Jazz Articles about Raf Vertessen

About Raf Vertessen

Instrument: Drums

Album Review

Belgian drummer Raf Vertessen's quartet unites a mouth-watering array of talent, and he keeps them busy on his leadership debut LOI. Since arriving in Brooklyn, in 2016, Vertessen has dug in deep, enlisting saxophonist Anna Webber, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and bassist Nick Dunston, all acclaimed leaders in their own right, to realize his charts in a way which allows them full expression while at the same time respecting compositional boundaries drawn largely from the free jazz vernacular. ...

Album Review

Raf Vertessen: LOI

by Glenn Astarita
November 14, 2020

Since relocating from his native Belgium to New York City, superb drummer and wily composer Raf Vertessen has ingratiated his talents into the region's always burgeoning improv and avant-garde musicscape, performing with upper-echelon musicians, evidenced on this first-rate debut as a leader. Here, the drummer cites influences from the dynamic international contingent of 1960s free/progressive jazz performers who turned conventional jazz frameworks upside down. The drummer's works include budding layers of sound, by using building blocks amid blossoming ...