Today, 2 February 2025, would have been Martin Hummel’s 70th birthday. In this tribute, jazz pianist, composer, author, and retired university professor Darius Brubeck remembers a “great enabler” with respect and gratitude and – inevitably – in sadness. The principle of “Ubuntu” united Martin and Darius as friends and colleagues, and it forms the starting-point for this reflection.
Darius Brubeck writes:
I asked my friend and distinguished South African Musicologist, Professor Christopher Ballantine, to send me a definition of the word “Ubuntu” for this piece. His reply was:
‘The best way to describe Ubuntu is as an alternative to the individualistic and capitalistic values that rule in the West. It’s s a Zulu/Xhosa (Nguni) word, and though it’s sometimes translated as ‘humanness’, I find that superficial. Instead, the real implication of the word is captured in the famous Nguni expression, ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ – which translates as: ‘a person is a person through other people’. So, one could also put it as: ‘I am, because we are.’

Dave O’Higgins introduced me to Martin at one of our “Brubecks Play Brubeck” gigs at Ronnie Scott’s some time BC (Before Covid). Like me, Martin had spent years working in South Africa, and of course, both of us were Americans living in the UK, so talk flowed easily.
Regarding his Ubuntu label, he said he wasn’t in it for the money. Similarly, I assured him I didn’t move to England for the climate. We both agreed that a good life is about other things. It seems Martin had already made enough money during an international career in advertising (California, Manhattan, Johannesburg, London) and he was one of the few successful people I’ve met who knew the meaning of ‘enough’.
As so many of us know, he was knowledgeable and passionate about jazz and this informed and inspired his London-based, quality jazz label. Ubuntu would not be the usual company but more like an eco-system of artists and music business professionals; independent talents helped but not dominated by centralised coordination. It seemed that every other week we would receive notices about new signings.
Martin was a great enabler. Rather than just making deals, he entered and encouraged relationships thereby allowing musicians space to focus on music while he took charge of the multiple functions of a traditional label. We fund our own projects and Ubuntu organizes the rest. ‘The rest’ is a lot: manufacturing (CDs and Vinyl), warehousing and online sales, promotion and PR, launches and advertising as well as the complex accounting that follows releases. Martin, a very savvy CEO, worked flat-out for his musicians for very little monetary return and artists still owned their creations outright.
Last year, Cathy, my wife and manager, and I approached Martin about re-issuing The Jazzanians: We Have Waited Too Long, a historically significant album I produced in South Africa in 1988. He did an amazing job as Executive Producer and with Emma Perry’s brilliant promotional work, it received many glowing reviews.
Additionally, last year, Martin came to us with the concept of a special award to enable final year or recent graduates from the Royal Academy of Music make a debut album. This resulted in a partnership between Brubeck Living Legacy, (a registered charity in the US) Ubuntu Management and, of course, the jazz program at Royal Academy of Music run by Nick Smart. Last year’s recipient, Dutch alto saxophonist Kasper Rietkerk, has just finished an album which will be released by Ubuntu Music (LINK).
Whenever Martin was fired up by an idea, he assembled a team that would carry it to fruition. This is a very down-to-earth equivalent of ‘I am, because we are.’
My most recent London gig which was arranged by Martin was a combined Time Out celebration and a re-creation of Jazzanian music at the Jazz Café in Camden. It took place on January 12, only two days after Martin died. It was packed, emotional and somehow very Ubuntu in feeling and spirit, a fitting tribute.
In closing, I would like to say that Martin was a kind, cultured and generous person. He was a realistic idealist and an idealistic realist. He ran businesses, he ran marathons and was a good friend. His active friendship was obviously felt by the many people who joined Leslie, his daughters Sabrina and Camilla and his very close colleagues, Emma Perry and Sam Carelse at the moving requiem mass.
Hamba Kahle (Zulu phrase for ‘go well’) Martin. Darius Brubeck
