Martijn van Iterson (Bird Award winner NSJF 2004) is currently regarded as one of the best jazz guitarists in The Netherlands. Wim Overgaauw, the doyen of jazz guitar in The Netherlands, was his teacher.
Martijn plays in the Ilja Reijngoud quartet, the Ruud Jacobs quintet, the Sjoerd Dijkhuizen quartet and others, and is also much in demand as a guest soloist. With his own quartet Martijn playes exclusively his own compositions. His music is best described as “contemporary jazz jazz with a heart for tradition”. Martijn performs in his own quartet with Karel Boehlee on piano (accompanist of Toots Thielemans and others in Europe), Frans van Geest on double bass (one of the founders of the Jazz orchestra of the Concertgebouw) and Martijn Vink on drums (Metropole Orkest and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra).
In June 2004 the CD “The whole bunch” by this quartet was released on the label Munich Records. This CD was well regarded in the press, and at the beginning of 2005 reached 11th place on the American “Jazzweek Jazzchart”, a unique achievement for a Dutch production.
The CD “Streetwise” appeared in 2006 and was very well received in the press.