Benjamin Herman

by Jason Ankeny   Dutch saxophonist Benjamin Herman was born in 1968, and after briefly flirting with the drums, he began playing alto sax at age 12. Within a year he was playing professionally, making his North Sea Jazz Festival debut at 17; upon graduating with honors from the Hilversum Conservatory in 1991, Herman won the Wessel Ilcken Prize, and a year later he was awarded a grant to study at the Manhattan School of Music under saxophonist Dick Oatts. In addition to co-leading a sextet with Michiel Borstlap, Herman also played with the Piet Kuiters Quartet and the Fra Fra Big Band; leading a quartet with guitarist Maarten van der Grinten, he released Lost Languages, followed in 1999 by Get In.