An Algarve-born Portuguese, Miguel was tutored by top jazz guitarist like Ben Monder, Jonathan Kreisberg, Phillipe Catherine, and Nguyen Lee and distinguished himself early on as one off the youngest band-leader in the Portuguese jazz scene with is group “PORTUJAZZ” with 19 years old in 1997 with musicians like Johannes Krieger, Lars Arens, Antonio Mesa,  Alexandre Frazão, Bruno Pedroso, Yuri Daniel, Diego Ebler, Demian Cabaud, João Lencastre, José Menezes etc...

In 2003 aged 24, Miguel moved to Lisbon, determined to immerse himself in the jazz scene and immediately attracted the notice of double bassist Carlos Barretto ,touring Portugal and Spain.

 

In 2004 Miguel Martins "Kaleidoscopio" was formed with Carlos Barretto and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari, and in 2007, publishes his first album "The newcomer" by Klimaxrecords, considered one of the best Portuguese jazz albums of 2007 by Jazz.pt magazine where Martins has composed and arranged all songs with his vision.

In late 2009 he moved to Barcelona. There Martins played with musicians as Llibert Fortuny, Masa Kamaguchi, Antonio Mesa, Paulinho Lêmos etc...

In 2010/11 he moved to Italy to the jazz city of Bologna, where he played and toured Italy with musicians like, Emiliano Franco , Andrea Rea, Daniele Sorentino, Domenico Caliri, Stefano Senni, Guglielmo Pagnozzi, John Serry, Davide Garattoni, Bruno Farineli, Filippo Mignatti etc...

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In 2012, Miguel Martins moved to London and he put his new group garnering attention in UK’s jazz scene. The band is based in London, where Martins share his new music project with, Brandon Allen arguably the most exciting tenor player in Britain today, pianist Chris Jerome double bass Ben Bastin, and Pedro Segundo on drums. In London, Martins normaly plays as a freelancer with musicians like Leon Greening, Renato d'Aleio, Jonny Gee, Emiliano Franco, Christian Brewer, Andrea Trillo, Ricardo dos Santos, Nadim Teomori, Fulvio Sigurta etc...

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In 2016 the band Miguel Martins & Javier Orti " Cuarteto Iberico", based in Seville, made their first record "VIVEK" wtih a repertoire of original songs from Martins and Orti, recorded under the label Blue Asteroid Records based in Seville.

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Martins has performed and recorded with a veritable who’s who of both Portuguese and international jazz artists such as Carlos Barretto, Bob Sands, Carlos Bica, Markku Ounaskari, Jonathan Robinson, Nelson Cascais, John B Arnold, Kelvin Sholar, Brandon Allen, Neil Angilley, Sebastian Merk, Leon Baldesberger, John Serry, Michael Lauren, Jay Phelps, Ersnt Bier, Benny Lackner, Antonio Ciaca, etc...

 

 Miguel played in several jazz clubs, and international tours around, Portugal, Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and France.

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