TRADE MARTIN
During his high-energy night club performances, Trade's audience is usually unaware that he has acted opposite prominent film stars Frank Vincent(Casino)and Vince Pastore(Soprano's), in the recent thriller "West New York", composed movie scores and won a Grammy. He recorded the French classic "Lamer"(an instrumental version of Bobby Darin's "Beyond The Sea") for Roulette Records as a solo guitarist, launched and first produced Larry Chance and the Earls ("Life Is But A Dream") on his own Rome Record Label and sang his hit, "That Stranger Used To Be My Girl" (Coed Records), on Dick Clark's Bandstand show in the sixties. As a top studio guitarist, vocalist and arranger, he was closely associated with many of the legendary names in the record industry including: Lieber and Stoller, Carol King, Bobby Darin, Phil Spector, Carol-Bayer Sager, Steven Stills, Joan Baez and Burt Bacharach. Besides his earlier chart records, Trade composed the international hit, "Take Me For A Little While", recorded by the Vanilla Fudge, Dusty Springfield and Cher.
In the field of music for advertising, he earned the distinction of having composed, arranged, produced and sung on radio and television spots for more than 56 of the top 100 leading advertisers, which resulted in his multiple Clio nominations. TWA's "Up,Up and Away", Pepsi-Cola, Pan Am, Aviance, the famous Prudential "Piece Of The Rock" jingle and many campaigns for Colgate, Exxon and Gillette are just some of the few he's been intensely involved with.
During the seventies, he is credited with discovering and producing the B.T. Express ("Do It Till You're Satisfied") and while recording for RCA Victor and Buddah Records, Martin composed, arranged and conducted the scores for the motion pictures "Hail To The Chief" and Renee Taylor-Joe Bologna's "Made For Each Other".
Besides producing B.B. King's version of "Stormy Monday Blues" for the movie starring Melanie Griffith and Tommy Lee Jones, he also composed, arranged and produced two sides on the legendary star's "King Of The Blues" CD, his "Live At San Quentin" CD*** and many of his own new blues originals for B.B.'s forthcoming MCA releases.
Between his extremely active schedule, Martin has a passion for entertaining at intimate cafes, doing his version of the National Anthem at a stadium and making guest appearances at benefit concerts. As a diversion, he also enjoys training and driving harness horses at many of the area's racetracks.
Now after offering a dynamic 20 original song Christmas Album on CD Baby, (for review go to Christmasreviews.com), he is finishing his upcoming "B.B.King Tribute", which will contain Trade's distinctive versions of songs that he composed, arranged and produced with the world famous blues artist. The official release date is August 1st, 2003.
In the meantime, Martin has recently released a noteworthy
single on the internet. It's the post-war anthem, American Courage, that contains important excerpts of our president's victory speech. This historical recording will be featured in his forthcoming CD, "Mystically Intimate". It can also be heard and downloaded on his website: (trademartinmusic.com).
***Grammy Award Winner. This famous B.B.King CD produced by Trade, contains his globally acclaimed song "Peace To The World", which B.B. recently performed for President Bush at the White House.
Read more...