{"id":27368,"date":"2011-09-07T09:49:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=27368"},"modified":"2024-05-27T10:05:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T17:05:19","slug":"r-i-p-finn-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2011\/r-i-p-finn-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Finn Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday evening just before 11:00 PM, Swedish\/Irish saxophonist, Finn Martin, plunged to his death while performing his famous Vertigo tour in Leipzig, Germany.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     Source: myspace.com\/finnmartinarte<\/h6>\n

Finn Martin was a staple on the European festival circuit, with his vertical climbs down the facades of buildings\u2014such as the 110 metre high Gasometer in Oberhausen, and the nearly 150 metre high Cologne Tower\u2014while playing his saxophone. (Yes, he was actually playing during the climb.)<\/p>\n

His climbs were sometimes simultaneously transmitted to the audience via 2 cameras. One he wore one his head, while the other was held by a cameraman on the ground.<\/p>\n

However, according to his websites, the spectacular aspects of Martin’s performance were never meant to be the centrepiece of his work. Rather, the emotional content of his work was what was important. This is what he stressed on both his Vertigo site,<\/a> as well as his regular site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finn Martin had been walking down the facades of buildings around the world since 1993, and had done it successfully thousands of times.<\/p>\n

That fateful night in Leipzig he was to do 4 walks down the facade of Speck’s Hof. All went well twice, but it was on the third time that things went terribly wrong, and the world lost a very talented performer as Finn Martin fell 20 metres to his death.<\/p>\n

I’ve opted not to embed the Vertigo promo video. If you want to see it, I’m sure you’ll find it. It isn’t hard.<\/p>\n

Let me just go on record by saying I can’t believe some of the shit I have read online in the last few days, as people have commented on Martin’s tragic death. However, the most offensive comments were made by some idiot sax players, on a lame-ass discussion board that I won’t even dignify with a link to.<\/p>\n

To suggest the man was not a talented saxophonist, musician, or an accomplished performer, and to state he was worthy of a Darwin award, speaks more to your own worthiness of the award.<\/p>\n

You hide behind the anonymity of your screen names, and bash people you don’t know, or may not have heard of, just because you know nothing beyond your own frame of reference. Grow the f@#! up. There is a family grieving. There are friends grieving. I’d ask if you’ve ever given them any thought, but that would be pointless. You can’t think of anyone but yourselves.<\/p>\n

Finn Martin was much more than a saxophonist who played smooth jazz while walking down the facades of buildings around the world. He was a very accomplished musician. He was a humanitarian; a philanthropist. Let’s let him take this article out with his performance of My Funny Valentine<\/em>.<\/p>\n