Biography

Bill Martin grew up with the sounds of classical music throughout his childhood in Sydney in the 1990s, as his mother Felicity Martin taught piano in the family home at Crown Rd, Pymble. In his teens, he studied classical clarinet with James Renwick before developing a passion for jazz as a young adult through his hobby of collecting vinyl records from second hand shops and markets. After studying jazz piano and theory at the Australian Institute of Music for a brief spell, Bill learned how to play bebop on the piano and alto saxophone through a dedicated program of self-study and interaction with other jazz musicians.

Bill established himself as a leading figure on the Dunedin Jazz scene through a series of long-term residencies that enabled him to extend and refine his craft. Initially, he learned to play modern jazz with a stint in the “Jazz in the Pocket” House Band at the University of Otago Uni Bar (Refuel), which brought him into contact with musicians such as Craig Sinclair, Andy Patterson and Andy Parsons. After a period as a sideman with Joshua Simon, Bill became the bandleader at the Carousel Jazz Sessions for six years with musicians such as Craig Sinclair, Nathan Berg, Kevin Finnegan, Roy de Hamel, Robert Craigie and Trevor Coleman. Bill then went on to perform as a solo pianist at Dog with Two Tails Cafe, before establishing his current residency at the Inch Bar as a saxophonist with guitarist Jesse Kokaua.

As a pianist and sideman, Bill has performed with many high-profile soloists across New Zealand, including Oscar Laven, Nick Tipping, Geoff Culverwell, Gwyn Reynolds, Michael Storey, Roger Manins, Reuben Bradley, Edwina Thorne and Michael Gordon. He has performed at festivals across New Zealand, including the Wellington, National (Tauranga), Christchurch, Harbour Street (Oamaru) and Queenstown Jazz Festivals. As a saxophonist and lead tenor, Bill has performed with guitarists Nick Granville and Cliff Leatherbarrow, and toured nationally with international pianist Dan Costa as part of the 2024 Chamber Music New Zealand in partnership series. During this tour, Bill performed many of Costa’s original Brazilian jazz compositions with long term collaborators Umar Zakaria (double bass) Carl Woodward (drums).

Bill is the chairperson of the Dunedin Jazz Foundation, a charitable trust that he co-established in 2018 to facilitate the creation of the Dunedin Youth Jazz Festival and Dunedin Youth Jazz Orchestra, a selective Big Band for young adults under the age of 25. As the musical director of the DYJO, Bill has facilitated many successful concerts focusing on the music of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Steely Dan, Florian Ross, Jon Hatamiya, and Wayne Shorter. Through the creation of the Dunedin Jazz Club in 2021, Bill has provided a platform of touring artists and local musicians to collaborate on a professional stage that has reached a large audience and made jazz a major player in the local arts scene.

Bill’s career as a musician has closely followed his work as a writer and educator in the field of English literature. His passion for jazz developed while writing a.Ph D at the University of New South Wales on the relationship between Ancient Greek oral poetry and the modernist writings of James Joyce. The subsequent publication of his academic book Joyce and the Science of Rhythm (Routledge 2012), was the result of a postdoctoral fellowship in Irish Studies at the University of Otago, a posting in Dunedin which led to participation at “Jazz In the Pocket” Jam Sessions at Refuel. He is currently an English Teacher at Otago Girls’ High School, where he directed “All Blues” (the combined Otago Girls and Boys High School Jazz Band) and accompanies the Nautilus Chorale.