Tony Overwater is an award winning bass player whose sound and unique way of playing have established him as a key player in the European music world. He is a remarkable solo performer and leader of his own projects but also a collaborative and attentive sideman. He is well known for his pioneering work in Arab music.
In 1995 Tony Overwater went on tour with the Yuri Honing Trio through the Middle East, notably Lebanon and Syria, and fell in love with Arab music culture. He met musicians from lebanon, Syria and Iraq and started a long time collaboration with the Lebanese singer Rima Khcheich.
He has been involved in Arab music ever since and developed a unique new playing style on the acoustic bass which allows him to play the microtonality of the Arab scales. He has been studying the maqams (scales), rhythms and songs of classical Arab music. He recorded several albums with Rima Khcheich and eventually became the musical director of her ensemble. Regularly Rima Khcheich and Tony Overwater play duo concerts in which they perform classical Arab music in muwashah style in which the acoustic bass replaces the Oud. This has never been done before and is highly successful at festivals around the world.
Tony Overwater played concerts with many arab musicians among which Moroccan ud player Said Chraibi, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Algerian violinist Kheiredinne M’Kachiche.
He started a salon of Arab music in the Netherlands, Salon Joussour, creating a bridge between musicians from the Middle East and Europe.
in 2009, together with pianist Rembrandt Frerichs and percussionist/drummer Vinsent Planjer, Tony Overwater formed the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio. Three musicians with strong interest and highly developed skills in Arab music and with roots in Western classical music and jazz united in the trio to play with different guest musicians from the Middle East.
Tony Overwater has created the music for many documentaries, among which the Berlin Award winning documentary Justice For Sergei and Om de Oude Wereldzee about Dutch politician Abraham Kuyper.

Angelo Verploegen (Oss, NL,1961) studied Musicology at the Amsterdam University and trumpet at the Jazz Department of the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory. Angelo is one of the leading Dutch trumpet players around nowadays. His focused yet velvety tone on both trumpet and flugelhorn and his sensitive approach make Angelo a beloved artist. Angelo is active on the scene with groups such as Toïs, The Houdini's and Verploegen, Verhoeff & Van der Westen and he was involved in projects with Bik Bent Braam, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Bob Brookmeyer's New Art Orchestra. He toured Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, did co-productions with string orchestra Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam (Richard Dufallo, Wayne Marshall), Schönberg Ensemble (John Adams), Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. Produced most of the recordings of The Houdini’s and furthermore internationally released CDs of many vocalists and instrumentalists. Teaches trumpet at the Jazz department of the School of the Arts Utrecht (HKU) and the Jazz & Pop Department of the School of Music Arnhem (ArtEZ). Since 2007 Artistic Director of the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.

Meet Maarten Ornstein. He plays reeds, and is a composer.
Of today’s music. This music. In his own words: “This is what I do.” Ornstein is known for his work as an improvisor. After all, lots of roles fit this Dutchman who as a soloist joined forces with Audible Lifestream, SfeQ, The Schönberg Ensemble, The Houdini’s, The Ebony Band, various ensembles led by Tony Overwater, and the Martin Fondse Oktemble. He is also composer and arranger for The New Cool Collective Big Band and some of the aforementioned groups. Previously, he recorded with most of them all and many others. As an instrumentalist Ornstein integrates lyrical fluidity and imagination with maximum control on his reed instruments - mostly clarinet, bass clarinet and tarogato (a sort of wooden soprano saxophone of Romanian and Hungarian origin). Both as a player and composer/ arranger he is in command of his notes, and, while he’s on them, controls your state of mind too. Therefore Turtle Records is very proud to present Ornstein’s first. His first solo recording and his first recorded composed contemporary music that is. “I just wrote down what I like”, he states. Ornstein likes the combined sound of bassoon, various clarinets and the nowadays very rare C melody saxophones, sometimes united with percussion and the human voice. Do not call it classical, neo classical, jazz, worldmusic or worse: modern music. With his W.A.R.P. Ensemble Ornstein plays music that is all written down, yet very alive, and integrates various style elements of the here and now. It’s hip, and it’s serious. It’s of today, and it’s timeless. It challenges the listener, and it is a pure joy to listen to.

Maarten van der Grinten (Geleen,NL, 1963) started out playing drums at the age of 9 and took up the guitar three years later. From 1982 until 1987, he studied guitar at the prestigious Hilversum Conservatory with Willem 'Wim' Overgaauw and graduated with the highest honors. In 1987, he was awarded the Loosdrecht Festival Promotion Prize and in '88, he was given a scholarship to continue his studies for one year in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. Whilst there, he started to compose more seriously. He's played and recorded with many Dutch jazz musicians including Wim Overgaauw, Ack van Rooyen and John Engels and visiting players such as Clark Terry and Toots Thielemans along with a number of large ensembles including the WDR-Bigband, The Metropole Orchestra, the Willem Breuker Kollektief and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw .
Maarten is currently co-leading four bands: Dig d'Diz, the Van der Grinten - Herman Quartet, the duo with guitarist Jesse van Ruller and the Brazilan music group Dirindi. He is currently teacher and chairman of the guitar section of the jazz faculty at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, formerly the Hilversum Conservatory.