Benoit Martiny Band

: HAS PLAYED

Barquisimeto Jazz Festival (VE), Like a Jazzmachine (LU), Manchester Jazz Festival (GB), Sapporo Jazz Festival, Space Lab (JP), Oerol Festival (NL), Jazzland Festival, Jazz Fiesta Nemztetkozi Jazz Parade (HU), B-Flat (DE) Gaume Jazz Festival (BE)...

: PRESS QUOTES

"Having already checked out the Benoit Martiny Band in advance as part of mine and Jane’s jazz festival preview radio show, I was intrigued to see how they would go down. I’m happy to report they went down phenomenally well. It was in your face stuff for sure, but at the same time it was so strong, powerful, well rehearsed and well written that it grabbed the audience right from the off. It was hard not to be taken with the sheer energy and enthusiasm of it all.” Review Manchester Jazz Festival

"The Benoit Martiny Band is a quintet with two saxes, bass and guitar with a deeply rock sound, led by a drummer with a boundless energy and who exudes a powerful and lyrical rock / blues, streaked by flamboyant solos from brass and guitar. All this happily flirts with jazz, funk ... ." Thierry Quénum, Jazzmagazine

"Il y a un degré de fusion dans l’improvisation collective qui est impressionnant. Pas de temps mort, on a l’impression qu’ils sont vingt sur scène comme dans « Not Just a Fling » ! Benoit Martiny règne sur son monde avec une section de cuivres sans trombone ni trompettes, et la clarinette basse au jeu intense de Michel Pilz prend souvent des soli époustouflants comme dans « Spiritual Revolution » ou « Don’t Leave a Message ». « Cosmic Journey » vous donnera une pêche d’enfer, avec l’envie de tout déménager sur un solo de saxophone alto de Jasper van Damme à se pâmer... Tout comme la clarinette basse incandescente qui attaque l’harmonieux « Alone » et continue avec un saxophone ténor tout en nuances, le tout enveloppé du jeu discret du claviériste Leon del Engelsen. Instants magiques... en fait, pas besoin de pétard pour planer... Après « Don’t Leave a Message » nous ramenant prosaïquement sur terre, suit « Hectic Fantastic » très rock illuminé par le solo de Roby Glod et qui se termine à la Zappa ! Tandis que « Funeral II » lorgne presque du côté du métal avec une guitare électrique et une basse à l’envi pour conclure un concert mené à la baguette ! Bon, quand est ce que vous venez tous jouer dans l’Hexagone?" Florence Ducommun, Culture Jazz

: BIOGRAPHY

Formed in 2004, the roots of the Benoit Martiny Band are in a garage in the small village of Rameldange, Luxembourg. Since a decade, the drummer Benoit Martiny developed with his bandmates an original musical style, from jazz’n’roll at their very beginning to the genuinely unique powerhouse of psychedelic and cinematic grooves that makes the meticulous and prolific band we know today.

Since then, Benoit Martiny Band has been performing in many venues and festivals and has released 5 albums, each proposing a particular soundscape. The last project, ‘The Grand Cosmic Journey’ powered by the internationally recognized talents of bass clarinetist Michel Pilz, saxophonist Roby Glod and keyboardist Leon den Engelsen, extends the Benoit Martiny Band experience back to the period when music broke the boundaries of art and cultures, when music was imagined by innovative composers such as Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, Jimi Hendrix or Frank Zappa. With elements of freejazz, krautrock and psychedelia, completed with live video projections, the Cosmic Journey takes the audience on a trip to space and back.
The project was performed and recorded at the ‘Like a Jazzmachine’ Festival in Dudelange in 2014. The band decided to release this special concert on CD and DVD in 2016.

If you enjoy what Benoit and his band mates produced these last 10 years, you will really dig it!

The Grand Cosmic Journey is:

Benoît Martiny – Drums
Frank Gones – Electric Guitar
Sandor Kem – Electric Bass & Double Bass
Jasper Van Damme – Alto Saxophone
Joao Driessen – Tenor Saxophone
Michel Pilz – Bass Clarinet
Leon den Engelsen – Keyboards
Rémi Corsin/Laurent Cordier – Veejay

After the good experience of working together for the first time in Martini's "The Grand Cosmic Journey", Michel Pilz and Benoit Martiny decided in November 2015 to form a Free Jazz duo and perform a concert at the venue city of Luxembourg "De Gudde Wëllen". The performance was recorded, they enjoyed the result and they released it via the BYP label on September 15, 2017 in digital and on vinyl in December 2017.