Martino - Classical/Contemporary Keyboard Player

Martino Resume

MARTIN GERSCHWITZ (keyboards/violin/lead and back up vocals) Martin Gerschwitz's formula for success is a fine blend of luck, a whole lot of struggle, and a strong belief that some day he'll be at the top. That day is just around the corner for Martin Gerschwitz, the classically trained German born keyboardmaster. At the age of 16 he already played with big german orchestras, of course all classical music! Then in 1968, his older brother (who is a very successful Cello - player) gave him a record to listen to ("Five Bridges Suite" by The NICE, Keith Emersons first band), and Martin discovered Rock'n'Roll. Within 3 weeks, he put his first band together ("THE AVENGERS")..... After several years playing on the german scene with german bands, backing up famous german singers and being among other things the keyboardplayer for “PERCY SLEDGE” ("When a man loves a woman") for a whole european tour, he finally in 1978 formed his own american-style Rockband "BREAKPOINT" (they recorded one album in 1981 called "First Serving", and in 2006 it got re-released as a CD in the USA by “Regeneration Records”), which toured very successfully all over the american Military Circuit in Europe. But that wasn't enough for Martin, he wanted to make it worldwide - so he gave up everything he had, sold his equipment very cheap, paid off his debts and went on his way to the USA! So here he was - in 1985 - in the United States - without money, a band or equipment..... For the first 2 months Martin worked for a messenger service to make some money to buy equipment again, and it didn't take long for him to put his aforementioned formula to work. After one audition “TIM BOGERT” (ex - “Vanilla Fudge” bass player) asked him to join his band, and by the end of the year Martin Gerschwitz added “LOVERBOY” and EDDIE VAN HALEN to the list of musicians which he's shared center stage with. Over the next 25 years Martin performed at well over 11.000 live events worldwide, from solo appearances with orchestras in Germany to European Rockfestivals, from the Russian Rhythm and Blues Festival to the Singapore Blues Festival, from a concert tour of the Persian Gulf countries to the Iceland Rock Festival, Martin Gerschwitz toured the U.S. and the world with such acts as “LITA FORD” (1987 - 1989), “MEAT LOAF” (1989 - 1990), “VANILLA FUDGE” (1991), “WALTER TROUT BAND” (1993 - 1998), just to name a few. He also recorded many CD's as a result of these tours. In 1996 he also started his own project utilizing the classical knowledge he had, first with an (also classically trained) flautist, who he recorded 3 beautiful Flute and Piano CD's with (DAN LEFLER and MARTIN GERSCHWITZ, Volume 1-3 all available through Martin's website www.martingerschwitz.com), then finally in 1998 he decided to do it all by himself, he basically went back to his roots. As a result of that, Martin put out 2 more CD's, "Lazy Afternoon" (1999) and "Nobody knows me" (2000) - wonderful, relaxing all keyboard pieces of music, and both are available through his website, too - a must have for every music fan! In March of 1999, Martin got approached to join “Eric Burdon & The Animals” as their permanent keyboard/violin player. Martin toured with them all over Europe, North America, Hongkong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, etc., actually - the band was touring constantly all over the world with more than 140 shows per year! In the midst of all this touring, the band (with Martin) made time to record 3 Live CD's, "Eric Burdon & The New Animals - Bootleg 2000" (which was recorded at "Stephen Talkhouse" in Amagansett, NY), in 2002 "Eric Burdon & The New Animals - Live in Seattle" (which was recorded at the "Experience Music Project" in Seattle, WA), and in December of 2004 “Athens Traffic Live” (which was recorded in - you guessed it - Athens/Greece)! In the summer of 2003 Martin recorded yet another CD (called “Martin Gerschwitz & friends”, which amongst others featured his band mates of “The Animals” as well), he then toured Europe several times with a mostly german line-up, and finally shot a high quality concert DVD of his band in Frankfurt/Germany in November of 2004 (“Martin Gerschwitz & friends” - Live)! Once again - everything aforementioned (CD's/DVD's) is available through Martin's website (www.martingerschwitz.com)! As of November of 2005, Martin is a proud member of “Iron Butterfly” – in fact, he's their keyboardplayer/lead singer - and maybe at some point the violin will be part of the show again, too…..??? In May of 2007, Martin released a remastered re-issue double CD of 2 of his most successful earlier CD's (“Lazy Afternoon” and “Nobody knows me”, both are sold out), it's called “Somebody should know me by now”… and in September of 2008 yet another masterpiece, “Bridge to Eternity”, feat. for the first time his european touring band “Martin Gerschwitz & friends” !!! Finally – in September of 2011, Martin released 2 more in

Updated: March 20, 2013