Biography
Bruno Vansina entered the world in Belgium during 1975 and has since established himself as a central figure in Flemish experimental music circles. He has channeled his work through an unusually wide array of formats, serving as both leader and sideman on projects that stretch from expansive Gil Evans-inspired orchestral jazz to deliberately off-kilter and occasionally absurdist art rock. While still in high school he developed a strong affinity for Frank Zappa; by his mid-teens he had committed to a professional path as a jazz saxophonist, absorbing the recorded legacies of Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, and Ornette Coleman. In the middle of the 1990s he entered formal conservatory training at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he first encountered drummer Teun Verbruggen and began an enduring creative partnership, and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands, where tenor saxophonist and clarinetist John Ruocco served as his instructor. Although the alto saxophone has remained his primary vehicle across countless sessions and concerts, he regularly employs soprano and baritone saxophones as well as clarinet and flute.
During 2003 Vansina and Verbruggen established the Rat label, whose inaugural release that same year was Trio Music, credited to the trio of Vansina, Verbruggen, and Iceland-born, Netherlands-based double bassist Gulli Gudmundsson, who had earned a master’s degree from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 1999. The ensemble, known as VVG, combined interpretations of standard jazz repertoire with original compositions and free improvisation; Rat documented its activity on the double-disc In Orbit in 2005 and on Tokio Quantize in 2007, both of which featured guest contributions from Jozef Dumoulin on Fender Rhodes and Magic Malik on flute.
Concurrently with his Rat activities, Vansina joined the large avant-garde collective Flat Earth Society at the invitation of its leader, composer, and clarinetist Peter Vermeersch. His first appearance with the group came on Psychoscout, issued by Crammed Discs in 2006; he can also be heard on the subsequent Flat Earth Society albums Answer Songs (Zonk, 2009), Cheer Me, Perverts! (Crammed Discs, 2009), 13 (Igloo, 2013), and the live anthology Call Sheets, Riders & Chicken Mushroom: Live Recordings 2000-2012 (Igloo, 2014).
Before presenting himself as the leader of a dedicated creative-jazz ensemble, Vansina issued the 2009 Rat album Nirvana Bonus and the Demons of Shame, a collection of Zappa-inflected damaged art rock, jazz-rock, and sonic experimentation. Fronting the Demons of Shame lineup that included Verbruggen, bassist Pierre Vervloesem, keyboardist Peter Vandenberghe, and guitarist Gil Mortio, he showcased both his reed technique and his abilities as a deliberately distorted vocalist on tracks such as “What’s Wrong with You” and “(I Don’t Know A) Place to Go.”
In the following year he assembled the core unit that would serve as his principal vehicle for subsequent large-scale jazz projects. After performing in various trio and quartet configurations around Belgium, including regular appearances at Antwerp’s Hopper Café, he officially launched the Bruno Vansina Quartet, retaining Verbruggen and adding guitarist Bert Cools and bassist Nathan Wouters. The group toured Mexico briefly in 2011 and, in March 2012, recorded Stratocluster at System Two studio in Brooklyn, New York, with Jos Machtel replacing Wouters on bass and vibraphonist Steve Nelson appearing as a guest; the sessions were engineered, mixed, and mastered by Mike Marciano and released one month later by the W.E.R.F. label.
With the arrival of pianist Bart Van Caenegem in 2013 the quartet expanded into the Bruno Vansina Quintet. Nathan Wouters returned on bass for three Mexican concert dates. Later that December the band, now featuring pianist Christian Mendozza and bassist Sean Faschiani, performed at Antwerp’s Rataplan as the nucleus of the newly formed Vansina Orchestra, augmented by eleven additional horn players. Trombonist Dree Peremans, director of the Rebirth::Collective octet, supplied fresh arrangements of Vansina’s compositions. The complete ensemble, which included bassist Stefan Lievestro in the core quintet alongside Vansina, Verbruggen, Cools, and Mendozza and which featured former instructor John Ruocco in the horn section, captured the music at Brussels’ Studio Toots under engineer Walter de Niel in January 2014. Rat issued the resulting large-ensemble recording, Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down, influenced by Gil Evans and Charles Mingus, in June of that year.
Vansina’s recorded appearances also encompass Undeletable (Off, 2014) by Simple, the self-titled Rebirth::Collective album (SoulFactory, 2013), Sketches of Pain (Off, 2012) by Caca, The Nethack Dictionary (Sub Rosa, 2011) by Othin Spake, In a Little Provincial Town (September, 2011) and Band of Birds (September, 2008) by the Tuesday Night Orchestra, and Tráfico (Crammed Discs, 2006) by Think of One.
During 2003 Vansina and Verbruggen established the Rat label, whose inaugural release that same year was Trio Music, credited to the trio of Vansina, Verbruggen, and Iceland-born, Netherlands-based double bassist Gulli Gudmundsson, who had earned a master’s degree from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 1999. The ensemble, known as VVG, combined interpretations of standard jazz repertoire with original compositions and free improvisation; Rat documented its activity on the double-disc In Orbit in 2005 and on Tokio Quantize in 2007, both of which featured guest contributions from Jozef Dumoulin on Fender Rhodes and Magic Malik on flute.
Concurrently with his Rat activities, Vansina joined the large avant-garde collective Flat Earth Society at the invitation of its leader, composer, and clarinetist Peter Vermeersch. His first appearance with the group came on Psychoscout, issued by Crammed Discs in 2006; he can also be heard on the subsequent Flat Earth Society albums Answer Songs (Zonk, 2009), Cheer Me, Perverts! (Crammed Discs, 2009), 13 (Igloo, 2013), and the live anthology Call Sheets, Riders & Chicken Mushroom: Live Recordings 2000-2012 (Igloo, 2014).
Before presenting himself as the leader of a dedicated creative-jazz ensemble, Vansina issued the 2009 Rat album Nirvana Bonus and the Demons of Shame, a collection of Zappa-inflected damaged art rock, jazz-rock, and sonic experimentation. Fronting the Demons of Shame lineup that included Verbruggen, bassist Pierre Vervloesem, keyboardist Peter Vandenberghe, and guitarist Gil Mortio, he showcased both his reed technique and his abilities as a deliberately distorted vocalist on tracks such as “What’s Wrong with You” and “(I Don’t Know A) Place to Go.”
In the following year he assembled the core unit that would serve as his principal vehicle for subsequent large-scale jazz projects. After performing in various trio and quartet configurations around Belgium, including regular appearances at Antwerp’s Hopper Café, he officially launched the Bruno Vansina Quartet, retaining Verbruggen and adding guitarist Bert Cools and bassist Nathan Wouters. The group toured Mexico briefly in 2011 and, in March 2012, recorded Stratocluster at System Two studio in Brooklyn, New York, with Jos Machtel replacing Wouters on bass and vibraphonist Steve Nelson appearing as a guest; the sessions were engineered, mixed, and mastered by Mike Marciano and released one month later by the W.E.R.F. label.
With the arrival of pianist Bart Van Caenegem in 2013 the quartet expanded into the Bruno Vansina Quintet. Nathan Wouters returned on bass for three Mexican concert dates. Later that December the band, now featuring pianist Christian Mendozza and bassist Sean Faschiani, performed at Antwerp’s Rataplan as the nucleus of the newly formed Vansina Orchestra, augmented by eleven additional horn players. Trombonist Dree Peremans, director of the Rebirth::Collective octet, supplied fresh arrangements of Vansina’s compositions. The complete ensemble, which included bassist Stefan Lievestro in the core quintet alongside Vansina, Verbruggen, Cools, and Mendozza and which featured former instructor John Ruocco in the horn section, captured the music at Brussels’ Studio Toots under engineer Walter de Niel in January 2014. Rat issued the resulting large-ensemble recording, Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down, influenced by Gil Evans and Charles Mingus, in June of that year.
Vansina’s recorded appearances also encompass Undeletable (Off, 2014) by Simple, the self-titled Rebirth::Collective album (SoulFactory, 2013), Sketches of Pain (Off, 2012) by Caca, The Nethack Dictionary (Sub Rosa, 2011) by Othin Spake, In a Little Provincial Town (September, 2011) and Band of Birds (September, 2008) by the Tuesday Night Orchestra, and Tráfico (Crammed Discs, 2006) by Think of One.
Albums