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Jazz Articles about Martin Speake
About Martin Speake
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
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by Matt Parker
A partnership which perhaps could and should have developed years ago, saxophonist Martin Speake and pianist Alex Maguire both attended the legendary Barry Jazz School in 1979 which featured an incredible cast of tutors ,including Stan Sulzmann, Keith Tippett, Gordon Beck, Allan Holdsworth and many other “A" list British jazz musicians. Amazingly Speake and Maguire failed to meet at this junction and would have to wait nearly 40 years for their paths to finally cross, at a chance meeting in ...
read moreMartin Speake: Intention
by Roger Farbey
Celebrating his 60th birthday in April 2018, Martin Speake has been a stalwart of the British jazz scene for some forty years, initially playing with the saxophone quartet Itchy Fingers. He is lead alto saxophonist in the redoubtable London Jazz Orchestra and his teaching duties extend to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and London's Royal Academy of Music. In his review of Speake's album Change Of Heart (ECM, 2006), John Kelman summarised the saxophonist's playing perfectly: “Speake's playing ...
read moreMartin Speake: The Thinking Fan's Saxophonist
by Duncan Heining
British alto saxophonist, Martin Speake, is one of the most adventurous and articulate musicians in a music peppered with creative artists. That he is not a household name--even within the proscribed and marginalised world of jazz--says more about the times than it does about Speake or his single-minded approach to his art. Speake combines in his music a purposeful curiosity with a love of the jazz tradition. He is equally capable of flights into free improvisation and into ...
read moreMartin Speake: The Unquiet Mind
by Duncan Heining
We have here three very fine CDs from British alto saxophonist, Martin Speake. Speake is classically trained and when I first heard him in the late 90s, he brought to jazz a tone that emphasised the clarity of each note and the purity of the melodic line that was quite unusual in a music more used to the personalised sounds of a Hodges, a Bird, a Desmond or an Ornette. Over the years, his alto playing has perhaps become more ...
read moreSecret Quartet: Bloor Street
by AAJ Italy Staff
Una ritmica canadese ed una coppia di solisti tra i più quotati della nuova scena britannica, una etichetta che proprio di questi fermenti è la testimone più assidua ed ecco Bloor Street del Secret Quartet. Ma siamo piuttosto lontani dai prodotti piu' avventurosi e innovativi della Edition Records perché Bloor Street è jazz-jazz, raffinato, elegante, di gradevole ascolto, di ottima esecuzione, di buona scrittura ma senza sussulti, senza impennate. Certo tutto ciò non è un delitto, ma se l'ascoltatore curioso ...
read moreMartin Speake: Generations
by John Kelman
British altoist Martin Speake isn't as well-known as he ought to be, but he may well be the clearest successor to the unadorned, warm-toned approach of the legendary Lee Konitz. But while Konitz has undeniably led a career defined by diversity, Speake has stretched considerably farther, with albums ranging from the Indo- centric The Journey (Black Box, 2004) and uniquely modern, guitar-centric take on Charlie Parker (Jazzizit, 2005), to accessible free improvisation with percussionist Mark Sanders on Spark (Pumpkin, 2007) ...
read moreMartin Speake / Mark Sanders: Spark
by John Kelman
British altoist Martin Speake has made a career out of doing things differently. With Exploring Standards (33 Records, 2003) he adopted a decidedly minimalist and miniaturist approach to jazz standards. Charlie Parker (Jazzizit, 2005) presented a modernistic alternative to most of the tributes recorded for the 50th anniversary year of the legendary saxophonist's death. So it should come as no surprise that Spark puts a decidedly personal spin on free improvisation. The idea of an entire album ...
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