Guitarist Martin Leys hails from Inverness, Scotland by way of Maplewood, NJ. A lifelong devotee of Django Reinhardt, Martin also cites Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery as primary influences. Highlights from his Scottish days include forming the punk rock group The Fraser Brothers, playing bass, banjo and guitar with traditional jazz group the Ness River Rhythm Kings and winning the BBC Jazz Band Bowl with his group Swing 84 as best in the festival 1984. Martin was also the first performer at Maplewood's long running music series "Rent Party", has appeared several times at Maplewoodstock and has also performed at the Village Gate in NYC, The Right Bank in Williamsburg, the Peppermint Lounge in Orange, and can often be heard locally with - in numeric order - the Heptocratic Septet and Sextet, Bossa 5, MB4 and Trio Django. In the UK he has also performed with Jazz Journal Musician of the Year Digby Fairweather as well as with Benny Waters, with gypsy guitar virtuoso Fapy Lafertin and with Maplewood's (and the world's) great Django stylist, Stephane Wrembel. He has also performed on live BBC radio and on top of an extinct Scottish volcano. Because it's very hard to be heard on top of an active volcano.