After having been taught Classical Piano and having had the first inspiring experiences of Afro-American music through accompanying the school choir with a ‘Gospelprogram’, Joachim Raffel took his path to Jazz. From 1987 to 1992 he studied jazz piano at the conservatory in Hilversum/NL (music department of the Amsterdam School of the Arts). His teachers were Henk Elkerbout, Frans van Dalen and William Lustig. After his exam he received a scholarship to participate in the ‘Bob Brookmeyer/Bill Dobbins Composers Workshop 1993-95’ at the College of Music in Cologne. At the final concert of the two-year masterclass his first Big Band piece "The Way - Reflections On A Theme For Jazz Orchestra" had its première.

Three times Joachim Raffel was the winner of the competition ‘Jazzpodium Niedersachsen’: 1997 his Quintet, 1998 his Big Band ‘The Joachim Raffel Large Ensemble’ an 2000 his Sextet were price-crowned. So far he has published six CDs, including a live album, on which he performs as bandleader, further albums on which he plays piano, percussions or arranges the music. His compositions were performed by the ‘Jazz Orchestra Niedersachsen’ and the ‘Big Band Blechschaden’ under the direction of Maria Schneider, amongst others.

Besides his diverse work under his own name, Joachim Raffel is a member of the Milli Häuser Oktestra around singer/composer Milli Häuser and the quartet of Soleil Niklasson, the former background singer of Rod Stewart.
Together with piano colleague Laia Genc he gives concerts at two grand pianos, with the motto ‘Are You Me – Or Am I You’?

As Percussionist Joachim Raffel was heard in performances like ‘momentum indeterminum’ together with the Belgian-American guitarist Steve Gibbs an the dancers Milton Paulo an Javier Suarez, as well as in the 2006/2007 theatre production ‘Shockheaded Peter’ at the ‘Stadttheater Münster’. In the trio ‘KlaRaMo’, together with Jan Klare and Alex Morsey, he celebrated the music by Ornette Coleman with Indian reed organ and percussion. With the group ‘Boogaloop’ he arranged groovy electronic-acoustic events. With ‘LoLou’ he developed a complete new perspective on the music of Kurt Weill.

Joachim Raffel teaches jazz piano and ensemble playing at the music department of Osnabrück University.