Martin France
Encyclopedia
Martin France is an English
jazz drummer based in London
. He has been the rhythmic backbone on more than 60 albums working with some of the world's finest musicians.
Martin began performing at the age of twelve backing singers in Working Men's clubs with Organ trios in and around Manchester. He studied under Geoff Riley, Kenny Clare, Joel Rothman, and Richard Smith, Principal Percussionist with The Hallé
.
In 1983 he began his recording career performing on several records for ECM records
. With his friend and music cohort Django Bates
, he had been performing with Evan Parker
and Kenny Wheeler, and through their friendships had been introduced to ECM. France went on to record several albums for the label, and toured with some of their bands throughout he 1980s and 1990s.
A turning point in his early career was his role within the 1980s big band, Loose Tubes
, where he began long standing partnerships with many of its members. His association with Django Bates
has led to many diverse projects away from the jazz environment they normally occupy with Human Chain
and Delightful Precipice
. These include film soundtracks, jazz theatre, cross cultural collaborations and recording projects involving orchestras such as The London Sinfonietta
, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the ASKO Ensemble in Amsterdam.
He is also active as a studio musician working on TV and film soundtracks and is involved in programming and composing for many projects and artists, including his own band, Spin Marvel, in which he plays mostly electronic and sequenced drums.
Along the way Martin has performed and recorded with some of the world's best musicians including John Paul Jones
, David Gilmour
, Elvis Costello
, John Taylor
, Kenny Wheeler
, Ralph Towner
, Lee Konitz
, Dave Holland
, Arild Andersen
, Marc Johnson, Steve Swallow
, Bob Mintzer
and The Yellowjackets, with Russell Ferrante and Jimmy Haslip, Gianluigi Trovesi
, Nils Petter Molvaer, Bugge Wesseltoft
, Mike Gibbs
, Maria Schneider
, Gil Goldstein
, Stephen Warbeck
, Joe Lovano
, Victor Bailey, Sidsel Endresen
and Maria Joao
. He is also a regular performer with NDR
radio orchestra in Hamburg.
With Billy Jenkins
With Iain Ballamy
With Django Bates
With Julian Arguelles
With Perfect Houseplants
With Mark Lockheart
With John Taylor
With others
Compilations
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
jazz drummer based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He has been the rhythmic backbone on more than 60 albums working with some of the world's finest musicians.
Martin began performing at the age of twelve backing singers in Working Men's clubs with Organ trios in and around Manchester. He studied under Geoff Riley, Kenny Clare, Joel Rothman, and Richard Smith, Principal Percussionist with The Hallé
The Hallé
The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...
.
In 1983 he began his recording career performing on several records for ECM records
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
. With his friend and music cohort Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
, he had been performing with Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
and Kenny Wheeler, and through their friendships had been introduced to ECM. France went on to record several albums for the label, and toured with some of their bands throughout he 1980s and 1990s.
A turning point in his early career was his role within the 1980s big band, Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
, where he began long standing partnerships with many of its members. His association with Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
has led to many diverse projects away from the jazz environment they normally occupy with Human Chain
Human Chain
Human Chain is a British jazz quartet led by composer and keyboard virtuoso Django Bates. The band has been Bates’s main musical outlet since 1990 and has performed on most of his albums....
and Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice is a 19-piece British jazz big band/orchestra led by Django Bates.Delightful Precipice contains many individual solo artists, music educators and bandleaders as ensemble members, including Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy, Eddie Parker, Steve Buckley, Mark Lockheart, Barak...
. These include film soundtracks, jazz theatre, cross cultural collaborations and recording projects involving orchestras such as The London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the ASKO Ensemble in Amsterdam.
He is also active as a studio musician working on TV and film soundtracks and is involved in programming and composing for many projects and artists, including his own band, Spin Marvel, in which he plays mostly electronic and sequenced drums.
Along the way Martin has performed and recorded with some of the world's best musicians including John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
, David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...
, Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
, Ralph Towner
Ralph Towner
Ralph Towner is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet.-Biography:...
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
, Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....
, Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen is a Norwegian bass player.Born in Lillestrøm, Norway, he started out as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet , with Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen...
, Marc Johnson, Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow
Steve Swallow is a jazz double bass and bass guitarist and composer born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.One of the leading bassists in jazz, Swallow is noted for collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley...
, Bob Mintzer
Bob Mintzer
Bob Mintzer is a jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader based in Los Angeles, California. Mintzer is a member of the jazz rock band the Yellowjackets.-With The Yellowjackets:*Greenhouse, 1991;*Live Wires, 1992;...
and The Yellowjackets, with Russell Ferrante and Jimmy Haslip, Gianluigi Trovesi
Gianluigi Trovesi
thumb|200px|Gianluigi Trovesi in 2006.Gianluigi Trovesi is an Italian jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer.A native of Nembro near Bergamo in Lombardy, he studied harmony and counterpoint under Vittorio Fellegara. Since then he has been a major player in the Italian and European jazz scene....
, Nils Petter Molvaer, Bugge Wesseltoft
Bugge Wesseltoft
Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft is a Norwegian jazz musician, pianist, composer and producer. He has his own label named Jazzland Records. In the 1990s, Bugge has made a transition from Nordic jazz traditions exemplified by the ECM record label to a style sometimes referred to as "future jazz" or...
, Mike Gibbs
Michael Gibbs (jazz composer)
Michael Clement Irving Gibbs is a jazz composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and keyboardist....
, Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider (musician)
Maria Schneider is an American arranger, composer, and big-band leader who has won multiple awards. In 2005, her album Concert in the Garden won a Grammy for "Best Large Ensemble Album"...
, Gil Goldstein
Gil Goldstein
Gil Goldstein is American jazz pianist and synthesizer player who started on the accordion.He began studying accordion at age 5, but later moved on to cello and piano. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and by 1973 was working with Pat Martino, Lee Konitz, and others. He started with the...
, Stephen Warbeck
Stephen Warbeck
Stephen Warbeck is an English composer, best known for his film and television scores.Warbeck was born in Southampton. He first became known for the music for Prime Suspect and won an Academy Award for his score for Shakespeare in Love...
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Victor Bailey, Sidsel Endresen
Sidsel Endresen
Sidsel Endresen is a Norwegian jazz singer.She was part of the Jon Eberson Group from 1981 to 1987, resulting in five CDs and two "Spellemannprisen" awards...
and Maria Joao
Maria João
Maria João is a Portuguese jazz singer.She is known for her vocal flexibility and improvisational skills. While normally considered a jazz singer, her music incorporates a mix of folk/ethnic music, modern jazz, and the avant-garde...
. He is also a regular performer with NDR
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Norddeutscher Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein...
radio orchestra in Hamburg.
As sideman
With First House- Erendira (1985)
- CantilenaCantilena (album)Cantilena is the second album by the English jazz group First House, featuring Ken Stubbs, Django Bates, Mick Hutton and Martin France. It was released on the ECM label in 1989.Allmusic awards this album with 4.5 out of 5 stars.-Track listing:...
(1989)
With Billy Jenkins
Billy Jenkins
Billy Jenkins is an English blues guitarist, composer, and bandleader.Initially Jenkins became famous as a member of Burlesque, then as part of Trimmer & Jenkins. A short period he followed as a member of Ginger Baker's Nutters. For several years, he ran Wood Wharf Studios...
- Uncommerciality Vol 3 (1986)
- Aural Art Exhibition (1992)
- Suburbia (1999)
- Mayfest (2001)
- True Love Collection (2001)
With Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy is a British composer, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player.- Career :Ballamy was schooled at 1975-80 George Abbot School, Guildford. He then studied Musical Instrument Technology from 1980-1982 Merton College...
- Balloon ManBalloon Man (album)Balloon Man is the debut album by English saxophonist Iain Ballamy, featuring Django Bates, Steve Watts and Martin France. It was released on the EG label in 1989...
(1989) - All Men AmenAll Men AmenAll Men Amen is the second album by English saxophonist Iain Ballamy, featuring Django Bates, Steve Watts and Martin France. It was released on the B&W label in 1995.Allmusic gives the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.-Track listing:...
(1995) - Mirrormask: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2005)
- Anorak: More Jazz (2007)
With Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
- Music for The Third PolicemanMusic for The Third PolicemanMusic for The Third Policeman is an album by the composer and musician Django Bates and the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra. It was released by Ah Um records in 1990....
(1990) - Summer Fruits (and Unrest) (1993)
- Winter Truce (and Homes Blaze) (1995)
- Good Evening...Here is the News (1995)
- Like Life (1997)
- Quiet Nights (1998)
- You Live and Learn...(Apparently) (2004)
With Julian Arguelles
Julian Argüelles
Julian Argüelles is a saxophonist. He is currently a member of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....
- Phaedrus (1991)
- Home Truths (1995)
- Skull View (1997)
- Escapade (1999)
- As Above So Below (2004)
With Perfect Houseplants
- Perfect Houseplants (1993)
- Clec (1995)
- Snap Clatter (1997)
- Extempore (1998) with The Orlando Consort
- Extempore II (1999) with The Orlando Consort
- New Folk Songs (2000)
With Mark Lockheart
Mark Lockheart
Mark Lockheart is a British jazz tenor saxophonist who came to prominence as a member of the Loose Tubes big band during the 1980s....
- Through Rose Coloured Glasses (1998)
- Imaginary Dances (2002)
- Moving Air (2005)
With John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...
- Angel of the Presence (2006)
- Whirlpool (2008)
With others
- Cleveland WatkissCleveland WatkissCleveland Watkiss is a versatile English singer who performs in a variety of musical genres, including jazz, reggae, rock music and drum and bass. Watkiss also performs on piano and guitar.-Life:...
, Green Chimneys (1989) - Tony Messenger, Actual Reality (1994)
- Eddie ParkerEddie ParkerEddie Parker was a stuntman and actor who appeared in many classic films, mostly westerns and horror films...
, Eddie Parker Group - Buckley/Batchelor Group, Whole & The half (1994)
- Michiel BraamMichiel BraamMichiel Braam is a Dutch Jazz-Pianist and Composer.- Activities :He studied at the ArtEZ School of Music in Arnhem, where he currently is head of the Jazz & Pop dept...
, Second Coolbook (1997) - Ben Davis Group, Double Dares are Sometimes Different (1997)
- Flemming Agerskov Quintet, Face to Face (1999)
- John ParricelliJohn ParricelliJohn Parricelli is a jazz guitarist, appearing and recording mainly in the United Kingdom.Parricelli began his career as a guitarist in 1982 and was one of the founding members of the British big band Loose Tubes, with whom he recorded three albums...
, Alba (2000) - Koln Sax Mafia, Kolner Saxophon Mafia
- Charlie MarianoCharlie MarianoCarmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cologne, Germany.-Biography:Mariano was the son of Italian immigrants....
, Opus Absolutum (2003) - Huw WarrenHuw WarrenHuw Warren is a jazz pianist and composer. A graduate of Goldsmiths College and Guildhall School of Music, he is known for his work with June Tabor, Perfect Houseplants, and various groups. Warren has recorded several albums under his own name on Babel Label, including projects with violinist Mark...
, Hundreds of Things a Boy Can Make (2004) - Dominic AlldisDominic AlldisDominic Alldis is a jazz pianist, singer, orchestral conductor & arranger who straddles the worlds of jazz, classical music and New York cabaret...
, Themes From French Cinema (2004) - MadalenaMadalenaMadalena may refer to:A woman's name.In places:*Madalena, Brazil, in the State of Ceará, Brazil*Madalena , a civil parish in Lisbon, Portugal*Madalena , a civil parish in Tomar, Portugal...
, Murmur (2005) - Justin QuinnJustin QuinnJustin Quinn is an Irish poet and critic, born in Dublin in 1968. He received a doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin, where his contemporaries included poets Caitriona O'Reilly and Sinéad Morrissey, and now lives with his wife and sons in Prague...
, Bakehouse (2005) - Tim HarriesTim HarriesTim Harries is a British bass player.Harries studied music at the University of York, graduating in 1981 before going on to study Double Bass with Tom Martin at the Guildhall School of Music...
, Sister Rotunda - Francois Corneloup Trio, ULM
- Christina Fuchs, NDR Big Band (2006)
- Chris Laurence Quartet, New View (2007)
- Dick Walter, Jazz Anthology (2007)
- Gwilym SimcockGwilym SimcockGwilym Simcock is a British pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music, and often blurring the boundaries of the two....
, Perception (2007)
Compilations
- Blue Note RecordsBlue Note RecordsBlue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, Pyrotechnics (1993) - Music for Soya Sauce - Takada ShotenCreative Notes – Japan
- Dal Libro De Balli
- F-IRE CollectiveF-IRE CollectiveF-IRE Collective is a creative music community founded by Barak Schmool in London, United Kingdom. Additionally, the Collective also has a record label....
, F-ire Works Vol 2 - Kevin LeGendre, Now's The Times
- Symbol RecordsSymbol RecordsSymbol Records is an independent record label for jazz that promotes artistic integrity and creativity. It provides an outlet for artistic freedom and encourages new music recorded at the highest standards possible....
, Jazz Outreach Project (2004) - Rhythm Dynamics - Martin France, KPM 677