Martin Wind Newsletter

I did promise a detailed account of our absolutely amazing road trip to America's Southwest, didn't I? Well, after looking through my notes and 200 + photos I decided to put together a "short" iMovie, which clocked in at around 10 minutes…so if you're interested and tempted enough, be my guest! Here is the link:

View iMovie

Btw, the initial purpose of this trip was to visit the son of Ulf and Ivonne, who was being trained at the Lufthansa facility at the Goodyear airport; Per Ole will be flying for Austrian Airlines, soon!
 
Overall the beauty that we encountered was almost too much to bear at times; we loved the hikes and long car rides through barely inhibited big-skied landscapes that provided such a wonderful getaway from our frantic, urban lives. What an amazing part of this country!

After returning from New Mexico and a couple of long teaching days at NYU and Hofstra University an exciting four - day run started at the Birdland with pianist/vocalist Dena DeRose and drummer Steve Williams, who turned out to be living about 5 minutes away from me in Teaneck.

On opening night we were honored by the presence of the impeccable Houston Person: boy did that big, fuzzy sound feel good! Houston always complements me on my newsletter, so I’m glad that he finally made it into my monthly diary:

On our second night, it was the energetic Jeremy Pelt, who stepped into the ring with us…he had just returned from a long European tour and found himself on the cover of Downbeat Magazine! That day Steve and I suffered through one of the worst commutes into the city since my move to New Jersey 15 years ago: absolute gridlock, the crossing of 9^th or 11^th Ave was absolutely impossible! It took us more than an hour to get from the Westside Highway and 44^th to the club – which is ON 44^th about FOUR blocks from where we got stuck…it was maddening.

On Friday we were joined by another one of my favorites, Ingrid Jensen. That day, we had no problems driving in, and the music was absolutely swinging!

Our last night at the club featured the trio without any guest and happened to be my 51^st birthday; my wife Maria tagged along and surprised me with my favorite chocolate cheesecake from the Palermo baker in Ridgefield, NJ, which we enjoyed with friends and some of the club’s staff including owner Gianni Valenti.

We finished out our week at "Sarah's Wine Bar" in Ridgefield, CT with yet another amazing trumpet player, Mr. Marvin Stamm, who will turn 80 years young this month – how does he do it???!!!

The multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson has been the one irreplaceable member in my quartet and one of the most influential musicians in my life for the past dozen years or so; we share the same residency (Teaneck, NJ), our love for beer…and our birthday! When I decided to invite some friends to our house for a little birthday BBQ on May 5, I had this idea of arranging a little surprise for Scott. I reached out to his wife, Sharon, and found a willing accomplice…she phoned Scott’s folks, who were on board, too.

As a cover-up story I asked Scott whether he'd be free and interested in playing a little duo gig with me that day in Newark, NJ: just one set during the cocktail hour of a wedding of some WBGO folks who had heard us on of the many jazz weekends at the Mohonk Mountain House. “ It pays $ 150.00 and they’ll treat us nicely!”…
He responded with “ Sure, money is a bit light, but sounds like fun”…boy, did we get him good! For about 6 weeks I was afraid that somebody would accidentally spill the beans, but no: when he arrived at my house all dressed up, and ready to drive to Newark with me, Maria somehow lured him into our kitchen where we all welcomed him with a big “SURPRISE!”…it turned out to be a wonderful evening!
 
Here is a group shot of everybody involved:

In December of 2017, I got to meet the master chef and restaurant owner Robert Wiedmaier by introduction of his son Marcel, who was a student of mine at NYU at the time. The following year, Robert started hosting the NEA jazz awards dinner and met legendary club owner/presenter Todd Barkan that way. The two hit it off and as a result, just opened the "Keystone Corner Baltimore" together - naturally, the entire jazz community is thrilled!

The club opened on April 27 with a three-day engagement of Ron Carter’s trio, followed by Kenny Garrett’s quartet and…the Duduka DaFonseca/Maucha Adnet Quintet featuring saxophonist Billy Drews and pianist
Helio Alvez. The place holds 200 guests, features a brand new Steinway Grand, a great sound system and delicious food – we are all wishing the club great success for years to come!
 
Here is a photo from the "Keystone Lounge", the artists' backstage area;

The club is located only a couple of minutes from the Baltimore Harbor with the National Aquarium and its collection of historic vessels. Here are a couple of impressions from my harbor walk:

As I'm typing these paragraphs I am on my way to Europe for seven concerts in my home state of Schleswig-Holstein together with my friend and long-time duo partner, Ulf Meyer. We’ll be celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the release of our very first recording called "The Baltic" – yes, time does fly.
 

1. Friday, May 17, 8 pm: Neumünster, Volkshaus Neumünster/Tungendorf
2. Saturday, May 18, 8 pm: Ratzeburg, Rittersaal
3. Wednesday, May 22, 8 pm: Kiel, Kulturforum
4. Thursday, May 23, 8 pm: Schönkirchen, Schmidthaus
5. Friday, May 24, 8 pm: Husum, Englischer Bahnhof
6. Saturday, May 25, 8:30 pm:  Flensburg, Orpheus Theater
7. Sunday, May 26, 7pm: Leck, Leck-Huus,
 

Unfortunately, one of our two engagements just got canceled a couple of days ago, but Katharina Pütter and I are presenting our “New York, New York” program again at this charming club in the Southwestern German city of Karlsruhe:

Sunday, May 19, 6 pm: Tabou, Karlsruhe; for more info visit https://tabou-ka.de/

As I already mentioned in my March issue the Bill Mays Trio with Matt Wilson and myself has been reunited; at the end of June we will be appearing at the wonderful Mezzrow jazz club, and right on the heels of that engagement we will be recording our first studio album in more than a decade! On Wednesday, May 29 Bill and I will be “test driving” some of the material for the new CD at “Midday Jazz” at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Manhattan:

Bill Mays & Martin Wind Duo
 
Wednesday, May 29, 1 – 2 pm: Saint Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington Ave, New York, Midday Jazz, https://www.saintpeters.org/events/2019-05-29
 

After our one-hour concert, Bill and I will be disappearing into a rehearsal studio to further explore some of Bill’s newest ideas, as well as to rehearse my bass concerto “Legacy” for our performance at the ISB convention at IU in Bloomington, Indiana…and I will only have one day to get ready for this after returning from Germany – yikes!