Today is Monk time: MiXMONK’s first studio album completed; scheduled for release early 2019.

October 10, 2018

Last week Joey Baron, Bram De Looze and Robin Verheyen took 4 days out of their busy schedules to rehearse and record the first album by their co-operative band MiXMONK. The trio came about when Verheyen was commissioned by Bozar in Brussels to do ‘something’ for Monk’s birthday centennial in October 2017 and he and Bram De Looze simultaneously came up with the idea to expand their existing duo by adding Joey Baron.

The one Bozar concert turned into a 10 day club tour by the end of which nobody wanted to stop. The band members point out that MiXMONK is by no means ‘inclined to do so called tributes’ or ‘hommages’ and ‘definitely not into historically correct reconstruction’.  According to them they ‘just love Monk and like to play some of his tunes our way’ and ‘have fun mixing them up with a couple of originals of our own’.

The record is slated for release in February 2019, to be followed by European tours in the spring and late fall of the same year.


Sabam Jazz Award for Established Jazz Artist 2018 goes to Robin Verheyen; Nils Van Heertum wins Young Talent category.

July 27, 2018

Last night at the Gent Jazz festival Flemish minister of Culture Sven Gatz presented Robin Verheyen with the Sabam Jazz Award for the ‘Established Artist’ of the year 2018. Euphonium player Nils Van Heertum took the Sabam Jazz Award for ‘Young Talent’.

Sabam, Belgium’s national authors rights organisation, underwrites the annual awards with respectively 10.000 € and 5.000 € in career support.

The jury report notes that Verheyen “… always demonstrates an impressive focus and unique personality in his artistic choices…” and expresses “… appreciation for the development of his international career…”


Jazz Middelheim announces Robin Verheyen as Artist in Residence for the festival’s 2018 edition.

May 10, 2018

Next August Robin Verheyen will play a series of 3 concerts presenting him as this years Artist in Residence at the Jazz Middelheim festival in Antwerp. A rare perfomance by TaxiWars, co-led by Robin with singer Tom Barman, frontman of legendary indie band dEUS, will be followed on August 10 by the Verheyen quartet with Marc Copland, Drew Gress and Billy Hart as heard on the new studio album ‘When The Birds Leave’.

On August 12 the recently formed trio MiXMONK with Verheyen and prime piano talent Bram De Looze joining forces with Joey Baron will play in the band’s first major festival performance after a successful club tour. All concerts take place on the festival’s main stage.

Following in the steps of Tigran Hamasyan, Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran, Verheyen is the first Belgian artist to become Artist in Residence at then country’s oldest and most important festival. Among the more than 25 concerts at the festival’s two stages are performances by the Fred Hersch Trio, Archie Shepp, Steve Coleman and Philip Catherine.


When The Birds Leave released on Jan 26

January 20, 2018

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to update this section. Lots of things have happened in the meantime, great tours with TaxiWars, my NY Quartet, the Bach Riddles and many other great projects.

My new record When The Birds Leave will be released on Jan 26 on Universal Records. The album features the great rhythm section of Marc Copland, Drew Gress and Billy Hart. We will be touring Europe from February 22 to March 3. Tour dates can be found in the gigs section.

A new record with TaxiWars is also in the works, expected release in the Fall of 2018.


Fall Update

September 7, 2016

In December the NY Quartet will be touring Europe. Below you can see the poster. You can find all dates in the gigs section of this website. More dates with TaxiWars will be announced soon. Hope to see you at one of the gigs!