Roadmap Andreas Toftemark & Benny Benack III

• 1 Roadmap 05:34
• 2 Icebreaker 05:08
• 3 Again 05:17
• 4 A New York Attitude 05:20
• 5 Underground 05:02
• 6 The Lemur 05:32
• 7 Tilværelse 05:36
• 8 What Gets You 03:40
• Total Runtime 41:09

Info zu Roadmap

Denmark’s leading outlet for forward-thinking jazz, April Records, proudly presents a new signing in the Toftemark/Benack III Quintet. Bridging Nordic lyricism with the hard-driving energy of New York, their debut album ‘Roadmap’ is set for release on November 14th, 2025.

The project is co-led by Copenhagen-born saxophonist Andreas Toftemark, a European Jazz Master and recipient of the Bent Jædig Prize, whose career has taken him from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam to The New School in New York. He is joined by Benny Benack III, the multi-award winning Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist lauded for his charismatic performances with the likes of Christian McBride, Chad Lefkovitz-Brown, Peter Bernstein and more.

Rasmus Sørensen adds a vital piano voice, fresh from winning a Danish Music Award in 2024 and releasing Balancing Act (2024) featuring modern drum icon Kendrick Scott. On bass, Finnish talent Kaisa Mäensivu – leader of her own project Kaisa’s Machine – brings international credentials shaped at the Sibelius Academy, Manhattan School of Music, and festivals including Pori Jazz. Completing the lineup is New York drummer Joe Peri, a Grammy-winning artist featured on Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga’s Love for Sale and a familiar face at Birdland, Mezzrow, and other NYC institutions.

Together, they craft Roadmap – a set of originals born from tours around the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and honed on the road. Each member contributes compositions: from Toftemark’s modal-driven title track and brisk swinger What Gets You to Peri’s hard-hitting opener Icebreaker, Mäensivu’s funk-tinged The Lemur, and Sørensen’s harmonically dense New York Attitude. The quintet also delivers moments of intimacy, with Again – a co-write between Toftemark and Benack – adding lyrics penned on tour and sung with understated warmth.

As Benack reflects: “When I play with Andreas, I’m thinking of Joe Henderson and Kenny Dorham, of Clifford Brown and Harold Land. But this isn’t just a revival of a classic hard bop record—the heart and soul of it is the Copenhagen–New York connection.”

Andreas Toftemark, tenor saxophone
Benny Benack III, trumpet, vocals (track 3)
Rasmus Sørensen, piano
Kaisa Mäensivu, double bass Joe Peri, drums

Andreas Toftemark
is a 33-year-old saxophonist and composer who currently lives in Copenhagen. Andreas has performed regularly on the New York jazz scene and European jazz scene including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, England, Norway, USA, Holland, Italy, France, and Spain; both as a sideman and bandleader.

Education; Andreas holds a BA from The New School of Jazz in New York where he studied with accomplished musicians such as Reggie Workman, Joel Frahm, Eric Alexander, Ben Wendel, and Peter Bernstein to name a few. Furthermore, Andreas has a European jazz Master's degree from Copenhagen, Berlin and Paris.

Sound; Andreas’ sound is intense but round and clearly reflects the many years he has spent listening to the masters of jazz such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Lester Young, Barry Harris, amongst others. Although Andreas’ style reflects traditional jazz musicians, he has been exploring many genres and has played everything from traditional jazz to bebop, hardbop, Afro-Cuban, folk music, and contemporary Jazz. Furthermore, Andreas doubles on alto-saxophone and Clarinet.

Benny Benack III
Emmy-nominated Trumpeter and Vocalist Benny Benack III (BBIII) has quickly become a leading voice in Jazz for his generation, headlining clubs and festivals around the world on the heels of his latest critically acclaimed live album “This Is The Life,” which has been garnering thousands of streams and topping the JazzWeek Radio Charts. He is the rare talent who is formidable as a fiery trumpeter -- ranging from Freddie Hubbard to Louis Armstrong and everyone in between -- while as a singer he delivers sly, mature, naturally expressive post-Sinatra vocal stylings.

His sophomore album “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” (2020) featured the likes of bass luminary Christian McBride, achieving viral online fame w/his vocalese rendition of "Social Call," ft. Veronica Swift, which has been transcribed and covered by singers around the world. He has crooned his way to millions more listeners alongside groups such as the Grammy-winning “8-Bit Big Band” and YouTube sensation “Postmodern Jukebox”. His 2023 album “Third Time’s the Charm” went all the way to #2 on the charts, and featured a notable line-up of special guests such as Peter Bernstein, Bria Skonberg, Chad LB, and more.

Benny's double-threat credentials were first apparent when he was a finalist in the 2014 Thelonius Monk Competition on trumpet, before going on to win Third Place in the 2021 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition. His resume for both was recently bolstered by Downbeat Magazine’s Readers Poll for 2025, where he placed #1 for Rising Star Male Vocalist, and was also #8 for Rising Star Trumpet.

BBIII's global recognition has been bolstered by his collaborations with the GRAMMY-award winning “8-Bit Big Band,” as well as touring with Postmodern Jukebox. The recent advent of live-streaming concerts has also proved a boon, both through his residency at Smalls Jazz Club, and frequent appearances at fellow superstar Emmet Cohen’s “Emmet’s Place” online series. Benny has established himself as one of the most in-demand touring artists and music educators in the Jazz world, with a seemingly unending intercontinental schedule reflecting his indefatigable love for the music, and with his smile and panache ever on display wherever he goes.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet