Jazz musicians are accustomed to winging it, but Peter Martin really wasn’t sure what he was in for when he turned up at the East Room of the White House for a state dinner in 2011. He and a band had been engaged for a feature performance, “but that means different things to different people” and the details were surprisingly vague for such an event.
Martin would not have been surprised if he was asked to serve as a glorified hotel lobby pianist, tickling the ivories in the background as heads of state and diplomats solved all the world’s problems. Instead, the performance was much more up close and personal — for the first time in two decades, he was nervous before a gig.
“And part of that is just because, you know, it’s the president of the United States and the First Lady and the president of China [Hu Jintao] was there, former president Clinton,” Martin said. “It’s hard not to look over and get a little nervous when you see all those folks. But they really listened, that was the other thing. I kind of figured we’d be playing in the background, they didn’t really give us a whole lot of information, but it was a real performance. It was a great experience.
“They really wanted to present jazz music as America’s music to the Chinese. Everyone’s sitting down, concert hall style, except they are sitting really close to the stage, and we played for like 30 minutes. And everybody listened, there was no business or politics going on, it was really just entertainment.”
Martin performed at the White House twice, once on the same night as his idol Herbie Hancock, and the shows stand as highlights in a career that has so far taken him across the US and to such diverse places as Angola, the Canary Islands and northern Norway. He has played in Bangkok twice before and is returning with his own trio for the first time to headline the Thailand International Jazz Conference at Mahidol University’s Salaya campus next weekend. As well as bringing the event to a close on Sunday night with a mix of the trio’s upbeat instrumental pieces and a selection of standards, each member will hold individual workshops.
The trio boasts Gregory Hutchinson on drums, who worked alongside Martin on Dianne Reeves’ Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated soundtrack to Good Night and Good Luck, and Robert Hurst, who has contributed his talent on the bass to seven Grammy-winning albums, spent the best part of a decade in Jay Leno’s Tonight Show band and is in constant demand after work with artists such as Michael Buble and Paul McCartney. Hurst is an occasional member of the trio, filling in for bassist Ruben Rogers, who played on Martin’s latest album.
“I’m very, very lucky to have, I don’t even want to say back-up because Robert’s the first-call bassist for Diana Krall and worked with [trumpet virtuoso] Wynton Marsalis for years. He’s a leader in his own right,” Martin said. “It’s a great thing to have him available and we’re actually working together quite a bit this year.
“I know a lot of great musicians and of course the top players are always in demand, but I try to not only look at great players but great combinations, especially for bass and drums. That’s a very special and important relationship in any band, especially in a trio where you only have three members, so every role is super important.
“Personally, this trio really gets along too. We’re all really good friends. That’s not always the case. To me, that’s a nice bonus. The most important thing is music and how you approach it.”
Music has been part of Martin’s life since the beginning, as his parents were classical musicians and he was seated behind a piano and taught to pick up a violin from the age of three. His talent shone during his high school years, earning him the Presidential Scholar in the Arts award from Ronald Reagan and after graduation a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York.
Apart from a youthful flirtation with football and basketball, there was never really a time Martin wanted to do anything else. He appreciates he is living the dream, and as a jazz musician is always looking to be in the moment — “it’s always the next gig and the next solo, the next performance”.
He did, however, pause to reflect last year when Reeves won best jazz vocal album at the Grammys for Beautiful Life.
“That was a record I was super involved with, I wrote some of the music, I played on a lot of it and did a lot of the arranging. It’s always fun to be part of a project that you’re passionate about, and then it does get some kind of recognition. Although, when we’re making the record, you’re really not thinking Grammy. You try to make a good record and then maybe it gets recognised a year or a year-and-a-half later.”
After more than two decades in the industry, he said only the White House performances made him nervous and he had never been starstruck — but he does admit to feeling excited every time he encounters Hancock.
“I kind of know Herbie, I’ve known him for 20 years plus. By know, I mean I’ve been around and had small conversations with him, but because he’s somebody I spent so much time studying his music as a young kid and he’s so influential on me as a musician. That will never go away, that excitement.
“Herbie’s a super sweet guy. He’s very intelligent about music and playing the piano, beyond even what everybody can obviously hear in his playing, he’s got a very intelligent way of talking about his whole approach to music and his whole approach to playing the instrument. It’s always exciting for me to be around him and glean some of that knowledge. Sometimes you think you know everything about somebody like that if you study their music a lot, but then it’s fun to hear his take and approach on it.”
While his previous visits to Bangkok were in support of more famous names, Reeves among them, Martin is hoping for the same “very perceptive and responsive” connection when the audience hears his own band. He said the crowd can expect a combination of original music from his latest album and some standards, plus “a lot of improvising, a lot of interaction”.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to playing and seeing the audience there,” he said.
“With previous audiences, it was very easy for us to connect. In the first couple of tunes not only are you getting a feel for the group of course, as musicians you’re also getting a feel for the audience, seeing how people respond. Every audience is different, even in the same country, but I’m hoping for a similar positive experience as previous times in Thailand.”
The Thailand International Jazz Conference runs from Friday, Jan 29, to Sunday, Jan 31, with four acts performing each night from 6.30pm. The Peter Martin Trio headlines the final night on Sunday. Tickets for the evening concerts cost 800 baht per night. A three-day conference pass costs 3,000 baht including all performances and workshops. Visit www.tijc.net or call 02 849 6565 ext 6603 and 6609 for more information and bookings.
