Maarten van der Grinten Biography

Dutch

Maarten van der Grinten
Maarten van der Grinten was born December 19th 1963 in Geleen, the Netherlands. He started out playing drums at the age of nine and took up the guitar three years later. From 1982 until 1987, he studied guitar at the prestigious Hilversum Conservatory under the tutorledge of Willem 'Wim' Overgaauw and graduated with the highest honors. In 1987, he was awarded the Loosdrecht Festival Promotion Prize and in '88, he was given a scholarship to continue his studies for one year in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. Whilst there, he started to compose more seriously.
In 1991, van der Grinten won the Max van Praag award for outstanding accompanying at the Loosdrecht Festival.
He's played and recorded with many Dutch jazz musicians including Wim Overgaauw, Ack van Rooyen and John Engels and visiting players such as Clark Terry and Toots Thielemans along with a number of large ensembles including the WDR-Bigband, The Metropole Orchestra, the Willem Breuker Kollektief and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (formerly the New Concert Band).

Maarten is currently co-leading for bands; DIG d'DIZ, with Jan Menu (baritone sax) and Jan Voogd (double bass), the Van der Grinten - Herman Quartet, with Benjamin Herman (alto sax), Jos Machtel (double bass and tuba) and Henk Zomer (drums), the duo with guitarist Jesse van Ruller and the Brazilan music group Dirindi.
He played and recorded also with the European Jazz Guitar Orchestra, which features five guitarists, including Louis Stewart and Doug Raney plus rhythm section and Picks Might Fly, four guitars, including Martijn van Iterson, Jesse van Ruller, Frank Wingold, Tom Beek (tnr), rhythm section and originally Wim Overgaauw.
He has performed and continues performing with the top of the Dutch jazz vocalists including Greetje Kauffeld, Laura Fygi, Matilde Santing, Francien van Tuinen and Fay Claassen.
He performed with the 'A-Records All-stars'. An international band with the Australian trumpet player Scott Tinkler, American alto player Dave Pietro, Finnish pianist Jarmo Savolainen, German bass player Martin Wind and the Belgian drummer Mimi Verderame. And another international project takes part in, is a group with Italian accordionist Luciano Biondini and German tenorist Martin Classen'.
On the Northsea Jazz Festival 2005 he performed with the Portugese singer Cristina Branco, joined by accordionist Richard Galliano and clarinetist Michael Moore. In 2006 again with Cristina Branco and the Portugese pianist Mário Laginha in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

His recent projects: with harmonica player Hermine Deurloo, the Dutch Modern jazz icon drummer Han Bennink and bassist Ernst Glerum. And the project with the Yuri Honing Trio featuring the famous Lebanese singer Rima Khcheich, exploring the connections that can be made between Arabic music and the music of the western world.
Compositions of his are being played regularly by the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, and featured in the past Cedar Walton, Dick Oatts and Lee Konitz. He composed for the Mondriaan String Quartet with DIG d'DIZ and made five compositions that were arranged for the Metropole Orchestra featuring DIG d'DIZ.
Maarten has performed at venues throughout the world, including the 'Bimhuis' in Amsterdam, the 'Musée d'Art Moderne' in Paris, the Northsea Jazz Festival, the Blue Note in Tokyo, the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, China, 'Olympia' in Sao Paulo and the prestigious Amsterdam 'Concertgebouw'.
He is currently teacher and chairman of the guitar section of the jazz faculty at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, formerly the Hilversum Conservatory.

Selected discography:

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