Percussionist and composer Vernon Chatlein is a musician with a rich musical color palette. He was born in Curaçao and studied music in Cuba. In 2009, he moved to the Netherlands where he continued his studies with the godfather of Curaçao jazz, Randal Corsen. On his 2017 debut album Peace, Love & Music, Chatlein connects Latin and jazz with the rhythms of the Netherlands Antilles. His two latest projects stem from research he did while in Curaçao during the pandemic. Chatlein studied the ancient Zikinzá sound archive which led him through Afro-Curaçao music history. One of the results was Voices From Letters: Imershón (2021), an ode to his ancestors. At NN North Sea Jazz, Chatlein presents music mainly influenced by the mysterious style muzik di zumbi (literally, spirit music). He performs a mix of traditional percussion and rhythms from Curaçao blended with elements of jazz, improvisation and fragments from the Zikinzá archive.
