Martin Wind Newsletter

I was off by 5 years in my last newsletter: it has actually been 25 years since Ulf Meyer and I released our first recording “The Baltic”…a reason to celebrate and dig up some of our older repertoires! Over the course of our seven concerts in Northern Germany, we did just that without neglecting songs from our most recent
CD “Licorice and Beer”. Our second to the last concert also brought us back to the place, where our duo celebrated its maiden voyage: the “Orpheus Theater” in our hometown of Flensburg, Germany.
It felt great to back there for the first time in 7 years…

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 tested some of that new material at the “Midday Jazz” series at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Manhattan:

Mezzrow with the Bill Mays Trio featuring Matt Wilson
Don’t miss the first NY appearance of this great trio in a decade!
 
Friday, June 28 & Saturday, June 29, 7:30 - 10 pm:
Bill Mays Trio featuring Matt Wilson (drums)
Mezzrow Jazzclub, 163 W 10^th Street, New York
www.mezzrow.com

I have to say that this was easily my favorite convention of the twelve that I have attended so far: the facilities at IU were ideal, and we felt so welcome there; I got to hear some of my bass-playing idols such as Ron Carter, John Patitucci, and Jiri Slavik and made several wonderful new friends: Pablo Aslan, Gregg August, and Sam Suggs to just name a few. My presentation went really well, too: the room was packed, and after finishing my bass concerto “Legacy” Bill Mays and I received a standing ovation – what an honor…a reading of my latest bass ensemble piece “Give me some G – String”, performed by two of my students at Hofstra University, Alex Burns and Jason Flores, my friend, and colleague Pete Coco, and our super special guest John Clayton, was a big hit, too…

I ended the set with a brief solo number “Noch ein Bier bitte!” The responses were so overwhelmingly positive and heartfelt...the bass community is simply the best audience you could ever ask for!

This was taken right after our set:
Alex Burns, John Clayton, Pete Coco, myself, and Jason Flores (from left to right)
 
Other personal highlights were the passionate recital of my man Andrés Martin and the convention-concluding concert “John Clayton and Friends” which I was very happy to be a part of. John arranged a couple of gospel numbers for an ensemble of about 16 bassists and also featured me on a couple of smaller groups:
Monk’s “Bright Mississippi”, as well as John’s tribute to Andy Simpkins called “Walkin’ at Ya!”
 
Here are a few snapshots from this truly amazing event:

I believe these will be the official release concerts for Scott's new album "Tenormore" featuring his quartet of Helen Sung (piano), Dennis Mackrel (drums) and myself. In April I mentioned the album already and added links to some very positive first reviews; in case you missed it here is a beautifully crafted little promo video about the album: https://youtu.be/PTX8sgfINww

A few days ago we went to Newark for an in-studio performance and interview with the great Gary Walker:
https://www.wbgo.org/post/scott-robinson-swings-morning-jazz-his-tenormore-quartet-en-route-birdland.

It was wonderful seeing some of our BGO friends such as Amy Niles and John Newcott; unfortunately, we missed Michael Bourne by minutes…anyway, I always LOVE hearing Scott talk about his musical cosmos, and Gary was a great partner in crime. You can also check out a video recording of us playing Scott’s song "Morning Star", in case you need to whet your appetite any further:  
 
We will start out the release festivities with two nights at the Birdland Theater and will head up to play at the Rochester Jazz Festival afterward; here are the details:
 
Friday, June 23 & Saturday, June 24, sets at 7 and 9:45 pm:
Scott Robinson Quartet featuring Scott Robinson (tenor saxophone), Helen Sung (piano) & Dennis Mackrel (drums)
Birdland Jazzclub, 315 West 44^th Street, NY; 212-581-3080
www.birdlandjazz.com
 
Sunday, June 25, sets at 6:15 pm and 10 pm: Rochester Jazz Festival
Max of Eastman Place, https://www.rochesterjazz.com/artists?artist_id=651

On Day 2 of the ISB convention a package arrived at the convention hotel with newly published pieces of mine that were the two main works of my recital: my bass concerto “Legacy” (either in concert or solo tuning) and the bass ensemble piece “Give me some G-String”.
 
Both can now be ordered as hardcopies or digital downloads at http://martinwind.com/blog/