Martin Speake on Jazz on 3

English alto player Martin Speake is in session on this week's Jazz on 3. It's a fine set with a band he calls Change of Heart featuring the swedish piano player Bobo Stenson.

Martin writes distinctive and refreshingly simple tunes that act as a springboard for his expert but never flashy playing. This band also brings out another side to the great Stenson. His most recent CD Cantando was one of my favourite releases of 2008; it's a mini-masterpiece of ethereal folkish charm. In Speake's company Bobo is much more boppish and references Thelonious Monk in a subtle and literal way.

Chatting to Martin off-air we reminisced about a very different jazz time when I was a fledgling jazz DJ and he was one fourth of a sax quartet called Itchy fingers. The band won a jazz competition judged by Joe Zawinul and sponsored by Schiltz beer. (I find it hard to even write the word Schlitz as the sickly brew was the cause of my first ever hangover - something you never forget!). Itchy Fingers were runners up but amazingly the competition was televised and a bigwig at Virgin records was watching. He immediately signed the band for a huge advance - for a sax quartet!

I'm never one for looking back and mourning for the good old jazz days. The music is as alive today as ever. However the late 1980s and early 90s were extraordinary times for major record labels signing up jazz artists. Don Cherry, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor were on A&M, Henry Threadgill was on Sony and in the UK Courtney Pine, Andy Sheppard and Steve Williamson all had major label gigs.

As it happens Martin Speake was very unhappy with the music Itchy Fingers made for Virgin and left the group. For the last 20 years he's been one of the "quiet men" of the music - head down mastering his art. Our Jazz On 3 session is witness to a fine player and composer who irrelevant of music business trends has built a career based on excellence, perseverance and love of the music.

Jez Nelson presents Jazz on 3 every Monday at 11.15pm on Radio 3