Yuri Honing - tenor sax
Benjamin Herman - alt sax
Mats Eilertsen - double bass
Joost Lijbaart - drums

Group of Friends is a relatively new project and my first band as a leader. In this ensemble I play with two foremost Dutch saxophone players of today, who I used to play with together 10 years ago, are reunited: Benjamin Herman and Yuri Honing. The rhythm section is completed by an absolute great bass player from Norway, Mats Eilertsen who recorded serveral albums as a sideman for the ECM label.

Starting point for this group were my own roots, the late sixties. since the beginning of this group the music developed tremendously. The repertoire nowadays are a lot of own compositions by all the members and some pieces of Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Dave Holland and Tony Williams. In 2003 the Group went on a national tour and the debut CD of the Group was released. In the same year the Group performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the concert was later broadcasted on Dutch television. Because of the success of this special project, the enthusiasm of these great artists and of course the music itself, I decided to release the DVD 'Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival. For next year I want to focus with the group of friends on the music of the great Brazilian singer / composer Milton Nascimento. A national tour will be plannend in 2007-2008.

Press quotes:
- Here is loads and loads of musical empathy and each moment of excitement relieves the next. The rare front with two saxophones and the absence of a keyboard results in a very special musical excursion. (Musikklosen, Norway)

- What Joost Lijbaart and his friends have brought to light is an acoustic brew of very high quality. It's cooking on CD, but something tells me it is even more steaming live. (Tor Hammerø on www.puls.no, Norwegian music site)

- Splendid debut CD. (NRC, Dutch national newspaper)

- Intense reunion of top saxophonists. (De Volkskrant, Dutch national newspaper)

- Lijbaart turns out to be a modest leader who prefers to perform among the others. (Jazz, Dutch jazz magazine)

- Absolutely fantastic. (Slagwerkkrant, Dutch drummers magazine)

- Lijbaart masters his material completely, he easily fights his way through Ornette Coleman's idiom, reverts to the rites of free jazz, throws in a spicy South-African beat and like Tony Williams, he fights gruesome duels with his soloists. (Leeuwarder Courant, Dutch regional newspaper)

- Group of Friends doesn't seem to have any weak spots. (Leidsch Dagblad, Dutch regional newspaper)