The Seattle percussionist Davis Martin should not be confused with the plethora of musicians named David Martin, in fact if percussionists dropped beats the way editors have dropped and substituted the "s" in his first name they would be lucky to be hired for any gig at all. Which is hardly the case with Davis Martin, a collaborative force in some of the most interesting combos to come out of the rain-soaked, coffee-drenched city since the mid-'90s. One such ensemble is Maktub, originally organized at the outset of 1996 with a list of participants who, like Martin, were familiar faces and noisemakers at Seattle clubs specializing in alternative music.
Some of these players such as vocalist and keyboardist Reggie Watts had also been sidekicks of the drummer's in a series of performing ensembles under the direction of composer and producer Steve Fisk. As if literally standing astride a pair of tall tom-toms, Martin has managed to straddle two contrasting sides of the Seattle music scene: free improvisation, which tends to totally avoid any kind of regular rhythm, and groove music, which survives on the heartbeat pulse as if a vampire out for the evening feeding. Martin has also performed and recorded with the Spice band and the Sharpshooters, a hip-hop duo.