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Audrey Martin

At its best music can heal the sick and sooth the soul, refresh the spirit and embolden the meek. Vocalist Audrey Martin experienced first hand the power of a song to provide hope and emotional sustenance in the darkest of times. With her captivating debut album, Living Room, the Berkeley jazz singer shares a lifetime of wisdom with a highly personal repertoire that gracefully encompasses gems from the American Songbook and treasures from pop and jazz singer/songwriters such as Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Abbey Lincoln and Blossom Dearie. Living Room is scheduled for a summer release on August 26, 2014.

“The songs that I recorded are all pieces I’ve been singing and working on for several years,” Martin says. “These are songs that I love and that have really touched me.”

An album of bracing maturity, Living Room is not the work of a dewy ingénue. Rather, like some of the era’s most incisive jazz singers (René Marie and Judy Wexler come to mind), Martin dedicated herself to mastering the art form at mid-life. Possessing impeccable taste and blessed with a gloriously warm and clear voice, she makes every note count. More than setting a mood, Martin renders strikingly vivid scenes, from the beatifically becalmed (“Lazy Afternoon” and “Calling You”) to the quietly tempestuous (“I Never Meant to Hurt You” and “Wild Is the Wind”). It’s not much of a stretch to hear her training and experience as a psychotherapist deeply informing her sensibility as a singer.

“I’m attracted to the chance to communicate the emotion of a lyric sensitively and in a deeply felt way, to find my way into the world of a song so that I am speaking to the listener,” Martin says. “As a therapist I hold the deeply felt and personal life stories of my patients, and as a vocalist I get to tell my own story and the stories of others through song.”

Martin couldn’t be keeping better company on her mission. Veteran pianist Larry Dunlap produced the album and arranged the material. While he’s worked with numerous instrumental masters over the years, he’s best known as a superlative accompanist sought out by singular jazz singers such as Nancy King, Mark Murphy, Dame Cleo Lane, Sheila Jordan, Rebecca Paris, Ernestine Anderson, Joe Williams, Bobbe Norris, and rising SF star Kenny Washington. He and Martin hit it off immediately, and they conduct a rarified musical conversation throughout the album, with Dunlap providing unfussy but beautifully detailed arrangements and sparkling harmonic support.

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Album Review

Audrey Martin: Living Room

Read "Living Room" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Music and therapy aren't so different. In fact, many view music as therapy; it provides an outlet for expression for those who create, it helps those on the receiving end to find meaning in life, and it provides the means for people on both sides to look inside and beyond themselves. Countless individuals understand the nexus between these two worlds, as it's what draws them toward music in the first place, but vocalist Audrey Martin has actually lived it.

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Recording

Audrey Martin's Debut Album "Living Room" (Blue Hydrangea Records) Streets August 26

Audrey Martin's Debut Album "Living Room" (Blue Hydrangea Records) Streets August 26

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations

At its best music can heal the sick and soothe the soul, refresh the spirit and embolden the meek. Audrey Martin experienced first hand the power of a song to provide hope and emotional sustenance in the darkest of times. With her captivating debut album, Living Room, the Berkeley jazz singer shares a lifetime of wisdom with a highly personal repertoire that gracefully encompasses gems from the American Songbook and treasures from pop and jazz singer/songwriters such as Laura Nyro, ...

“A collection of finely shaped and beautifully rendered performances.” —Dan Bilawsky, allaboutjazz.com

“Singers like Audrey Martin…are ahead of the pack, lighting the way, and setting the pace…dive in and dig the cool…classy…” —Mark Tucker, acousticmusic.com

“Jazz vocal fans will easily rate this set as essential. Well done.”

“A work of remarkable but unforced intimacy, Living Room introduces a singer who makes you hear familiar songs anew.” —Andrew Gilbert (Andrew Gilbert writes for The San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and other publications.)

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Living Room

Self Produced
2014

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