Peter Van Huffel
Saxophonist / Clarinetist / Composer

Email: vanhuffel.peter [at] gmail [dot] com
Phone: +49 (0) 163 877 6714

Record Labels:

Fresh Sound Records (Barcelona, ES)
Clean Feed Records (Lisbon, PO)

"The Berlin-based Canadian alto saxophonist, Peter van Huffel may be one of the most intense performers on this instrument. He creates sharp images with his playing, is exceedingly energetic—in sections of music that demand quieter moments his calmness is most elastic and taut—and... he has an inventive sense of rhythm. In this respect he is like Eric Dolphy, who played with a pulse that originated from the inventions of Charlie Parker, but carried the ideas of that genius into a wholly different sphere of consciousness. While Van Huffel may have some ground to cover before he hits the markers that Dolphy did in his lifetime, he may be half way there already."

Raul d'Gama Rose - All About Jazz, March 2010

Featured Video:

GORILLA MASK Live @ the Jazz & More Festival,
Sibiu Romania - October 16th, 2011
 

For more videos visit Peter's YouTube Page

News Updates!!! (Updated January 25th, 2012)

Peter's concert series, "Carte Blanche" at Cafe Tasso finished it's 2011 run with a special appearance by GORILLA MASK with friend Matthias Schubert on tenor sax and Samuel Blaser on trombone; and a second performance of Peter's gamepiece Gluckspiel! The series will be carrying on into 2012 and will start up again in April... check performance listings to the left for specific dates and group information...

Also, keep your eyes open for information on Peter's TWO (!!!) new recordings, both due out for release this year ... HOUSE OF MIRRORS, the new collaborative with Sophie Tassignon and GORILLA MASK both spent the final months of 2011 finishing recordings of all new music and both were recorded and mixed by the great Cologne engineer Christian Heck. More information on release dates and release concerts will be posted soon.

Concert Listings: For Past Performances, click here

FEBRUARY 2012
Tues. 7th
21:00
Berlin DE

Fri. 10th

20:00
Berlin DE


MARCH 2012

Sun. 4th
18:30
Van Huffel, Tassignon, Panter
Berlin DE
Fri. 9th
21:30
Sophie Tassignon & Peter Van Huffel's "HOUSE OF MIRRORS"
Berlin DE
Wed. 14th
21:00
Cologne DE


APRIL 2012

Tues. 24th
21:00

Carte Blanche Series III V.1 - Improvised trio concert with Dave Bennett (gt) & Christian Marien (dr)

Berlin DE

MAY 2012

Sun. 20th
 21:00

GORILLA MASK
(w/Rockband Ni from Austria)

Berlin DE
Tues. 22nd
 21:00
Carte Blanche Series III V.2 - Andreas Willers (g)/ Oli Steidle (d)/ Peter Van Huffel Trio
Berlin DE

JUNE 2012

Tues. 19th
21:00
Carte Blanche Series III V.3 - Double Sax/Double Drum!!!
PVH (as,ss); Alexander Beierbach (ts,ss); Fin Panter (dr);
David Meier (dr)
Berlin DE

SEPTEMBER 2012

Sat. 29th
21:00
GORILLA MASK :
CD RELEASE TOUR!
Nuremberg DE
   
OTHER TOUR DATES TBA
   


About PETER VAN HUFFEL:

"Saxophonist Peter Van Huffel may be one of the most intense performers on this instrument," says Raul d'Gama Rose of All About Jazz. He is an active performer in many of the world’s top jazz scenes, with frequent performances in such cities as New York and Berlin; and he leads numerous tours each year around Europe, the US and his native Canada. Steve Smith of Time Out New York has referred to Peter as “a compelling melodist with
a fiery outward-bound streak and a penchant for layering opposed rhythms in quirky, compelling ways..." and in a review of 2008’s HufffLiGNoN, Wilbur MacKenzie (All About Jazz NY) said that “Van Huffel’s playing… is richly nuanced, with melody and texture seamlessly integrated to create colorful and evocative statements.”

The former PVH Quintet (with Jesse Stacken, Scott DuBois, Michael Bates and Jeff Davis) held regular performances at such New York staples as the 55 Bar and the Cornelia Street Café during Peter’s NYC residency from 2002 to 2008, and can be heard on Peter’s 2007 Fresh Sound Records release, “Silvester Battlefield”. Also in 2007, Peter co-founded the group HuffLiGNoN with Belgian vocalist Sophie Tassignon, and released a CD by the same name on the renowned avant-garde label, Clean Feed Records. HuffLiGNoN - also featuring bassist Michael Bates and Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser - held performances in New York, Canada and completed three extensive tours in Europe. In 2009, Peter developed a new international quartet featuring musicians from all over the globe who came together in Berlin and Cologne to record Peter's second disc for the Fresh Sound Label, "Like the Rusted Key". In 2010, this international quartet, (featuring pianist Jesse Stacken, Canadian bassist Miles
Perkin, and Swiss drummer Samuel Rohrer), followed the release of their critically acclaimed CD with a series of four tours spanning continental Europe and the entire length of Canada.

Recently, Peter has been actively working with his Berlin-based projects...

Read more (including complete PVH discography)...

Current Projects: click here for more info on these and other projects (PVH Quartet, Glückspiel, etc.)

Peter Van Huffel's GORILLA MASK

Peter Van Huffel (as)
Roland Fidezius (bs)
Rudi Fischerlehner (dr)

www.reverbnation.com/gorillamask

Sophie Tassignon & PVH's "HOUSE OF MIRRORS"

Sophie Tassignon (vx)
Peter Van Huffel (as, ss, cl)
Julie Sassoon (pn)
Miles Perkin (bs)

www.reverbnation.com/houseofmirrorsmusic


Click here to see new photos of both HOUSE OF MIRRORS and GORILLA MASK

MUSIC: for a complete discography see "About" to the left

2010 Fresh Sound/New Talent

PVH Quartet Like the Rusted Key

Peter Van Huffel - sax
Jesse Stacken - piano
Miles Perkin - bass
Samuel Rohrer - drums

Sample 1: Tangent
Sample 2: Backward Momentum

Click here for more info and to purchase CD's

2008 Clean Feed Records

PVH / Sophie Tassignon HuffLiGNoN

Peter Van Huffel - as, ss
Sophie Tassignon - vx
Samuel Blaser - tb
Michael Bates - bs

Sample 1: Degringolade
Sample 2: Cum Dederit (Vivaldi)

Click here for more info and to purchase CD's

2007 Fresh Sound/New Talent

PVH Quintet Silvester Battlefield

Peter Van Huffel - as, ss
Scott DuBois - gt
Jesse Stacken - pn
Michael Bates - bs
Jeff Davis - dr

Sample 1: Closed Tight
Sample 2: Delirium

Click here for more info and to purchase CD's

 

PHOTO GALLERY: click here to see more

Recent Press: Click here for more articles and reviews

JazzReview.Com Review by Dave Wayne - Peter Van Huffel Quartet : "Like the Rusted Key"

"Like The Rusted Key is one of those recordings that approaches the vast array of musics that have been lumped under the umbrella of modern jazz from a dizzying array of angles using a pretty standard instrumentation. Peter Van Huffel, who hails from Canada but is based in Berlin, is an alto saxophonist with a visceral, muscular approach and a distinctive, full-throated sound. Like many players of his generation, he works with (or leads) several very different groups that cover the musical spectrum from chamber-improv (with vocalist Sophie Tassignon), to frenetic free jazz (with his electric trio, Gorilla Mask). The quartet featured on Like The Rusted Key comes from a more traditional place but offers a broad musical palette, breathing swinging, pulsing life into Van Huffel's seemingly endless wealth of interesting compositional ideas." (Full article available on the Press page)

NEW: Jazz Dimensions - Peter Van Huffel "Essentially Free" (Interview by Carina Prange, May 2010)

"After several years in New York the Canadian saxophonist Peter van Huffel meanwhile has centered his life in Berlin. The German capital is his new musical base for touring, for example together with his Swiss-Canadian-American quartet (Jesse Stacken, Miles Perkin and Samuel Rohrer)." Read the full article

2010 - Jazz Man "CHOC" Review by Franck Bergerot - Peter Van Huffel Quartet, "Like the Rusted Key"

Philippe Méziat avait attribué un “émoi” à Peter Van Huffell et à la chanteuse belge Sophie Tassignon pour leur “Hufflington” chez Clean Feed. Le nouveau quartette du saxophoniste témoigne du rôle de Berlin comme carrefour et élargit le spectre du jazz new-yorkais tel que représenté sur la collection New Talent. Originaire du Minnesota, Jesse Stacken est à New York un partenaire régulier du trompettiste Kirk Knuffke (également Choc dans ces pages). Samuel Rohrer se fait entendre en Suisse auprès de Malcolm Braff. Miles Perkin s’est fait connaître à Montréal et collabore avec Benoît Delbecq au sein d’un quartette franco-anglo-canadien. Le quartette de Van Huffel s’impose quant à lui par un admirable équilibre entre l’abstraction et la “figuration” mélodique. En ouverture, la ligne claire de Prift déborde progressivement de ses contours par un grossissement du trait qui exalte sa dimension lyrique et son aspiration au débord, tandis que les angularités interrogatives de Tangent superposent ses bégaiements mélodiques à des accents rythmico-harmoniques d’une puissante décontraction. Le saxophone oscille entre des logiques de phrasé évocatrices de Steve Coleman (Enghavevej sur une rythmique bondissante (que ne renierait pas le trio d’Andy Emler) et des expressions plus fauves qui nous rapprocheraient d’une lignée Hemphill- Berne, avec un batteur tenant à la fois de Hank Bennink et de Tom Rainey. Les étirements d’Excerpt Two, les élans rubato de Beast I, le presque rien de Melancholic, la supplique de Beast II, l’inquiétude d’Atonement, l’ascension fiévreuse du saxophone sur Backward Momentum captivent autant par l’indicible sentiment qui nous saisit que par les moyens très organiques que se donnent ces musiciens pour nous étreindre. Les sites et myspace de Peter Van Huffel et Jesse Stacken méritent le détour et nos lecteurs suisses ne manqueront pas d’entendre ce quartette à l’AMR de Genève le 14 mai. k FRANCK BERGEROT