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Artist
Martin Speake
12+ albums
jazzsaxophonecontemporary jazzECMmodern jazz
about
Martin Speake was born in Barnet, England, in 1958. There was music in the family and his grandmother was a pub pianist all her life having started off playing for silent films. A cousin was a semi professional jazz pianist who was inspired by Bill Evans, his mother loved Ella Fitzgerald and his auntie and uncle listened to Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and Errol Garner. Parties would always have music at them, which usually meant family and friends would take it in turns to sing a song. Initially Martin was attracted by pop and rock music and the first band he saw live was Led Zeppelin. Throughout his early teens he attended many concerts and festivals and saw bands such as Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Faces, Hawkwind, Frank Zappa, Faust, Van Morrison, Can, Stevie Wonder, Spirit, Kevin Ayers, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Yes and many others. He left school at 16 with very few qualifications and lasted 8 months in an office working for a motor insurance company. During this time he bought an alto saxophone, after hearing Ornette Coleman on record, and began practising and taking lessons. After studying some music theory he first went to Southgate Technical College and then to Trinity College of Music to study classical saxophone from 1977-81. At that time there were no jazz courses in London. He met some other musicians at the college who were playing jazz, such as pianist Simon Purcell with whom he formed a group, and saxophonist Mark Lockheart. Also during this time he met the music
