Murder at Birdland

Murder at Birdland

By: Mike Steinel

Language: en

Categories: Music, Fiction, Drama

In the fall of 2001, Martin Spencer—a fifty-one-year-old clinical psychologist from Topeka—faces three life-altering revelations in a single week: the death of his father, the shocking truth that his biological father—a jazz trumpeter—was murdered half a century earlier, and the discovery that he can travel through time using photographs. His journeys carry him to the heart of jazz itself: New York City’s 52nd Street in the late 1940s, at the height of the bebop era. There, he finds himself in the company of legends—Art Tatum, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Red Rodney—while navigating a dangerous web of mob tie...

Episodes

Episode 03
Oct 27, 2025

After a sleepless night spent grappling with revelations about the murdered father he never knew, Martin Spencer discovers an extraordinary gift. In the morning, in his mother’s house on Elm Street, his experiments with time mark the beginning of a journey filled with mystery and possibility.

Duration: 00:24:25
Episode 2
Oct 20, 2025

Martin Spencer travels in the rain to his home town, Morgan Kansas, to attend his father's funeral. His thoughts are occupied by his recent encounter with his patient Thomas Gaylord. After the funeral Martin's mother Sylvia reveals a secret that she's kept from him for five decades. 

Duration: 00:33:59
Murder at Birdland - Episode 01
Oct 13, 2025

In this episode we find Martin Spencer, a 50 year old clinical psychologist and amateur jazz musician, studying the stormy fall sky from his office, listening to jazz, thinking about New York in the forties and preparing to meet his new patient: Thomas Gaylord, a young man with an interesting past. His life is about to change and he senses it.

Duration: 00:32:38