MARTIN WIND QUARTET - My Astorian Queen
Laika Records 3510391-2/EAN
Martin Wind (bass) Bill Mays (piano) Scott Robinson (tenor and bass saxophones, clarinet, trumpet) Matt Wilson (drums and percussion)
Recorded July 4th & 5th at Maggie’s Farm, Pennsylvania, USA.
Subtitled `25 years on the New York Jazz Scene`, Martin Wind’s latest recording as leader features a musical selection that charts biographical associations connected with his move from his home town of Flensburg on the Baltic sea to the jazz capital of the world on the Hudson River. Encouraged to make the move by pianist Bill Mays whom he met at a North Sea Jazz Festival in 1992 he has put the time to very good use building a reputation and career that has seen him produce ten albums as leader and appear in many others as a stalwart sideman. In the course of becoming the significant figure he is today he has paid his dues at the coal face of commercial entertainment that is Broadway, participated in countless club gigs as well as finding time to establish a home in New Jersey, marry and raise a family. All these events are celebrated in the pieces performed here, the album being dedicated to his wife Maria, the lady referred to in the title.
His band consists of musicians with whom he has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship. As well as the aforementioned Mays, an elegant stylist who purveys the understated eloquence and virtuosity of the type we associate with Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan, there is multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson who is particularly famous for his mastery of the more arcane members of the saxophone family. The drummer is the highly regarded Matt Wilson, a particularly agile and innovative percussionist who elevates the music in a crisp, resourceful manner and throughout there is the warm resonance of the leader’s bass which is captured to perfection by the demonstration quality recording as he moves between pulsating support and thematic statements and solos.
The set opens with a Thad Jones tune associated with Wind’s tenure with the Monday night Village Vanguard Orchestra in which Robinson enlarges the quartet’s compass by getting play trumpet and both his saxes, exploiting the contrasting timbres of both instruments to dramatic effect. A Wind original follows which invokes memories of his home on the shores of the Baltic, featuring Robinson on clarinet against undulating piano, with the bass expressing the pensive theme against a gentle, trudging percussive tattoo. Other nostalgic moments inspired by people and places occur including a signature piece by Mays for piano trio in which Wind takes up his bow to sensitively articulate the waltz time theme.
Wind’s Broadway connection is represented by three numbers each receiving a different treatment and which I found to be the highlight tracks of the set: `Broadway` features the huge, cavernous sound of the bass sax in which Robinson embellishes the familiar theme with extraordinary dexterity, returning to his trumpet for brightly etched take on Gershwin’s `There’s a Boat that’s leaving soon for New York`, from `Porgy and Bess’. Finally, we have a show stopping bass ‘n drum rendition of that show biz blockbuster `New York, New York` in which the pair give a joyful demonstration of both their wit and technical skill bringing to a close an album which celebrates musical pulse of a great metropolis and the musicianship of those who animate it.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Laika Records 3510391-2/EAN
Martin Wind (bass) Bill Mays (piano) Scott Robinson (tenor and bass saxophones, clarinet, trumpet) Matt Wilson (drums and percussion)
Recorded July 4th & 5th at Maggie’s Farm, Pennsylvania, USA.
Subtitled `25 years on the New York Jazz Scene`, Martin Wind’s latest recording as leader features a musical selection that charts biographical associations connected with his move from his home town of Flensburg on the Baltic sea to the jazz capital of the world on the Hudson River. Encouraged to make the move by pianist Bill Mays whom he met at a North Sea Jazz Festival in 1992 he has put the time to very good use building a reputation and career that has seen him produce ten albums as leader and appear in many others as a stalwart sideman. In the course of becoming the significant figure he is today he has paid his dues at the coal face of commercial entertainment that is Broadway, participated in countless club gigs as well as finding time to establish a home in New Jersey, marry and raise a family. All these events are celebrated in the pieces performed here, the album being dedicated to his wife Maria, the lady referred to in the title.
His band consists of musicians with whom he has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship. As well as the aforementioned Mays, an elegant stylist who purveys the understated eloquence and virtuosity of the type we associate with Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan, there is multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson who is particularly famous for his mastery of the more arcane members of the saxophone family. The drummer is the highly regarded Matt Wilson, a particularly agile and innovative percussionist who elevates the music in a crisp, resourceful manner and throughout there is the warm resonance of the leader’s bass which is captured to perfection by the demonstration quality recording as he moves between pulsating support and thematic statements and solos.
The set opens with a Thad Jones tune associated with Wind’s tenure with the Monday night Village Vanguard Orchestra in which Robinson enlarges the quartet’s compass by getting play trumpet and both his saxes, exploiting the contrasting timbres of both instruments to dramatic effect. A Wind original follows which invokes memories of his home on the shores of the Baltic, featuring Robinson on clarinet against undulating piano, with the bass expressing the pensive theme against a gentle, trudging percussive tattoo. Other nostalgic moments inspired by people and places occur including a signature piece by Mays for piano trio in which Wind takes up his bow to sensitively articulate the waltz time theme.
Wind’s Broadway connection is represented by three numbers each receiving a different treatment and which I found to be the highlight tracks of the set: `Broadway` features the huge, cavernous sound of the bass sax in which Robinson embellishes the familiar theme with extraordinary dexterity, returning to his trumpet for brightly etched take on Gershwin’s `There’s a Boat that’s leaving soon for New York`, from `Porgy and Bess’. Finally, we have a show stopping bass ‘n drum rendition of that show biz blockbuster `New York, New York` in which the pair give a joyful demonstration of both their wit and technical skill bringing to a close an album which celebrates musical pulse of a great metropolis and the musicianship of those who animate it.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
