jazz double bass department of the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He received his bachelor's degree in 2017 and master's degree in 2019. He recorded albums with: "Eleonora Strino quartet", "Old mountains", "Claudio Jr De Rosa Quartet", "Giovanni Cigui quartet" and "Forest Light". He won the first prize at Getxo Jazz Festival 2019 with the "Claudio Jr de Rosa Quartet", the third prize as a soloist at the Vittoria jazz prize 2017, the first prize at the Princess Christina Competition 2016 with Raquel Kurpershoek, the second prize in the Leiden jazz prize 2017 with the trio Marcio Philomena. Mauro has performed with such artists as Dayna Stephens, Peter Bernstein, Ben van Gelder, Ben Wendel, Wayne Tucker, Ben Paterson, Michael Valeanu, Alessandro Presti and Francesco Ciniglio.