My name is Martijn Luttmer and I was born om 11 February 1971 in Bussum, The Netherlands. On my fourth birthday, I got my first harmonica, a great instrument. It is simple: you can blow or inhale and you will get a sound! But most people will not pass the stage of the bluesharp. I got fascinated with the chromatic harmonica. It all got interesting during a holiday in France. I spent many hours of playing, together with my class mate Rudolf Haak and his father Jaques. I was about nine years old at that time.

Toots Thielemans
In these days, my father told me about Toots Thielemans. After buying the first record “Slow Motion”, I discovered that his harmonica had many more possibilities than mine. That is the moment I got really fascinated by the chromatic harmonica. This instrument can reach, as I usually explain, all notes; the white and black keys of the piano. Every day at least one and a half hours were spent to play along with the records of Toots Thielemans. The harmonica became an obsession.

Martijn, the saxophone player..?
At the age of twelve I also got inspired by the saxophone section of the famous Dutch big band “The Skymasters”… I took saxophone lessons from Luc van Gessel and Paul Van der Feen. In 1988 I met Paul Poulissen, and I joined his big band as first alto and later first tenor sax player. Now and then it was possible to play harmonica with the band. Unfortunately I had to leave the big band in 1992.

The story continues
When I was about 18 years old, I was “adopted” by guitar player Rein Solkamans and by drummer Han Brink. They explained me how to work on a harmonica style of my own. Over the years I got introduced to the stars of the jazz, such as Cees Slinger and Harry Verbeke, Bart van Lier and Eddy Conard, Henk Meutgeert and Denise Jannah.

The present
Today I “spread the word” all over the world. Concert have been given from Australia to the United States and many countries in between. It gives me energy. You will be insipred…

Heartfelt Harmonica

Martijn Luttmer