ALBUMS

The Stealthy Moon – Small Blue

During 2023 Martin decided it was time to explore a format he hadn’t used before: the classic jazz lineup of piano, bass and drums. Martin enlisted two regular collaborators – pianist David Beebee and bassist Marianne Windham – and formed a new ensemble, Small Blue. Two days of relaxed recording yielded a treasure trove of tunes from which Martin selected the very best for this new album, The Stealthy Moon. Of the twelve tunes on the album, nine have never been recorded before, while three have appeared in different formats. It’s a largely intimate set but ranges far and wide in mood and tempo, taking in heartfelt ballads, mysterious grooves, evocative atmospheres and melodic swing along the way. 

Martin says “this music sits at the more straight ahead end of what I do. It was a delight to collaborate on this recording with David and Marianne, wonderful musicians and great friends who played my tunes beautifully. ”

“Again wanting to embrace a small group, Pyne has formed the trio heard on this excellent album with bassist Marianne Windham who made such a vital contribution ot the quartet albums, and pianist David Beebee. Pyne has also written twelve exceptional compositions for the new group that immediately gives the trio an identity and repertoire that marks them out as rather something special … a composer of rare talent” – Jazz Views

Ripples – Martin Pyne and David Beebee

Music the listener can sink into, immersing themselves in lush textures, and bathing in the richly varied harmonies and sonorities. 

Ripples began life with an experimental session designed to explore the combination of vibraphone and Fender Rhodes electric piano. The results are delightful and surprising. The sonorities bleed into one another so that sometimes it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins: this creates the extraordinary liquid quality of the music, and this in turn informed the album title, along with the titles of several of the pieces. It’s music that’s both intimate and intense. 

Most of this music is entirely improvised in real time. However, Pyne and Beebee both contribute a couple of lyrical pieces which are dotted through the sequence. The opening track is an improvisation on fragments from an angular composition by Martin Pyne, which eventually arrives at a bold statement of the original melody. 

Martin felt the time was right for a recording project where he focused purely on the vibraphone, and this recording represents very clearly where he is right now in the development of his expressive vocabulary. 

For David, this was a great opportunity to explore the sound world of the Rhodes piano, embellished with various FX pedals, and he relished the emphasis on unfettered improvisation. 

“Just gorgeous, pure music. Softly, as in a morning sunrise.” – Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery NYC 

“Ripples is quality made light of, echoes struck on sound’s surface and given weight by the clarity of intent.” – Steve Day, November 2022 

“Like a leaf caught in the surge of a stream. This is a feeling that haunts the album in general, allowing the listener to be gathered up, welcomed and then set adrift somewhere new, welcoming yet unexpected.” – Mr Olivetti, FREQ 

A New Pavan – Martin Pyne Quartet

The second album from Martin’s quartet featuring bassist Marianne Windham, guitarist Russell Jarrett, and Philippe Guyard on saxophones. This band is very much a vehicle for his melodic and evocative compositions and the absence of gigs for eighteen months left Martin with plenty of time to compose new tunes. This recording presents a selection of those, recorded in a relaxed two day session at David Beebee’s studio in Sussex. The music ranges from lyrical ballads and waltzes, via Americana,  to quirky swingers and driving grooves, and draws on a range of influences including Thelonious Monk, Paul Motian, Louis Sclavis and more. Listen to the album, order a CD, or download by clicking on the image.

It is possibly not wise to open an album with a composition as strong as ‘A New Pavan For These Distracted Times’ unless you have the means to back it up for the remainder of the set. With his new Quartet recording, drummer and percussionist Martin Pyne, is certainly able to walk the walk with eight new compositions that all deliver the goods. – Nick Lea: Jazz Views

Spirits Of Absent Dancers

A brand new solo album, recorded during the 2020 lockdown, and a direct response to not being in studios with dancers, the place where normally I spend most of my professional time. I found myself imagining a lone musician in a deserted theatre, like a kind of medicine man, throwing sounds into the space in an attempt to conjure up the ghosts of dancers no longer present, to breathe movement into stillness. I set about creating a sequence of music based around this idea, and ended up with this set of nineteen largely improvised short pieces played on vibraphone, drums, percussion, and toy piano. This is one of the most personal projects I have ever done. Check out the NEWS page for more about this, and click here to listen and buy. This is out now on Discus Music. Discus CD98.

“In terms of percussion improvisation, try to imagine something that runs from the Zen sound-painting of Frank Perry to the light swing of Billy Higgins. There’s nothing loud, nothing showy, nothing esoteric. Just a delight in the deft touch of a stick, a mallet, a finger or a wire brush on metal, skin or wood, and in the process of transforming sound into a sense of movement.”

Richard Williams – The Blue Moment

“Spirits Of Absent Dancers is a selection of pieces that are in a way melancholic, but aim far higher than that, twisting sound and texture to fit the sort of whirling physical shapes that the spectral dancers of the musician’s imagination may have conjured. Unusual in a way, but so atmospheric and evocative that it works perfectly.“

Freq magazine

Hi-Res-Heart

Hi Res Heart is a trio album created via remote collaboration during lockdown. It features Martin Archer on saxophones, Charlotte Keeffe on trumpet, and myself on drums, percussion and vibes. We made 12 pieces. Each of recorded 4 first layers, 4 second layers, and 4 third layers. This made for a fascinating creative process, which for me meant I used my improvisational language, but applied it in quite a compositional manner. As none of us could predict what the other musicians would add to the sounds we recorded these pieces are truly collaborative. We’re all really proud of the results, and following the release on Discus Music the album was really well received.

…what is most telling about this trio’s music is the love of life emanating from its members instruments, a reaction to the circumstances surrounding the album’s creation that somehow feels both introspective and joyful, even though there are many moments when Archer’s intense squalls erupt in a pristine gush, emboldened by his occasionally painterly electronics and Pyne’s strident pulsations. Cherish these sounds, for their creators indeed make them sing. – Darren Bergstein – DowntownMusicGallery NYC

Rickety Racket – Martin Pyne Quartet

This album, released Spring 2020, features a selection of my more straight ahead jazz compositions, played by a quartet featuring Philippe Guyard on saxophones, guitarist Russell Jarrett, Marianne Windham on double bass, and myself playing drums. (Click on the image to listen and buy)

…seven original compositions for contemporary jazz quartet that are superbly written and arranged. Jazz Views

… the feel-good, mischief and effortless musicianship of Rickety Racket is, quite simply, blissful AP Reviews

TAXONOMIES. – MPH

MPH is an improvising trio featuring Alex Maguire on piano and Hammond, Martin Pyne on vibes, percussion and electronics, and Mark Hewins on guitars and electronics. This album was released in Autumn 2019. The music draws from a huge range of genres to create bewitching and astonishingly original sound pictures, shot through with vitality, tenderness and humour. Taxonomies is the trio’s debut album, taking inspiration from a quirky perspective on the natural world. (Click on the image to listen and buy)

…Under the deceptive guise of easily absorbed melodies and rhythms, this is gently and subversively experimental. Subversive and submersive, this album lurks beneath a deceptively placid surface. A Jazz Noise

BEHIND THE MIST – Martin Pyne, solo vibraphone

This is an album of music inspired by the strange, mysterious, and sometimes dark and disturbing tales of faeries from around the British Isles. (Click on the image to listen and buy)

Limpid, often sparse, esoterically playful, and appropriately capricious, he conjures a pre-modern faeryland, beautiful and alien, in which faeries are tricksters, more likely to steal your child or the colour of your eyes rather than grant your Disney wishes. A Jazz Noise 

HAUNTED CARBONEK Compositions for solo piano played by Sarah Walker

This album features a selection of the pieces I have written over many years, for pianist Sarah Walker. Five of the pieces come from a series of piano works called “Abstracts”. These reflect a fascination with sculpture, in particular the work of Barbara Hepworth.  
The other three pieces here, placed at the beginning, middle and end of the sequence, are far from abstract. (Click on the image to listen and buy)

MINOR MOMENTS – Laura Zakian

This EP under Laura’s name features the first fruits of our songwriting collaboration – my music, Laura’s lyrics. The music is performed by Laura with her wonderful band featuring pianist Steve Lodder, Nic France on drums, bassist Simon Thorpe, and Paul Bartholomew on baritone sax. (Click on the image to listen and buy)

…a powerful set of all original material … an enthralling writing partnership that bodes well for future collaborations. Jazz Views

poignant, meaningful songwriting delivered with gently uplifting grace. London Jazz News

WINTER LANDSCAPE – Stephen Grew/Martin Pyne duo

This album consists of a sequence of improvisations for vibraphone and piano recorded on a bitterly cold day in Lancaster in the north west of England. It has been beautifully mixed and mastered by Alex Bonney  (Click on the image to listen and buy)

A vibrant, crystalline dance from start to finish by two clearly inspired musicians whose instruments merge in joint song with deceptive ease, effortlessly evoking the British winter. However, not just for icy days. A Jazz Noise

BUSNOYS

Busnoys is a trio led from the vibes playing a range of my compositions. I’m joined in this band by bass guitarist Jeff Spencer and drummer Trevor Davies. The band has recorded three albums (click on the images above). San Angelo featured Jim Barr on bass, and on the following records, By Tapering Torchlight, and Weaving The Spell, there are guest appearances from trumpeter Pete Judge, and violinist/singer Gina Griffin. (Click on the image to listen and buy)

This album is a little triumph. A glowing, sometimes austere, occasionally dark beauty emerges as the set unfolds.  London Jazz News

A quirky little gem of an album Jazzyblogman

DANGEROUS KITCHEN

Dangerous Kitchen is an improvising trio featuring percussionist/multi instrumentalist Simon Allen, the legendary UK Saxophonist Stan Sulzmann alongside Martin Pyne on drums and percussion. The band gigged and broadcast in the Uk extensively in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Click on the image to listen and buy)