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, three 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.”

The magnificent dj Maestro comes alog with the great soloist of Hollands' coolest musicians and also with young Hungarian giants: they will take you to the place where dance meets jazz from the past into the future.