Michael Vatcher

Michael Vatcher (right) in the Trio Braam / DeJoode / Vatcher 2007 at the Festival OffsideOpen

Michael Vatcher (born November 12, 1954 in Eureka ) is an American jazz percussionist who lived in the Netherlands for more than 35 years.

Live and act

Vatcher grew up in California and took vibraphone and snare drum lessons as a child . He studied at the College of the Redwoods in his native city. In California he worked with Michael Moore , as well as with John Handy and Terry Gibbs . At the age of 22 he moved to New York, where he took drum lessons from Joey Baron . There he joined the group Available Jelly , which was founded in the state of Utah by the multi-instrumentalist Gregg Moore and the saxophonist Stuart Curtis , to which trumpeter Jimmy Sernesky and Moore's brother, Michael Moore belonged. The band first came to Europe in the summer of 1979 to accompany the theater makers, dancers and clowns of the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe . In Amsterdam, Vatcher also performed with Ernst Reijseger , whom he already knew from New York.

He moved to Amsterdam in 1981 with the members of Available Jelly . In addition to his work in this band, which existed until 2011, he was in groups such as the Tristan Honsinger Sextet , the Maarten Altena Ensemble , The Ex , Roof (with Phil Minton , Tom Cora and Luc Ex ), in the Diftong quartet with Han Buhrs , Cor Fuhler and Wilbert de Joode as well as working in a trio with Michiel Braam and Wilbert de Joode. In 1988 he contributed to the album Spy vs. Spy by John Zorn . He played Afro-Caribbean and South African rhythms in the groups of Franky Douglas , Sean Bergin and Joe Malinga and classical film music with the Orkest Amsterdam Drama under Maurice Horsthuis . With bassist Lindsey Horner and Michael Moore he made three albums under the band name Jewels & Binoculars ; In 2011 he recorded with the formation Platform 1 ( Joe Williamson , Magnus Broo , Ken Vandermark and Steve Swell ). With Evan Parker and Richard Barrett , he released the album On Growth and Form in 2016 . He also stepped u. a. with Van Dyke Parks , Paul Termos , Simon Nabatov , Georg Gräwe , Frank Gratkowski , Hans Lüdemann , Mark Alban Lotz , Jan Klare and Eric Boeren .

He also worked as a regular companion for the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam and as a partner of the dancers Katie Duck and Eileen Standley . After a concert at the North Sea Jazz Festival with Michael Moore, Achim Kaufmann and Wilbert de Joode, he returned to New York in mid-2017. Tom Lord followed Vatcher on 100 albums between 1975 and 2018.

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personal data
SURNAME	Vatcher, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American percussionist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 12, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH	Eureka