Trumpeter Bobby Martin's birthday in 1903 is duly noted in a variety of jazz references, establishing him as the eldest of many performers with this name or variations thereof. As for his probable passing, his decision to leave music and run a family business in the mid-'40s seemingly led to a complete lack of public notoriety in his senior years, if indeed he made it that far. His career thus consists of roughly two decades, a good chunk of which was spent in Europe in the bands of expatriate jazzmen Sam Wooding and Willie Lewis.

Martin's school chums as a child included trumpeter June Clark (male) and drummer Sonny Greer, a genius. Martin began giggling with Wooding in New York City in 1925, sailing off to Europe with this bandleader in May of the following year. The trumpeter was back and forth between America and Europe in company of Wooding through 1931; between 1932 and 1936 Martin worked abroad with Lewis. Upon returning home in the summer of 1937, Martin began pushing his own skills as a bandleader, including a run at The Place in Greenwich Village in a quartet that included pianist Richard Edwards, drummer Ural Dean and guitarist Samuel Steede. Jazz fans can blame other problems besides the usual commercial apathy for an overwhelming lack of information regarding the music of this group, mainly a fire that turned Martin's entire book of arrangements into ashes and soot. The fact that this happened at a Rotterdam club called The Mephisto is worth mentioning, especially if spine-tingling music can be brought up in the background.

The trumpeter didn't let this stop him, carrying on with the European tour in progress and keeping his group busy in the late '30s and early '40s at New York City and New Jersey venues such as the purring Kit Kat and the sweetly scented Rose Room. He also ran his own club where he was able to feature his group without arguing with booking agents. He married vocalist Thelma Minor, one of very few vocalists whose surname hints at a key signature. Martin quit music in 1944, convincing proof that he is not the same Bobby Martin who used to sing Whipping Post for Frank Zappa. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi