As a young kid Tinez was attracted to everything that made a sound.
He loved sitting at the family piano and just see what happens if you pressed multiple keys at once.
Even though he grew up in the 1980s Tinez discovered his love for blues, soul and rock ’n roll. At a young age, he could have been 8 years old, his dad gave him an Elvis mixtape.
He listened and it felt like the heavens opened up.
This was it.
The journey to dive into the origins of black music had started.
At first Tinez wanted to play guitar; to rock like Chuck or play the blues like Muddy. But classical guitar lessons didn’t give him what he wanted.
Then the saxophone found it’s way to him.
Tinez started playing at the local Harmonie orchestra (where his dad already played and still does!).
Around the age of maybe 18 he and two very close friends formed their 1st band: De Uncoole Gasten (let’s call it humorous Dutch punkmusic), which later transcended into a little bit more serious band, Major Zip (rock).
Not knowing what else he could or wanted to do, Tinez was, thanks to his saxophone teacher at the time Roelof Posthumus, accepted at the conservatory in Utrecht.
There he studied classical saxophone with André Hemmers and 2 years of jazz/improvisation with Marc Scholten, who for years now, plays at the world-famous Metropool Orkest.
Before and during his education Tinez had discovered blues & rock ’n roll saxophonists like King Curtis, Louis Jordan, Red Prysock, Sil Austin and Big Jay McNeely and other great horn players who played in the bands of giants like BB King, Ray Charles, Lowell Fulson, etc.
After graduating Tinez returned to his one and true love, blues and rock ’n roll music.
He moved to the city of Arnhem and started playing in Franky’s Flying Circus (pop/rock) and Franky’s Flying Rockabilly Circus, which not much later became known as Roadpizza (rock ’n roll/ rockabilly).
After that came The Backbones came along.
A bluesband with some of Holland’s finest bluesmusicians: Little Steve on guitar, Jules van Brakel on bass, Guido Willemsen on drums, Govert van der Kolm on hammond/piano and Big Pete on vocals/harmonica.
They recorded and toured with a.o. Monster Mike Welch and Matt Schofield.
Then one day at the Jacobiberg (a popmusic school in Arnhem) Tinez encountered 2 very handsome young men, Mark Verschoor (double bass) and Rasyif Kremer (drums).
They started talking and found out they shared the same love for jumpblues/rhythm ’n blues/rock ’n roll.
So, they started a band and named it Martin Lewis & his Jivemen.
This was Tinez’ first serious try at writing his own material.
Sadly only a demo was recorded.
But some great gigs were played!
Around 2005 or 2006 Tinez was asked to join 48Special (also known as De Compaenen), which (still) is a great band to brighten up your (private) party or to rock a festival.
They can play semi-accoustic or fully equipped and they’ll play a swingin’ repertoire (pop, soul, rhythm ’n blues covers).
2006 was also the year Tinez did his first tour.
That year he toured Europe and Scandinavia twice with Canadian blues guitarist and singer JW- Jones.
After a couple of years playing a lot of private party’s with 48Special/De Compaenen Tinez felt the urge to write his own material again.
He made the decision to start a new project called Tinez Roots Club.
Three records were made, ‘Something You Got’ (2009), ‘Almost Nasty’ (2011) and ‘Have You Heard?!’ (2017).
Between 2011 and 2017 Tinez joined Little Steve & the Big Beat, with whom he played many gigs
in Holland, Germany, Belgium and France.
They released a fantastic record in 2016 called ‘Another Man’ and did a short but successful tour with Texas blues guitarist Mike Morgan (US).
Tinez also toured with CC Jerome & the Savoys backing up fantastic musicians like Nick Curran (US), who sadly left this world too soon, Firebird Trio (AUS), Nikki Hill (US) and Rusty Pinto (AUS). The last tour he did was in Northern France with Big Pete ft Deb Ryder and blues guitar hero Alex Schultz.
Whilst already being a very experienced and much respected musician Tinez still just wants to be on stage and honk his horn as much as he can.
So if you’re looking for a great blues, rock ’n roll or soul(jazz) saxophone player with a big fat sound and great improvisation skills, look no further.
Tinez is your man.
