Baritone saxophonist Juan Martinez (1965) studied with Albert Beltman, Toon Roos and Tim Armacost. A laureate of the first edition of the Dutch Jazz Competition, his professional career started with the group Saxion V and soon he was asked by Henk Meutgeert to become a member of the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.

As a sideman Juan played and recorded with many groups in the Dutch jazz scene, such as the Metropole Orchestra, the Cees Slinger Octet, the New Cool Collective Bigband, the David Kweksilber Bigband, the Beets Brothers Octet, the Berend van den Berg Octet, Tetzepi and the Contraband.

Juan was co-leader of the Juan Martinez/Nils van Haften Quintet, which featured Misha Mengelberg and John Engels in a Herbie Nichols project. He is also co-leader of both Los Hermanos Martinez and Los Hermanos Martinez y Morelo, together with Miguel Martinez and Eric Vaarzon Morel.

For twelve years Juan was the programming director of Jazzpodium DJS and the artistic director of a jazz and world music festival in Dordrecht. In 2008 he was appointed artistic director of the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, in cooperation with Henk Meutgeert, until Henk retired in 2014. In this period the orchestra toured extensively, performing in countries including Japan, China, Indonesia and South America, and working with many great international jazz artists like Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Chris Potter, Lee Konitz, Tom Harrell, Christian Scott, Roy Hargrove, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Georgie Fame, Kurt Elling, Jose James, Roberta Gambarini, Madeline Bell and Patti Austin.