Chatlein i su Zumbi

Vernon Chatlein is a Curaçaoan composer and musician with an extensive color palette. After his university studies, he lived in Cuba for two years, where he studied percussion. In 2009 he moved to the Netherlands to study with the Godfather of Curaçao jazz, pianist Randal Corsen. On his debut album Peace, Love & Music (2017), Chatlein connects jazz and latin jazz with the rhythms of the Antilles. With Imershón he makes another exciting mix of styles including traditional percussion and rhythms from Curaçao, elements from jazz, improvisation and samples from the archives.

Imershón grew out of the research project Chatlein started during his stay in Curaçao during the pandemic. He researched 'Muzik di Zumbi', which can be considered the dance music of the African community of the island. His research led him to an old sound archive called Zikinza, which led him through the history of ancient Afro-Curaçaoan folktales and songs. Chatlein mixes the sound fragments from the archive with his own compositions, thus bringing “an ode to our ancestors, our language and all its magic”.