Markus ilmari

People ask me about my name all the time. Well then, my full name is Markus Walter ilmari Schmid, I was born in Stuttgart/Germany, my father is German and my mother comes from Finland.I started playing the guitar at age 12. We lived in Buenos Aires/Argentina at the time, and one day my father took me and my sister to an old teacher who showed us how to play the typical argentinian chacarera’s, cuica’s and samba’s. And of course we had to sing along. I loved sentimental songs like ’Samba de mi Esperanza’ and ’Yo vendo unos ojos negros’.Years later, back in Germany, around the time I finished school, I got seriosly infected by Pat Metheny’s music. I listened to ’As falls Wchita falls Wichita Falls’ and ’American Garage’ all the time. Through Pat I got to listen to Jaco Pastorius. And of course, from Jaco I got to Weather Report, and so it went on until I had no money left to buy any records. Without knowing I had become addicted to jazz, I wanted to know more about it! I started practising my guitar like a madman and was accepted to study music at the Hilversums Conservatory in the Netherlands in ’87.I spent years practising Bebop in Hilversum (Netherlands), a boring town crowded with music students. But things changed when I finally got a room in Amsterdam. I started my own band, playing my own compositions that were still very much inspired by the Pat Metheny Group. At the same time I played in Latin Bands like ’Grupo Babette’ and started my duo ’Realtime’ with my friend saxofonist Wolfgang Keller (we’re still playing together – it’s been more than 10 years!). Touring with the famous dutch singer Robert Long in the late nineties was something special. He changed my ideas about songwriting, I felt like I’d been playing musicians music for too long and wanted something else. So I bought a serious guitar rack and started writing dutch popsongs. My new band was called ’Ziel’ (dutch word for ’Soul’) and we had a great time playing around the Netherlands – we released a cd and even won some awards.Apart from playing in bands I also worked as a music teacher and enjoyed teaching jazz guitar for many years at the ’Djam’, a fine little jazz institute in the heart of Amsterdam.Somehow I’m back with sentimental songs now: I have a intriguing project with the lovely singer Eva Kieboom called ’Soelaas’ (www.soelaas.nu). We’re planning to record an album with songs by John Ewbank, the guy behind the famous dutch singer Marco Borsato. And I’m still trying to write songs like ’Samba de mi Esperanza’ - songs that last forever.Ah, I almost forgot: In 2004 I started an online webstore with independent records. We have some of the best European jazz, world and pop in our catalogue, check it out at www.toonbankrecords.nl !