Martijn van Iterson

2004 was a beautiful year for Martijn van Iterson. Unanimous praise followed the release of his second CD ‘The Whole Bunch’ (Munich Records). Its international release was ranked top of the American Jazz Chart for radio play. And then of course that award at the 29th North Sea Jazz Festival: the Bird Award as ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’. Presenting the award to Van Iterson, fellow guitarist Pat Metheny had some difficulty pronouncing his name and commented to a Dutch journalist ‘What a guitar player! But can’t he change his name to Martin von Schmidt or something?’. The Bird Award Jury …

Born on July 11th 1970 in Leiden, Van Iterson graduated cum laude from the Hilversum Academy of Music in 1993. He was a member of the Jazz Dance Formation ‘All the King’s Men’; was a guest solo player on Dutch National TV and Radio with well known orchestras like ‘The Skymasters’, the ‘Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw’ and the ‘Metropole Orchestra’ and worked with several leading names like Jim Hall and Jean ‘Toots’ Thielemans. In 1996, he recorded with a.o. guitarist Mike Stern and during a project of Stefan Lievestro he worked together with drummer Gary Novak (Chick Corea) and …

At the Hilversum Academy of Music he was taught by Dutch guitar legend Wim Ovengaauw. ‘An inspiration, a coach; we talked more in the pub around the corner than we actually played together but he taught me to keep an open mind to more musical styles’. Wim showed me the thumb-grips – that way you have an extra finger and you can grab wider chords – it cost me a year of pain in my thumb!’ Van Iterson still plays one of Wim Overgaauw’s old Gibson’s (an ES-125). ‘There were a lot of guitars hanging on the wall at his …

To Van Iterson, there are no boundaries or set styles in music: jazz rock, fusion, cross over, acoustic jazz. ‘The balance has shifted towards acoustic jazz’, he comments. ‘Not consciously, it just happened. I like it all, as long as there is room to improvise’. And jazz has always been there, from his childhood onwards. His father was an amateur jazz pianist with a large record collection. When Martijn was 9 he started guitar lessons, from 15 onwards he was playing at the Leiden Jazz Café ‘The Duke’. ‘There was jazz there almost every day, the generation just a bit …