From it's beginning in 1999 Monsieur Dubois has been in the news for several occasions, as promptly reaching the finals at the Nederlandse Jazzconcours only in their first year, later on followed by a nomination at the leading Dutch Jazz Competition in 2001. Other highlights certainly include the furious debut at the renowned North Sea Jazz Festival in 2002, and their regular appearance at the Amsterdam Uitmarkt (the annual opening of the cultural season) where thousands of people enjoy their music.
Over the years Monsieur Dubois organized various evenings and clubnights in hometown Rotterdam and Amsterdam, such as the legendary "Blue Beatz"-nights at Club Blauwe Vis,"Djazzedelic" with DJ Alias Poeh in the Mazzo and Panama or"Supersonic" in Off Corso together with the Utrecht based "MFP-collective" and the unmistakable funky DJ Soul Rabbi (currently one of Europe's leading raregroove specialists). Since then Monsieur Dubois and DJ Soul Rabbi have been cooperating on a regular basis. In 2003 they were guested at the "Soulful Boulevard" in Maastricht and turned a crowd of 800 dancing people absolutely crazy. Later on that year Dubois and Rabbi organized the first Groove Soul Party at one of Rotterdam's oldest jazzcafes Dizzy. The place hadn't been as crowded for a long time! Ever since the Groove Soul Party's at Dizzy have become a regular phenomenon. In March 2004 Monsieur Dubois took already a first look behind the former "Iron Curtain" during a series of concerts in Berlin, but in autumn they took a step further; As Ambassador of Dutch Culture, Monsieur Dubois played at fully packed clubs in the Baltic States (Estonia, Letland, Lituania) as well as in St Petersburg, receiving great feedback from all the audiences. A follow up is planned for Fall 2006.
At the moment Monsieur Dubois is finishing the production of their first album, due to arrive on Challenge Records by January 2006. Still, for now, you may look for the Monsieur Dubois s'AmuseEP, released at the Amsterdam label Unexpected Records (#UR 006), containing four studio tracks as well as two more club orientated re-mixes. In the mean time Dubois is certainly not sitting still... A second full length album is already in the make, with a very special guest this time! Only recently Monsieur Dubois started a flamboyant collaboration with no less than Defunkt leader and trombone legend Joseph Bowie. After doing a successful debut/try out performance in Brussels in September, Monsieur Dubois will go in the studio with this big calibre musical personality in Spring 2006 and produce the second Dubois album together... To be continued!

Personnel: Bart Wirtz: saxophone effects_Dirk Beets: trumpet effects_Maarten Meddens: Fender Rhodes piano_Kasper Kalf: double bass_Udo Demandt: percussion_Rudi Sanders: drums

Critics: "This concert gave a new format to our club, it was very fresh and new for us, Monsieur Dubois played incredibly good, in a well-done balance with each other, these are high professional musicians, and it would be great to have them again!" (Felix Naroditsky - owner JFC Jazz Club, jazzpromotor St Petersburg/Russia) "The swing of the New Cool Collective, the adventure of Bugge Wesseltoft, the groove of Herbie Hancock and the enthusiasm on the old Weather Report records (...) Monsieur Dubois makes sure you can't sit still." (Speaker/The Netherlands) "... surprise of the festival !" (Jazz In Duketown 2005; Rinus van der Heijden, Brabants Dagblad) "What makes Monsieur Dubois an extremely vital live experience is their feeling to not just perfection the jazz from the 50's and 60's in an academic way, but to treat it as if it were the popular music of today, as a truly original contribution to "Nu-Jazz" (...) Great!" (Weser Kurier/Germany) "They all were killing!" (Nicholas Payton/USA) References: The Netherlands: North Sea Jazz Festival (The Hague), Dizzy, Off Corso, Rotown (Rotterdam), Bitterzoet (Amsterdam), Supernatural @ Tivoli (Utrecht), Merleyn (Nijmegen), Oerol (Terschelling) Germany: Unique Club (D&uumnl;sseldorf), 45RPM (Wuppertal), Lovelite, B-Flat (Berlin), Hot Jazz Club (M&uumnl;nster), Blue Moon Bar (Bremen) Belgium: Ancien Belgique, Beursschouwburg (Brussel), At The Bebop (Leuven) Other: JFC Jazz Club (St Petersburg/Russia), Jazzkaar (Tallinn/Estland)

One of the finest young saxophonists in Europe today, Bart Wirtz has a flexible and versatile style that ranges from hard bop to freer explorations. A logical extension of such giants as Jackie McLean, Frank Morgan and Art Pepper among others, Wirtz has his own sound and open-minded approach to playing jazz. Born in the Netherlands, he attended the Rotterdam Conservatory, winning several honors (including the Erasmus Jazz Prize, the Leiden Jazz Award and the Breda Jazz Prize) while in the conservatory. Wirtz graduated in 2002 and then spent a half-year in New York. Returning to Amsterdam, he became very busy with his career and has not stopped since. Bart Wirtz has become an important member of five different jazz groups. The Young Sinatras is a ten-piece band that includes singer Paul van Kessel. Monsieur Dubois is quite a bit different in style, mixing together funk, soul jazz, jungle beats and Afro grooves. Monsieur Dubois has thus far recorded two CDs for Challenge: Ruff and Soul Integration. The Artvark Saxophone Quartet gives Wirtz another separate area of music to explore. The a capella quartet, grooves while also being open to playing free and adventurous solos and ensembles without the comfort of a rhythm section. Wirtz describes the 16-piece Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra as “the best young Dutch musicians in one big band conducted by Johan Plomp.” With his previous album iDreamer he won a Edison Jazzism Audience award in 2012.