Doug Martin with DJ Jazzy Kat On Air!"

Doug Martin with DJ Jazzy Kat On Air!"
🌟 "Jazz lovers, this one's for you! Sit back, relax, and enjoy an unforgettable conversation with Doug Martin and DJ Jazzy Kat!"

 Alfred, ON, CA   

- my musical history

      - at age 12, inspired by sax players in 50's rock 'n' roll bands

      - turned on to jazz by Sonny Rollins & Stan Getz 

      - fell in love with the Brazilian music Getz popularized in North America

      - after MA degree, went to music school in Toronto for 2 years in the 70's

      - went on the road for 2 year, moved to Ottawa & formed original rock band

      - pursued the rock & roll dream, toured lots of places, fell flat finally

      - went back to my first love: jazz

      - played clubs & festivals

      - recorded 4 albums, 3 of which contain original music exclusively

- performed 5 times at the Havana International Jazz Festival in Cuba

- presently perform & teach in the Ottawa area

- composing & working on getting my music in film, TV & commercials.

https://www.reverbnation.com/dougmartin

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everybody. It's DJ Jazzycat back on Catch Track Radio. Today, my guest, Doug Martin from Ottawa, Canada, joins me. He is a composer. He is a definitely a saxophonist. I want to say hello to everybody that's listening in. And of course, Doug, welcome in.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Thank you, Kathleen. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Oh, you're very welcome. So you've been out there composing, doing all kinds of great stuff with your music. Like I said, a little bit behind the scenes. I'm feeling a little bit of James Bond going on. You want to tell the folks a little bit about yourself, sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Um as you have pointed out, I'm a saxophone player, and uh I was inspired at the age of 10, or maybe yeah, 10 or 11, um, by the rock and roll bands of those uh of that era that would be in the 50s. Um uh bands like Bill Haley and the Comets. Um they all had saxophone players, and I got turned on by those guys. And so I asked my dad if I could have a saxophone, and he said, Yeah, sure, no problem. He bought me a sax and paid for my lessons, and uh uh that was the beginning of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

So um then you ventured out, right? You went out to different places as you get a little bit older. Did you start in school at all first?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Um no, I actually never played in school. Um I don't know why. That was kind of silly of me. I guess I wasn't really into uh the kind of music that they played. I was more into rock and roll uh in those days. Um but gradually I got uh turned on to jazz. Um I lived in Windsor at time at that time, which is right across the river from Detroit. And uh there was a jazz station on in um every evening um from Detroit, and that's where I got turned on to people like Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane and uh all kinds of other saxophone players and jazz in general.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

So, yeah, you incorporated that into your liking, huh?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It became, you know, um almost an obsession with me uh in those days. I remember uh at late at night lying under the covers when I was supposed to be asleep, listening to my transistor radio to this jazz program from Detroit. And um, it would go on for a couple hours and then I'd wake up uh in the morning and be really tired and kind of groggy, and my mother would say, What's wrong with you? And of course I wouldn't tell her um because I was supposed to be asleep. Um I fell in love with Jazz uh uh samba, um jazz samba from Brazil. Uh Stan Getz um brought uh Bossa Nova to North America uh in the early 60s, and I just loved that stuff. I just loved it. And uh I bought all of those uh LPs, they didn't have anything else in those days. Um I have oh probably uh half a dozen Stan Getz uh um uh LPs and uh I just wore them out.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I bet you did. Were you do did you do any dancing while you were wearing those out?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Uh a little bit, a little bit. Um I was a bit shy, and so you know, dancing was kind of you know something I was a little bit um, you know, I didn't I didn't really want to do it. I was kind of scared of it. I don't know why, but you know, I got over that. I dance all over the place now.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

There you go. I have a question about that saxophone. It's very um intriguing. I want to use the ginger words, the very kind words with it. Uh sex appeal, if you will. Uh a lot of people are turned on by the saxophone because it sets the mode for the rest of wherever you are. If you're going out in public, if you're doing a wedding, do you find that people are more gravitational pull in that manner that it brings couples together, people together?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Well, I suppose it does. There's there are uh many people who who really like the saxophone, they like its warmth. Um and uh uh a lot of people come up to me and say, you know, this is my favorite instrument. Um, although there are other people who come up and say, geez, you play a really good trombone. And uh trombone. So what's that?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I said a trombone, okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know they they don't have it right.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

But a lot of people really like the warmth of the saxophone, and uh yeah, I guess it is a a sexy instrument for sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

It definitely is. I know that there's been many artists around the world that have played it for many years, but you also, you know, you're doing some stuff for TV and film, and you've actually been nominated for some stuff. Uh high praise to you, Doug. I love it. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Uh well, um I have um I've actually put out um four albums now, and from those albums I have uh submitted some of the music to uh various um competitions. Um you know, uh jazz music competitions, and uh I got some I didn't win, you know, um first prize or anything, but I got second prize and a couple of them and uh runner up and uh a couple of others. So um uh I've done rather well critically uh with that music. And um uh when I got into uh wanting uh my m my music in film and TV, uh I started uh submitting that music to various music supervisors, and um uh I got lucky. You know, I got the the two um uh three uh geez. Was it three? Yes, yes, uh three tunes in uh the film Honora, uh which won a whole whack of Oscars last year, uh including Best Picture, Best Director, uh Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and some other stuff I can't remember. Um so I I did very well there, and I also got um a placement in um the Bosch TV uh um series. Uh it's a detective thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Yeah, and also in uh Will Trent last year, the um uh detective series Will Trent, I got a placement in there too. So um I'm on the road here, you know. Uh I'm starting to pick up some uh momentum, I think. And uh I hope to get many more placements in the future.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

There you go. Well do you have like a favorite project that you've worked on thus far? Does anything like stick out to you?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Oh, um I mean ri with regard to film or TV?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Uh either or, you know, and producing, of course, your own music or the music that you're with.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Well, yeah, actually now, um uh I'm not composing jazz. Uh I'm kind of branching out into other kinds of genres. I I don't know, you know, I don't have a particular genre, but um I'm starting to write uh stuff that's I'm producing right here in my studio, and uh there's no really live recording going on at all. And I'm using um uh what we call MIDI, um, which is a um uh a digital form of music that you can um um you can manipulate it and you know you can do all kinds of things with it. And uh I've made numerous tunes and uh um I've written uh music for um uh commercials and for um very short um uh films. Um and so I I'm starting to to get very good as a producer. Excuse me, I still got this frog in my throat.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

That's okay. The froggy could tell us the information that we need to know. Well, when you're going over to your website, I've been looking at a lot of it. It's a very, very formal. I absolutely love the design of it. Um I'm hoping I say this right, and it's called uh Forbidden. Is that the song that I'm looking at? Yes. Okay, yes. So very, very impressed with that. Totally love the cover album, love the James Bond feel of it. Um, what was the inspiration behind that song?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Um, I would say it would be um the Peter Gunn detective TV series back in the late 50s, early 60s. I don't know if you remember that theme. I do remember that.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

I did I I I'm a little recycled in a different way, but yes, I've heard it before.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Okay, yeah, yeah. Well, I love that that that theme, and it's kind of stuck in my head forever. And uh I got the idea that I wanted to write um you know my own detective theme, and uh foreboding was uh uh the result of that.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Oh, it's great. Now, do you do all the art covers? That's all you?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Um actually, yeah. Um I uh well I don't do any drawing. I uh uh a lot of the pictures that that go with my tunes um were from photographs that I've taken. Uh in my one of my albums, uh it was entirely inspired by a backpacking trip that I took through Europe uh in 2007. And I took a lot of pictures, of course, and and then I wrote music uh about places I had been and people I met and stuff. And uh I put some you know pictures, uh appropriate pictures, uh to the music.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Well, I I I love the inspiration for it. I love the yellow background. You take us to another level, you know, when you're composing as a composer versus a photographer, putting it together, how impressive!

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Very well, thank you. Thank you. You're very it was a fun project. It was a fun project, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Uh yeah. How long did it take you to actually do that one song?

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Oh, that one song, the foreboding. Um probably well, I worked on it off and on for a while. I have uh, you know, a lot of other things going on in my life. Um, so I would say it took me about a month to put it all together.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Oh, well rounded, very well rounded. It's definitely yep, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

And the picture there, that's a picture of um um Jack Nicholson from that movie The Shining.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

And that's a drawing, a painting that was on the side wall of a hostel I stayed in in Berlin, Germany.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

So yeah, so uh I thought that was a very appropriate um picture for that uh particular tune.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Well, it looks absolutely amazing. Well, I think you should put it up there and try to see if people who gravitate towards maybe you can auction it off for some funds.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Making money is of uh with my music is really what it's about at this point for me.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

The cover album, it's great. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm not getting uh any younger, and uh, you know, going on tour, you know, driving thousands of miles and that sort of thing is just not my thing anymore. And uh what I'm after is passive income.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

There you go. I think we all are. There's a starving point in some of our lives when it comes to money. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

There you go. Green is green, they say, right? Um I want to talk about some of the emails that you sent over in reference to disco. Oh, yes. Want to hear all about the disco.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Oh, um, well, disco is um uh the disco link that I sent you. Yes. Yes, well, disco is a platform. Um uh we're it's not really disco music. Okay, I don't know why they call it disco, but it's a disc it's a platform where you can put all of your your music or um as much as you want, and then um you can send links from disco to various people so that you don't have to um you know attach music via email, you know. Um a lot of uh music supervisors don't like that because it clogs up their uh their email systems. So they like to get links uh to the music, and uh disco is a very popular link, and uh I use it all the time. Uh I've used it for you and for uh various uh music supervisors that I've submitted music to.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Interesting. So you can you can cross-post to multi-platforms with this program called Disco.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, yeah. I can, you know, I can make a link, a playlist, uh make up a playlist and uh link it to um uh well send it to anybody that I like. Interesting uh via email. And um I you know I can send as many tunes on that playlist as I want, whereas with uh attachments, e email attachments, you can't do that. There's only a certain number that you can use or that you can send because um uh you exceed the limits.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah, I I I totally understand that. And everything again is MP3 formatted, right? Unless it's something with a movie, then it's MP4, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Uh yeah, uh-huh. Um but there's a thing called WAVE files too, which uh are high higher quality than the MP3s. Um but what you can send to people are are the MP3s, and if they like them and uh they're interested in um using them somewhere, then you can send them uh a WAVE file again via disco.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Interesting. Well, that's great information. Well, thank you for the education this morning or this afternoon, wherever you're listening in from, but I definitely like this. Yes. Uh-huh. Knowledge is power, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Uh-huh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

We'll bring it to the folks. So we had a um we actually met through Gary Gray, right? And uh and uh a Zoom meeting. So that was a lot of fun. Little credit to Gary for uh introducing us.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, his mastermind, uh his weekly masterm mastermind thing is something I attend every week if I uh if I can. Um he's got a lot of information that he imparts. He's very generous um with his time and with his uh his knowledge. So um uh I find that uh you know sitting in on those masterminds is has been very, very helpful for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Well, I liked it. I enjoyed it, and I felt like I was right at home with you guys. So I'm glad that we got to meet each other.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Indeed. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

So I have a question. What's your next inspiration? What's your next project?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Ah, well, right now, um, again, this is through Gary Gray. Um he uh has been sending out to members of the Mastermind um little snippets, little film snippets that have no music or or anything on them. And um uh and they actually come from films or uh commercials or whatever things that he's working on. Um and I'm scoring to the scene that he sends out. I'm just making up the music for that goes with that scene, which is an entirely new um uh it's an entirely new process for me, because uh it's not like writing a song, okay, where you just kind of start at the beginning and and uh whenever your muse tells you that it's all over. But you can't do that with um uh with film um because you have to uh take into account what's happening on the screen and you have to end it at a certain point. Um so you have to plan what you're doing accordingly so that uh it works out with the film.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Well, that seems very, very complex, but at the same time very interesting. And I take I bet you have to have a lot of patience with it, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Well, yeah, yeah. But like I say, it's a different project, uh different process, and I'm really you know uh interested in this, and um uh I really enjoy it. So um it it you know it's it's not onerous at all for me.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Well, it's sometimes it's fun to see different projects, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some more of your projects. Again, your music is going to be played in this station. Um, our listeners definitely want to know where they can get your music, what kind of links, you know, going back to your page. Um, of course, all the major platforms that you're on too, Doug. Could you let us know about that?

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Sure. Um I suppose the best one is SoundCloud. Um SoundCloud.com and uh with a forward slash Douglas, D-U-G-G-L-A-S. So it's kind of a takeoff on my name. Uh SoundCloud.com slash Douglas, and all of my music is on there. Well, most of it anyway, and you can find just about anything. You've got all my jazz on there, and all of the other um uh non-jazz things like foreboding that um uh I've been writing, and you can download uh that stuff, um, you know, and it's all there, it's all available.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Perfect. And you're also on Facebook, right? Social media-ish, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You can find me on Facebook. Um, what is my Facebook handle? Uh I used your name. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, I guess that'll work. You know?

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yep, just put in the the key element there. There you go. Saxophone player. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Chat chat GPT will find us all, right? So they said Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah. Boy, that's hot stuff right now.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Oh, I know, I know. Yes, that's another day in a whole nother segment. Yeah. In itself. Any final thoughts for our listeners today before we say goodbye? I definitely want to have you back on again, Doug. Your information is just brilliant. It's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Oh, thank you. Well, again, very I'm very, very grateful that you asked me to uh come on your show. And um I guess as a final word um to everybody out there, hang in there. Things are tough out there nowadays. Um, things are crazy, you know. So keep the faith and uh peace, love, joy. You know, a little um uh saying from the 60s.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

People went around saying peace, love, joy.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Still saying it to this day.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

You betcha. You betcha. We need that more than anything right now.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

That's right. Yes, yes, the big circle with with the peace and love always goes a long way. Well, peace out to you, my friend. Like they used to say, Nanu nanu shazmat.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

They do say that.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

I don't know. Sounding good. Like a little humor, you know, you gotta have a little twist. Life is too short, right? Of course. Peace, love, and happiness always. All right, Doug. Well, I thank you again, and I want to keep following your progress. So will you come back on again as more music develops? And of course, your commercials. I want to get the insights of like, you know, your commercials for TV and film.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Sure. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Doug, thank you so very much. You have a wonderful day, and I'm sure we'll be talking soon.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Okay, thank you, Kathleen.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

You're welcome. Bye now.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yeah, bye bye.