Martin France. A tribute

“Marv’s total commitment to everything he did musically was truly humbling and I feel incredibly lucky that he graced so much of my music (and others) with his wonderful playing.” Saxophonist Mark Lockheart writes in tribute to his “dear collaborator and friend” Martin France (1964-2024). In sadness.

What can I say about Martin France? 

I can start by remembering when I first heard him play which was at Tring Jazz Festival in 1985. I was playing there with Loose Tubes and Martin had just moved down from Manchester and was playing with a band called ‘First House’ which also included Django Bates, Ken Stubbs and Mick Hutton. I remember thinking – ‘wow this guy is incredible’, he obviously had a formidable technique but more importantly sounded like no one else I’d ever heard. His playing sounded complicated to young me  and although I didn’t really understand what he was doing he sounded beautifully groovy , buoyant and musical. 

This first impression of Martin’s playing has stayed with me ever since and has been amplified countless times ever since.   

Martin joined Loose Tubes in 1988 and was already playing with practically everyone on the scene. His inventiveness, incredible sense of time and feel, propelled the band in its last couple of years. 

In 1992 Huw Warren, Dudley Phillips and I formed Perfect Houseplants. It’s quite funny really as we all had bands with the three of us in it but with different drummers in each. After some intensive deliberation we decided that Martin – who wasn’t the drummer in any of the bands – was the only one who could comfortably play our tricky (especially Huw’s) tunes so Marv became the drummer in the group. 

Over the next decade or so we played a huge amount together as Perfect Houseplants; often rehearsing new material for many hours, recording, spending hours mixing together, and touring the six albums we did together.  There were plenty of times I had no real idea how he was counting or feeling a particular piece but always knew he would come up with something amazing. 

I vividly remember ‘soloing’ Martin’s kit one day while mixing our ‘Snap Clatter’ album and the three of us remarking that Martin’s playing didn’t make any sense, someone even asked if we had the right drum track up for the song. As soon as we added everything to the mix it all made perfect sense and of course sounded amazing. 

That was just one of many moments when I realised that Martin had this special ability to clearly see the overall architecture of a piece of music and respond in his unique way.  Of course he developed this uncompromising and  beautiful concept constantly in bands led by Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Julian Arguelles, John Parricelli and Huw Warren and we all loved him for it! 

My musical relationship with Martin continued into the 90’s with Django Bate’s Delightful Precipice, John Parricelli and my own projects including The Scratch Band  and my Moving Air band. 

With my own music I would always write with Marv’s sound in my head, what would he do, how would he sound on it? I never wrote a drum part for Martin, I didn’t need to; his musicianship and lightening intuitive reactions were always better than anything I could think up. He was also very supportive and encouraging to me and if I got a ’thumbs up’ from Marv I’d be chuffed to bits.  

Travelling back late one night from a gig we got talking about records that had influenced us deeply when we started playing and Marv was waxing lyrically about a vinyl record by Buddy Rich called ‘The Driver’. As Martin didn’t have a turntable at the time he entrusted me with this precious record. As soon as I put it on I realised that Marv’s unbelievable technique,  professionalism and accuracy of execution had been hugely influenced by this album. I returned ‘The Driver’ to him a few years later and recently managed to pick up a copy of my own 🙂 

Marv’s total commitment to everything he did musically was truly humbling and I feel incredibly lucky that he graced so much of my music (and others) with his wonderful playing.  

Martin was a private person in many ways (at least to me) and while we spent a lots of time in each other’s company, he would still often prefer to keep things close to himself.  He did speak passionately about his family as well as some of the sadness and challenges in his life not least when John Taylor died (Martin was a member of John’s Trio).  Ultimately he found blissful happiness with Rachel, together with his son Luca and a return to London over the last 10 years. 

Martin was an unbelievable musician as we all know who commanded huge respect from everyone in the jazz community.  He was also the most beautiful human being, hilariously funny at times and always caring and supportive. 

I will miss Marv more than any words can say, RIP my dear collaborator and friend.