My name is Anthony Thomas Martinez. I was born in San Antonio, TX on October 20 1987 where I was raised for the majority of my life. My father introduced me to Jazz, Funk, and Soulful music at an early age. My childhood years were well conditioned to Jazz, Blues and a variety of different styles and genres of music. I was the baby of 4 in my family. My 3 older siblings preceded me by 15-20 years. We were four different personalities with four different likings of music. Growing up in the golden age of the HipHop – boom bap era I was exposed to all of the pioneers of that scene from my oldest brother, R&b from my oldest sister, and everything from Country to Alternative Rock from my youngest sister. I began expressing my creativity with painting at a very early point in my developing years. As I would paint I’d naturally listen to music the entire time. This is where my subconscious studying occurred. I picked up the saxophone at the age of 11, it was the summer of my passing year to the 6th grade from 5th. At the time, my dad had an old Selmer Bundy Alto saxophone and I started to experiment with producing a sound and learning the notes. I pursued music throughout middle and high school winning many awards, competing in competitions, participating in workshops and gigging in bands. I’ve been very fortunate to have met some beautiful, talented, inspiring creators along the journey that all shaped a piece of who I am today. In 2005, I was humbly featured in the Down Beat magazine 28th annual student music awards (Hank Jones Addition) as one of the few outstanding soloists . I received many scholarships to Berklee College Of Music including attendance to the 5 week summer program in ’04 and ’05. During my teenage years, I created my own Music Company / Collective / Brand, “BlackNote – BlackNoteRecords”, turning my closet into a vocal booth and the rest of my room into a recording studio. I began producing, recording, mixing , mastering, marketing, and promoting Hiphop artists, singers, producers, beat makers, visual artists and other fellow creatives through BlackNote as a platform to release independent projects. From 2008 – 2010 I attended Berklee College Of Music once again pursuing my studies in music. During my time at Berklee is where I met my mentor Ed Tomasi; My teacher, my jazz sifu. He helped rebuild and bring direction to who I am as a musician today. Since then I’ve experimented, organized Music and Art festivals, performed and gigged with my band along with guest appearing in other musical endeavors.
