 "Photo: Nathan Brown")
 "Photo: Nathan Brown")
 "Photo: Nathan Brown")
He could not have asked for a finer memorial. In addition to the pristine location in front of the lake at Laguna Gloria Art Museum, the sheer number of friends and family laughing, remembering, and of course, playing jazz made Austin jazz trumpet player Martin Banks' memorial an appropriate celebration of his life.
Banks lived Jazz. His list of friends reads like an encyclopedia of jazz greats. His talent and style were immediately accessible to anyone with the most rudimentary understanding of jazz.
With his death two weeks ago, Martin left the jazz scene in much the same way it has been for nearly 40 years: a state of survival. Despite no longer being on the forefront of popular music, the practice of jazz music continues. In the walls of the Elephant Room, in the minds of aspiring musicians, in the music of the greats still left, it continues.
The Last Great Jazz Room
Walking into Elephant Room on Congress Street is a bit like descending into a dark, hidden cathedral. Well, one that serves alcohol. On the tables, red candles flicker with the swing and punctuation of the music on stage.
This is the last refuge for live jazz in Austin.
"Austin's fortunate to have one good place," Asaid Stanley Smith, clarinet player for the New Orleans-style jazz band the Giant City Sextet. Smith is also a longtime friend of Banks, a member of the Jazz Pharaohs, which is a classic-style jazz band with a bit of spice.
Smith first met Banks when Banks returned to Austin from his professional stint in New York in 1988. In 1992, Banks subbed on trumpet when the Jazz Pharaohs' trombone player got too sick for a gig, and continued playing with the Pharaohs here and there.
"Martin was just like any other artist," Smith said. "[It's a] frustrating lifestyle, to be a creative person and not get rewarded very much for it."
One story Smith spun about the life and times of Martin Banks involved Banks' first big break landing a gig with jazz great Dizzy Gillespie in the 1960s. Already nervous when he walked into the recording studio, Banks then realized his music charts were empty. Dizzy was supposed to write them out but didn't, Smith said, so they improvised the whole record.
"There's some stories Martin told me. I won't tell you, though," said Smith, laughing and refusing to divulge any more details about the ins-and-outs of being Martin Banks.
Quickly assembling his clarinet behind the Elephant Room bar, Smith sits in with the Giant City Sextet, playing most of the first set with a sound and voice that betray his thin frame. During the break between sets, Smith and Giant City Sextet members Joe Cordi (piano) and Paul Schlichting (drums) swap stories about gigs. Cordi explains that the band only manages to schedule a gig once a month, but sometimes the group ends up playing every week, thanks to bands that drop out unexpectedly. The story seems to be the same for most Austin jazz musicians who must face the reality that jazz gigs are few and far between.
"It does come and go," Smith said.
Jazz Appreciation
Austin jazz artist Michael Melinger makes a living playing at private parties, but he really enjoys playing elementary schools. And for 10 years, Melinger and a "revolving door" of musicians, including Banks, have played gigs at Austin elementary schools through the Austin Jazz Workshop, a program that explains basic jazz principles to children.
"Martin was one of those guys you kinda always knew," Melinger said. "Seemed like I was always running into him."
During the first few years, the curriculum of the classes was left up to the musicians, and that was just fine with Banks.
"Martin just had to walk in the room, and the kids would love him off the bat," Melinger, who also currently heads the workshop, said.
Banks charmed the children with his superior musicianship and his toys, Melinger said, often letting the kids buzz on various trumpet mouthpieces. And buzz they did. So much so that the workshop has gone from hosting 25 to more than 90 performances a year in the Austin area.
Banks also continued his philanthropic work with Tina Marsh of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra. She and Banks participated in several programs at Becker Elementary and the Booker T. Washington Housing Project in Austin.
"He was like a pied piper for the children," Marsh said. "He was endlessly patient toward them."
Program activities include learning blues progressions, developing songs and comparing blues with hip-hop.
"[Banks] was able and willing to play just about anything," Marsh said. And play he did, frequently in Marsh's orchestra, an internationally known jazz orchestra made up of local musicians.
Despite the orchestra's success abroad, Marsh said the situation at home has changed very little over the years.
"After a while, it's a drag and kinda humiliating to call someone to ask them for a gig," Marsh said. "I know [Banks] shared that."
And that's why Marsh first created the orchestra in the 1980s: to do something about the state of Austin's jazz scene.
"We're definitely doing our job," Marsh said. "I get people who come up to me in the grocery store and say, 'I saw you guys [Creative Opportunity Orchestra] play 10 years ago, and I'll never forget it."
The trick is getting them to come more then every 10 years, Marsh said.
The Reality of the Blues
Austin saxophonist Alex Coke knows firsthand the difficulties of being a jazz musician in Austin. He continues to make a living playing jazz, he said, but is forced to play other music as well.
"You're always having to take rock 'n' roll," Coke said. "I think the art suffers if you don't have people that are full-time working on jazz, living jazz and taking it further."
Coke met Banks when he came back from New York in 1988, but he knew of him through his music for years. While playing a gig at the Filling Station, a restaurant and bar in South Austin, Coke learned that Banks was in the audience and immediately got him to sit in on stage. From then on, whenever Coke could afford to hire a trumpet player, he hired Banks.
"I never really understood why someone at the clubs didn't hire him to be there once or twice a week," Coke said.
Banks was one of the few Austin musicians who had the privilege of playing with a lot of the greats, such as Duke Ellington and Ray Charles. In doing so, Banks amassed a great deal of experience, Coke said.
"We don't have a lot of those [extremely experienced musicians] here, because they leave when there's not enough work," Coke said, adding that he thinks the lack of jobs could stem from poor promotion on the part of newspapers and clubs themselves.
"We have a wealth of musicians, but we don't see very much coverage," Coke said. The result is that it's becoming harder and harder to specialize in one type of music, he said.
A wealth of musicians may be what's truly important to any jazz scene, said John Mills, a saxophonist and assistant professor of music at the University.
"I kind of get weary of characterizing the scene as weak, because there aren't enough high-paying gigs," Mills said.
Instead, Mills said he prefers to define it based on the quality of the music. And in Austin, it's high, he said.
He compared Austin's jazz scene to similar scenes in cities known for their jazz.
"If you were to describe the jazz scene in New York, what do you find? You find great jazz players who are teaching in schools or driving cabs," Mills said.
The lucky musicians, like Coke, manage to play music; sometimes what they truly love, and sometimes not. Saturday, Coke has a recording session for a composition he calls "Arachnophobia."
"Martin was supposed to play on that," Coke said. "Unfortunately, he won't be there."
The Life of Martin Banks - Jazz Musician
June 21, 1936 Banks is born in Austin, Texas
1940 Banks begins learning trombone
1950 Banks hears jazz trumpet player Kenny Dorham on a late-night radio program in Austin and finds his jazz inspiration
1956 Banks starts playing with jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon
1960 Banks records "Sticks and Stones," "I Wonder." And "Genius & Soul" with Ray Charles
1969 Banks joins the Duke Ellington Orchestra
1988 Banks returns to Austin and quickly meets fellow jazz musicians Stanley Smith and Alex Coke
1990 Banks records "Heaven Line" with Tina Marsh and the Creative Opportunity Orchestra
1992 Banks starts playing with the Jazz Pharoahs in Austin.
August 20. 2004 Banks dies from a heart-attack
The Martin Banks Tribute Fund has been established to provide assistance for the wife and grandchildren of Martin Banks. Please call the Wells Fargo Bank located at 2336 South Congress Avenue for more information: (512) 344-7000
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