PROFILE: Martin Hummel

Sebastian Scotney writes about Ubuntu’s founder German Magazine, Jazzthetik, “What keeps him going? “The honest answer is that I feel like the happiest person in the world because I do exactly what I love. The world has been good to me and I want to give something back. I pursue my passion and can't think of anything better. "

Sebatian Scotney

Martin Hummel, the head of the record label Ubuntu Music, shows a row of pencils on the profile of his LinkedIn website. "Why these pencils?" I asked him. This is a reference to his earlier career, a homage to the symbol of the most important award ceremony in the advertising industry, namely the D&AD (Design and Art Direction) award. The American began his career in advertising in London in the 1970s. This was followed by an interlude in South Africa, hence the name Ubuntu. “Then I came back to London in 1989 - and that's where I stayed,” he says. Hummel is originally from Montclair, New Jersey. His ancestors emigrated from Hamburg in the 18th century. Even as a toddler he had a passion for jazz. Was there a key experience? “Yes,” he says, “an original edition of Miles Davis'Kind of Blue was sent to my parents. I still have the record today. "

This love of jazz led him to launch the Ubuntu label in 2016. One of his early successful projects was the first edition of Chet Bakers Live in London . The group's bass player had recorded the concerts the band gave in a long-forgotten club in Covent Garden on a cassette recorder. The trumpeter was in top form, and DOWN BEAT called the album one of the best historical reissues of 2017. But that wasn't the only success: Hummel's specialty is that he celebrates the American jazz tradition, especially with albums from the New York All-Stars the saxophonist Eric Alexander and the late pianist Harold Mabern from Memphis.

Hummel also supports musicians from the British scene, for example saxophonist Allison Neale. Her album Quietly There with Peter Bernstein was very well received by the critics. The saxophonist Paul Booth also works with the label. During his international tours, for example with Steve Winwood and Rod Stewart, he composed the music for the album Travel Sketches . One of these songs has been streamed more than two million times. Paul Booth is currently bringing out a new series with Ubuntu called The Secret Sessions .

How do people react when Martin Hummel tells them that he runs a jazz label? “They usually express their condolences to me,” he laughs. What keeps him going? “The honest answer is that I feel like the happiest person in the world because I do exactly what I love. The world has been good to me and I want to give something back. I pursue my passion and can't think of anything better. "

Sebastian Scotney's website londonjazznews.com was nominated for a Parliamentary Jazz Award in 2021.

The late Harold Mabern and Martin Hummel, at Mabern’s last London performance.

Memphis jazz great Harold Mabern has died

Memphis jazz great Harold Mabern, a product of the city's fertile high school music scene who became a master of soulful "post-bop" piano, has died. He was 83.

Harold Mabern at Pizza Express, London, 2017.

Harold Mabern at Pizza Express, London, 2017.

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Memphis jazz great Harold Mabern, a product of the city's fertile high school music scene who became a master of soulful "post-bop" piano, has died. He was 83.

He was known for playing with such legends as Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins.

Mabern's death was announced Thursday by his current record label, Smoke Sessions Records, based in New York, where Mabern lived much of his adult life. A cause of death was not announced.

Attending Douglass and then Manassas High School (which was famed for its music program), Mabern belonged to an unparalleled generation of Memphis jazz musicians that came of age in the 1950s. That generation included pianist Phineas Newborn Jr., trumpet player Booker Little and saxophonists George Coleman, Frank Strozier and Hank Crawford in its ranks. 

Although Mabern studied music at a Chicago conservatory, "I say that I got my knowledge from the university of the streets," he told the Knoxville News Sentinel in a 2012 interview. "You don't have to go to school to learn how to play this music."

After moving to New York, Mabern toured and played with some of jazz's most significant vocalists and instrumental and compositional innovators, including Davis, Rollins, Wes Montgomery and Sarah Vaughan. 

He paid tribute to his roots with his first album as a band leader, 1968's "A Few Miles from Memphis," where he was joined by fellow Memphian George Coleman. Another 20-plus albums as a leader followed over the next five decades, including a 1995 tribute to Newborn, "For Phineas," and 1970's "Greasy Kid Stuff!" which showed the influence of funk and fusion music. 

In a review of Mabern's 1978 album "Pisces Calling," Marc Myers, author of "Why Jazz Happened," wrote: "Mabern's fingering is commanding and lyrical. His chords aren't merely played but hurled like fistfuls of darts, and there's an urgent snap to his delivery."

In the 1990s, Mabern joined a younger generation of Memphis jazz pianists — including James Williams, Mulgrew Miller and Donald Brown — for a series of albums and tours as "The Contemporary Piano Ensemble."

Mabern also taught music at New Jersey's William Paterson University for 36 years, influencing several generations of students and players. "I don't consider myself a teacher," Mabern told the News Sentinel. "I'm an advanced student. You never stop learning. If you stop learning, you might as well go crawl in a hole somewhere."

He performed several times in recent years in his hometown and had been scheduled to appear again locally in January at the Germantown Performing Arts Center.

Mabern made what would be his final appearance in Memphis in April of 2018, where he performed and was honored by Rhodes College’s Mike Curb Institute for Music. He was presented with a Beale Street Brass Note by Curb Institute director and longtime friend John Bass.

“I’m not sure if there is a musician who epitomized or represented Memphis better than Harold Mabern," Bass said. "His playing stretched the boundaries of music, but he always just described himself as a blues man.

“He shared his knowledge and stories with so many people, and I’m grateful that he shared some of them with me," Bass added. "I’ll never forget seeing grand pianos literally shake under his fingers, or his laugh, and I’ll miss him.”

Ronnie Scott's Radio Show Showcases Ubuntu Music Artists

Presenter Ian Shaw features a broad range Ubuntu artists, and praises Martin Hummel’s passion for his artists and the Label. Featured Ubuntu Music artists include Mark Kavuma, Andrew McCormack, Tom Cawley, Quentin Collins & Brandon Allen, Leo Richardson, Miguel Gorodi, Eric Alexander & Harold Mabern and others.

To hear the two hour program showcasing Ubuntu Music artists, please click on any of the images, above.