Masha Bijlsma Band feat. Martin Sasse

In the organizer's words:

Masha Bijlsma - vocals | Martin Sasse - piano | Martin Gjakonovski - bass | Dries Bijlsma - drums


Masha Bijlsma
Masha Bijlsma is one of the great singers on the old continent. Her great asset is her versatility, her wide range of style and expression. Whether she is developing a great chanson feeling with a velvety, delicate voice or refining pop songs with jazz feelings, Masha Bijlsma can captivate with her richness of tone color and extraordinarily wide range.
and exceptionally wide tonal range.
She breathes bluesy color and lush sensuality into jazz standards and her own compositions - the bulk of her repertoire.
When she begins to shade imaginatively, her songs gain powerful drive and sometimes lead to powerful outbursts. Her excellently recorded trio guarantees a relaxed atmosphere with sophisticated arrangements. The grooving Martin Sasse on piano, the expressive
Martin Gjakonovski on bass and the swinging drummer Dries Bijlsma show how creatively and progressively one can deal with mainstream numbers without damaging their recognition value.
The result: wonderfully swinging music. Solid jazz, traditional yet absolutely contemporary

Masha Bijlsma sings both classic jazz songs and compositions by her band members with great conviction, drawing on the repertoire of composers as diverse as Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, Nat Adderley, Charlie Haden, Kate Bush, Charles Mingus, Abbey Lincoln and John Coltrane . She often writes her own lyrics. Masha is inspired by the American jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, but is not afraid to interpret pop songs by Kate Bush and Noa or chansons by Edith Piaf.

After playing the piano and bass guitar, Masha Bijlsma began singing jazz at the age of 19 and founded the Masha Bijlsma Band. This group was an immediate success and played all over the world: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and the USA, at club gigs, TV and radio appearances and at famous festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival.
Masha has made six great CDs and secured a rapidly growing number of fans! She sings repertoire by various composers such as Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, Charlie Haden, Tony Lakatos, Jasper van 't Hof, Kate Bush and Noa. Sometimes Masha wrote her own lyrics and put words to Charlie Haden's beautiful "First Song" and dedicated the song entitled "Song for Abbey" to the great woman Abbey Lincoln.
Over the years, wonderful guest soloists have played with the Masha Bijlsma Band: Benny Bailey, Bob Malach, Tony Lakatos, Gary Thomas, Ack van Royen, Eric Vloeimans, Jarmo Hoogendijk, Ruud Breuls, Hans Kwakkernaat, Bart van Lier, Bert Boeren, Ilja Reijngoud and Ad Colen, to name but a few.

Martin Sasse
In the course of his stage career, Martin Sasse has worked with almost all the greats in international jazz and has long been one of the outstanding jazz pianists in Europe himself. He has released over ten albums under his own name and plays as a guest on countless recordings and concerts worldwide. Jazz legends have shaped and influenced his career, including Al Foster, Jimmy Cobb, Steve Grossman and Lee Konitz. He switched from the piano to the Hammond B3 for Billy Cobham and Hiram Bullock and proved to be an outstanding organist.
Sasse has toured with the New York Voices, Dusko Gojkovich, Al Foster, Rick Margitza and Dick Oatts and was the pianist for Till Brönner's "Talking Jazz" series at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. He has accompanied vocal greats such as Roberta Gambarini, Tierney Sutton, Janis Siegel (Manhattan Transfer) and Bobby McFerrin. His regular partners include Philip Catherine, Peter Bernstein, Dennis Mackrel, Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton.
The Martin Sasse Trio has existed in various formations for almost thirty years. The first album "Here we come" (2000) received excellent international reviews. Later albums feature Vincent Herring, Miles Davis saxophonist Steve Grossmann and guitarist Peter Bernstein. The trio received the German Record Critics' Award in 2010 for the album "Good Times" with Charlie Mariano.
Martin Sasse has also accompanied world stars from pop and classical music, including Johnny Logan, Tommy Emmanuel and Chris de Burgh. He has performed with Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo and played the European tour "Symphonicity" with Sting and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. With Helge Schneider, Udo Jürgens and Udo Lindenberg, some of the greatest German-speaking entertainers are also among Sasse's playing partners.
The highly acclaimed film "Blue", which premiered at the "Jazzahead" in Bremen, accompanied Sasse's performances for over two years, including at the legendary jazz club "Smalls" in New York and the famous Annex Sound Studio in Tokyo. His concert tours have taken Martin Sasse through Europe and the USA, to Japan and China, to Egypt and Sudan. He teaches at the Institute for Media and Music at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf. Prof. Martin Sasse teaches jazz piano and jazz composition at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Martin Gjakonovski
The Macedonian jazz bassist Martin Gjakonovski (*1970, Skopje) has been playing double bass since the age of 14. He comes from a family of musicians. His mother is a qualified violinist and singer in the jazz vocal quartet "IMPULSI". His father, the composer, arranger and conductor Dragan Gjakonovski-Špato, founded and directed the radio big band of RTV-Skopje, Macedonia.
In 1991, Martin Gjakonovski moved to Cologne to study jazz bass with Reiner Linke and Dieter Manderscheid at the renowned Cologne University of Music. He also attended master classes with Reggie Workman, Arild Andersen, John Clayton, Mike Richmond and Eddie Gomez. His authentic, versatile playing has brought him into the most diverse jazz scenes, from avant-garde to mainstream to world music.
Since 27 years in Germany, he has recorded more than 120 CD productions with various formations, including first-class jazz musicians from Germany, the USA and Europe such as Dusko Goykovich, Bob Berg, Antonio Farao, Lynne Arriale, Adam Nussbaum, Bob Franceschini, Roy Hargrove, Bojan Z and many others. He has also made a name for himself as an electric bassist with Paul Shigihara, Michael Sagmeister and the WDR Big Band, among others.
Martin Gjakonovski was a permanent member of German jazz legend Paul Kuhn's trio for 7 years and is one of the most sought-after bassists in Germany. He has been teaching at the jazz department of the Mainz University of Music for 3 years.
Martin Gjakonovski is considered one of the most distinguished jazz bassists in Europe.

Dries Bijlsma
Drummer Dries Bijlsma studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory. He sets the rhythm with his swinging style. He played in the bands of Rob van den Broeck and Jasper van 't Hof and accompanied Don Byas, Mal Waldron, Woody Shaw and Deborah Brown, among others.

Price information:

Tickets at 0221 93550417 or info@walterscheidt.net