Martin Speake

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Martin Speake at the INNtöne Jazzfestival 2019
Martin Speake, 2008

Martin Speake (born April 3, 1958 in Barnet , England ) is a British jazz musician ( alto saxophone ) and composer .

Live and act

Speake, who had little musical instruction at school, turned to jazz under the influence of Ornette Coleman's music and began playing the alto saxophone at the age of sixteen. He then studied classical saxophone playing from 1977 to 1981 at London's Southgate Technical College and at Trinity College of Music . He then played with musicians from the English jazz scene, in the Voice of God Collective by Billy Jenkins, and finally became known for his membership in the Itchy Fingers saxophone quartet , with whom he toured Europe, the United States, South America and Africa frequently. Speake left the band in 1988 and worked with his own formations, such as the Martin Speake Group with guitarist John Parricelli , bassist Steve Watts or Mick Hutton and drummer Steve Argüelles . He also played in a duo with Phil Lee and Nikki Iles ( Secret , 2000) and was a member of the formations Loose Tubes , Style Council , Fever Pitch, Mind and Time and Eternal Triangle .

In 1994 he recorded his first album under his own name, In Our Time , which was released on Danny Thompson's The Jazz Label . His album Tan T'ien was released in 1996 , followed by Trust (1998) and The Journey (2004) with sitar player Dharambir Singh. In March 2002 the album Change of Heart was created in a quartet with Bobo Stenson , Mick Hutton and Paul Motian , which was released in 2006 on ECM Records . In 2004 he recorded an album with Charlie Parker interpretations with Mike Outrum , Simon Thorpe and Dave Wickens . Martin Speake has also worked with Stan Tracey , Django Bates , Bob Wilber , Conrad Herwig , Don Weller , Airto Moreira / Flora Purim , Jim Mullen , Julian Argüelles , Tom Skinner and the Royal Shakespeare Company . He is a professor of saxophone and contemporary music at the Royal Academy of Music and teaches saxophone at Middlesex University .

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Web links

Commons : Martin Speake  - collection of images, videos and audio files