DJ Maestro

There is a doll in the Amsterdam apartment of Martijn Barkhuis: it’s a DJ Maestro Action Figure. The box proudly mentions: ‘It really DJ’s, drinks and smokes!’ “That’s slightly exaggerated,” the real-life version says with a husky voice, while putting his Davidoff cigarette in the ashtray to fill our glasses with pinot grigio. “That doll doesn’t DJ at all.” At least, not like the human version of DJ Maestro, as many, many international dance full of sweaty and cramped calves can attest to.

Mesmerize, DJ Maestro’s debut album, following the compilations he did for legendary jazz labels Blue Note (Blue Note Trip, seven editions) and Verve (Delicious Jazz), is made for exactly those dance floors. “The music was inspired by the records I play and by the reactions of people who dance to those records. Some of the songs on Mesmerize are more than a year old, others I wrote only two months ago. But they have all been tested on the dance floor. When something didn’t work, we improved it.”

His record deal enabled Maestro to work with a bunch of talented musicians he often performs with: renowned saxophone player Benjamin Herman, flute player Magnus Lindgren (who also worked with Koop), Zuco 103-singer Lilian Vieira, Carl Young (bass player in Michael Franti’s Spearhead), soul singer Forrest (known for his hit ‘Rock the Boat’) and saxophone player Tineke Postma. “In general, we invited them to the studio once we finished the basis. All we told them was to do whatever they’re good at. Benjamin Herman did his thing in just half an hour.” As a result, the lazy track ‘Spring Street’ has a real ‘neon light in a wet street’ vibe, while the sax in the spicy latin song ‘En Orbita’ is like an exquisite sauce poured over the groove.

Funk, jazz, latin: the DJ seems to have been raised on soul food and hot peppers, but actually comes from a family where everybody listened to classical music in appropriate silence and played the piano and the cello considerably well. Maestro himself played the violin “quite well”, but he feels that “if somebody else is more talented, you should let that person play for you.”

As a teenager, Maestro was mesmerized by the turntables, mixers, headphones and vinyl albums of his friends, who took their drive-in show to hockey parties and school parties. It left him with an insatiable hunger for albums, and an incredible disgust for dance classics: “One of the highlights in my career was the moment somebody requested ‘Relight My Fire’ for the umpteenth time. ‘I’ve got that one,’ I said, pulled the record from my bag and broke it in two right before his very eyes.”

That doesn’t mean the DJ doesn’t know how to please the crowd: his Blue Note Trip-nights in clubs, nationwide attract many dance lovers, who love to work up a sweat on the amazing mix of modern and vintage from the Maestro’s record cases, which he carries with him to Indonesia, Japan, Australia, the USA and most European countries.

Being programdirector of the Swingin’ Groningen festival, the Jazz at the Lake festival, DJ at VPRO/Radio 6 and founder of the dutch station Radio Jazz, Maestro has a big hold on everything that has to do with funk, latin and jazz in the Netherlands. “It’s killing sometimes, all those long nights with too much cigarettes and drinks,” he tries to put his fabulous life somewhat into perspective. But isn’t that a very big grin we see on the face of the DJ Maestro Action Figure?

Maestro has been awarded with a platinum record for his Blue Note Trip series for sales exceeding 250.000 copies. At the moment he's working on Blue Note Trip 10, remixing Blue Note with several producers (amongst Kraak & Smaak) and working on his second producer album.

On the web:
http://www.digthis.nl
http://www.radiojazz.nl
https://www.facebook.com/musicadimaestro
http://soundcloud.com/dj-maestro-1


Discography:
* Latino Beats 1 (Beats Included)
* Latino Beats 2 (Beats Included)
* Blue Note Trip Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (Blue Note)
* Blue Note Trip Sunset/Sunrise (Blue Note)
* Blue Note Trip Goin’ Down/Gettin’ Up (Blue Note)
* Delicious Jazz Dig This/Love That (Verve)
* DJ Maestro & Catch 22 – Mesmerize (Dig This/Universal)
* Blue Note Trip Somethin’ Old/Somethin’ New (Blue Note)
* Blue Note Trip Birds/Beats (Blue Note)
* Fundamentally Bedtime (EMI)
* Fundamentally Wakin’ Up (EMI)
* Riviera Maison – His Maestro’s Choice (TMM)
* Oger (EMI)
* Blue Note Trip Swing Low/Fly High (Blue Note)
* The Brazilian Trip (Blue Note)
* Riviera Maison 2 (EMI)
* Digestive – Maestro supports dance4life
* Blue Note Trip Heat Up/Simmer Down (Blue Note)