Jazzkonzert

Benoit Martiny 5-tet at the Jazz-Ballroom Bitburg

It has now been 20 years since the Benoit Martiny Band (BMB) started Jazz 'n' Roll – a good reason to celebrate with a tour and a live album!

The jazz-rock band, founded in the summer of 2004 somewhere between a garage in Rameldange (LU) and the streets of Rotterdam (NL), has performed all over the world – from Luxembourg to Bahrain, from Hungary to Japan, and from Germany to Venezuela. The group consists of Benoît Martiny (LU) on drums, Sandor Kem (HU) on bass, Jasper van Damme (NL) and Joao Driessen (NL) on saxophones, and Frank Jonas (NL) on guitar. Martiny composes their music, drawing inspiration from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, and King Crimson, among others.

Over the years, BMB has released seven albums and two DVDs. The band was nominated for the Dutch Jazz Competition in 2005 and won the Amersfoort Jazz Talent Award in 2008. In addition to touring across Europe – performing at festivals like the Burg Herzberg Festival in Germany, the Manchester Jazz Festival in the United Kingdom, the Gaume Jazz Festival in Belgium, and the Oerol Festival in the Netherlands – the band has also played at the Sapporo Jazz Festival in Japan and the Barquisimeto Jazz Festival in Venezuela. Their latest album, “Moons of Uranus,” a sort of big band project, features many legendary guests such as Michel Pilz on bass clarinet, Itaru Oki on trumpet and flute, and Steve Kaspar on sound collages. The album received numerous positive reviews in magazines such as Eclipsed (Germany), Mint (Germany), Sticks (Germany), Tageblatt (Luxembourg), Le Soir (Belgium), Jazzthing (Germany), Slagwerkkrant (Netherlands), and Jazz Journal (United Kingdom).

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, they will release a live album in 2025 titled “BMB Live in Germany,” which is a sort of best-of album that presents the sound of the band today!

Event as part of the partnership between the associations Bluebird Music ASBL and Jazzinitiative Eifel e. V. concerning the mobility of music ensembles between Luxembourg and Rhineland-Palatinate.