rhythmtoolsfactory

Born in 1958 in Barcelona, Spain, José J. Cortijo is working as a musician and teacher since 1983 in Germany. His musical receptiveness is reflected in numerous performances, among others with Farfarello, Nina Corti, Chris Thompson, Al Jarreau, Thomas Anders, Jon Lord, Peter Kraus, Uwe Ochsenknecht, The Surpremes, Conexión Latina, NDR Big Band, as well as TV, radio and recordings for BR3, NDR, HR, PRO 7 and his participation in various musicals. As the only professor of latin percussion in Germany, he teaches at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim and is a frequent lecturer at numerous workshops and seminars. He is also author of the books „Latin Timbales for percussionists and drummers“ (LEU-Verlag, 2002) and „Kleinpercussion Spielen“ (LEU-Verlag 2005 ) and of the video „Congas I“. Since 1994 he writes a series of workshops for the magazine "Drums & Percussion". He also authored the latin percussion plugin for the notation program Finale and authored the Finale addon "scoreGroove" and is artist director of the „World Percussion Academy“.

Marc Küsters - born in 1973 - was early on professionally educated in rudimental and classical drumming, followed by educations in playing the drumset, percussion, timpani, vibra- and marimbaphone, which was later complemented by the piano. On the piano, he created his first compositions. At the age of 17 he went to the Netherlands to study music at the conservatory Arnhem. After a short stay at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (College for Arts) in Zwolle (NL), Marc graduated in Utrecht (NL) in 1997. Since then he played in several bands as a drummer, composer and bandleader: Twosh, Sub-Rosa (Latin), Nachbars Lumpi (Soul Funk), Tae-Sung Chung Quartett (Jazz), Skinnybold (Rock), Hansen Tomas (Pop-NL), Cold Sweat (Soul), Under Cover (Cover), Mama Guela (Salsa/Samba/Reggae/Latin-Jazz), Lyrebirdz (Pop-Cover), Groovation (EDM-Drum Project)...
In addition, he is producing music and jingles for other artists in his own studio. He is the principal of the music school "Musikschule Kleve-Kellen"(formaly "rhythm & groove factory") in Kleve, Germany since 1999, with currently over 400 students. At that music school he also works as a teacher for young drummers, late vocations, prospective music students and drumming ensembles. In 2010, he developed a patented free floating system for drums and drumsets under the name "MKdrums", which has raised some awareness in the drumming community.