Frederick Alfred Martin (December 9, 1906 – September 30, 1983) was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist.

Early life

Freddy Martin was born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Raised largely in an orphanage and by various relatives, Martin started out playing drums, then switched to C melody saxophone and subsequently tenor saxophone, the latter the one with which he would be identified.

Early career

upright|thumb|Martin in 1943

After a couple of years, his skill began attracting other musicians. One was Guy Lombardo,

The success of "Tonight We Love" prompted Martin to adopt several other classical themes (of Rachmaninoff, Grieg, and others), which featured the band's pianists Jack Fina, Murray Arnold, and Barclay Allen.

Musical style

Martin was nicknamed "Mr. Silvertone" by saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Chu Berry named Martin his favorite saxophonist. He has also been idolized by many other saxophonists, including Eddie Miller. Although his playing has been admired by so many jazz musicians, Martin never tried to be a jazz musician. Martin always led a sweet-styled band. Unlike most sweet bands that just played dull music, Martin's band turned out to be one of the most musical and most melodic of all the typical hotel-room sweet bands. According to George T. Simon, Martin's band was "one of the most pleasant, most relaxed dance bands that ever flowed across the band scene."

He used the banner "Music in the Martin Manner." Russ Morgan used a similar banner when he finally landed a radio series with his own band in 1936. (Morgan's title was "Music in the Morgan Manner".) Morgan had been playing in Martin's band and the two were good friends for years. Morgan used some of Martin's arrangements when he started his band.

Later career

Martin employed various people from the music industry for vocal performances, such as singers Merv Griffin, Buddy Clark, Gene Merlino; pianists Sid Appleman and Terry Shand; saxophonists Elmer Feldkamp and Stuart Wade; violinist Eddie Stone, and many others. Untroubled by changing musical tastes, he continued to work at major venues and was musical director for Elvis Presley's first appearance in Las Vegas.

The 1947 song "Pico and Sepulveda" was recorded by Martin under the alias of "Felix Figueroa and his Orchestra" and was frequently featured on Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show. It was also featured in the 1980 surrealist film Forbidden Zone.

Selected discography

References

Listen to

  • Paper Tape Archive: Freddy Martin and vocalist Merv Griffin, NBC