How I Live the Lowcountry: Hilton Head Island’s Martin Lesch

When Jazz pianist and composer Martin Lesch isn’t at The Jazz Corner playing with his band, he’s helping out with the Junior Jazz Foundation which works to promote jazz education in area schools.

In fact, when we caught up with him, he was quickly preparing for the foundation’s annual jazz camp. The summer camp for ages 12-20 regularly draws nearly 100 students from more than a dozen states to the area. This year’s camp runs from July 11-15.

Raised in New York City, Lesch began visiting his parents on the island in the early ‘80s.

After years of touring in a rock band of his own and performing with Atlanta-based singer songwriter Angie Aparo, Lesch landed a permanent gig “sometime around 2005-2006” at The Jazz Corner after Bob Masteller offered him a job.

“He and I were pretty close and we both had a real affection for Jazz,” he said of the club’s late owner. “And we were both jazz history nuts.”

That was more than ten years ago and Lesch and his band have been playing their regular Monday program —“A Journey through Jazz” — at the club ever since. He also plays with the group Deas Guyz, another Jazz Corner regular, on Sundays.

Lesch talked about getting out on Hilton Head in a recent phone interview:

Eat: Growing up in New York, I would always eat a lot of Chinese and Asian food but I also lived in China for a while. So Kelli (Lesch’s wife and The Jazz Corner’s general manager) and I eat mostly Asian food, I hate to say, even though I’m Italian. (Laughing)

Saigon Cafe (in Bluffton) and Hinoki (Japanese Restaurant on Hilton Head) are the two places I probably go the most. ...Those places are great. And I cook a lot.

...I make anything from hot pot to Asian noodles. A lot of vegetarian things and Italian food. On my day off, usually I stay home and I cook. That’s something I like to do.

Drink: I’m like a neighborhood bar person ...so I go to neighborhood bars. That would be like Drydock or Cheap Seats. Any place where they are showing baseball basically. But a place where I know everybody. Those are the places I usually go. Nothing too fancy.

Play: We moved up toward mid-island now, but for a long time I’d ride my bike through Crossings Park. If you go into Crossings Park, and a lot of people don’t know this even, but there’s all these paths that people have built through the years and. It’s great for mountain biking.

See: I go to Savannah a lot. ...To be honest, if I have any spare time I’m usually in my studio working (at home). That’s where I spend most of my time.

...For a long time, my studio originally was where John Cranford’s is now. And then I passed that along to John because I built one at my house.

Listen: I definitely am a big jazz person, so I go to The Jazz Corner because you’re going to see some of the best people in the world playing there.

Other than that, it depends on who’s playing. There’s people I love to see and I love to play with. I love to play with Cranford and love to see him. I love to see John Brackett play and Will Snyder play. A lot of people like that. So it depends on where they’re playing. I go to The Boardroom (on Hilton Head) sometimes for music.

...Tonight I’m taking a bunch of kids from the Jazz Foundation to go see Joey Alexander — the young jazz prodigy. He’s like 13 years old. (That’s) in Savannah.

I think they are very excited to see him. ...It will be inspirational. I can remember when I was a kid seeing stuff like that. It inspired me. Hopefully it will make them practice more.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 7:33 AM with the headline "How I Live the Lowcountry: Hilton Head Island’s Martin Lesch."