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Rene Marie

In a span of two decades, 11 recordings and countless stage performances, vocalist René Marie has cemented her reputation as not only a singer but also a composer, arranger, theatrical performer and teacher. Guided and tempered by powerful life lessons and rooted in jazz traditions laid down by Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and other leading ladies of past generations, she borrows various elements of folk, R&B and even classical and country to create a captivating hybrid style. Her body of work is musical, but it’s more than just music. It’s an exploration of the bright and dark corners of the human experience, and an affirmation of the power of the human spirit.

René was born in November 1955 into a family of seven children in Warrenton, Virginia. While neither of her parents were formally trained musicians, radio and records of all kinds – blues, folk, bluegrass and classical – made up the soundtrack to her childhood. Rene had just one year of formal piano training at age nine, then another year of lessons at age 13 after her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to Roanoke, Virginia.

During her teenage years, she sang in a few R&B bands at musical functions in her community. She composed and sang her first piece with a band when she was 15.

But René put her musical aspirations aside to make room for the obligations and responsibilities of adulthood. She married a former bandmate when she was 18, and by the mid-1990s, she was the mother of two and working in a bank. When she was 41, her older son convinced her to start singing again, and she took a few tenuous steps into her local music scene, singing for tips one night a week in a hotel bar. It would be several months before she actually earned any real money as a singer.

Her husband was initially supportive of her reboot to her musical career, but things changed by the end of 1997, when he issued an ultimatum: stop singing or leave their home. Tension over the issue escalated from emotional abuse to domestic violence, and she left the house and the marriage behind.

“Something happens when you get up on stage and start making music with someone,” René explains. “Another part of your personality comes to life. I had kind of pushed that down over the years, but because of the music, I was able to speak up and defend myself and be my own advocate. So when my husband gave me that ultimatum, it wasn’t that I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have to sing.’ It was more like, ‘I don’t think I want to live with anybody who thinks it’s okay to issue an ultimatum like that.”

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Profile

Why René Marie Can't Keep from Singing

Read "Why René Marie Can't Keep from Singing" reviewed by Mathew Bahl


"I don't like being bored while I'm singing," laughs René Marie. The Virginia-based vocalist and MAXJAZZ recording artist is explaining why she sings jazz. “You don't know what somebody's going to say, musically, or what somebody's going to do. If you go to a rock concert or pop, they want to hear the song exactly like it is on the radio. But a jazz audience is looking to hear it done a different way and I like ...

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Live Review

Rene Marie at the new Dazzle

Read "Rene Marie at the new Dazzle" reviewed by Geoff Anderson


Rene Marie Dazzle Denver, Colorado August 4, 2023 It's always a joy when singer Rene Marie comes to town. Friday night was special because she opened the new Dazzle nightclub with two sets and two more on Saturday night. Marie lived in Denver for several years and, as one of the top female jazz singers on the scene, it was both fitting and appropriate that she opened the new location. On top of ...

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In Pictures

Rene Marie Trio Live at The Zeider's American Dream Theater

Read "Rene Marie Trio Live at The Zeider's American Dream Theater" reviewed by Mark Robbins


The Zeider's American Dream Theater hosted the first annual Vocal Jazz Summit. Under the direction of Alexis Cole the summit is “an annual conference designed to bring together vocal jazz enthusiasts, emerging and established artists, industry leaders, and the greater vocal jazz community to connect and engage one another in celebration of the art form, present unique educational experiences, and provide an environment to nurture and grow the vocal jazz community. The weekend will engage festival-goers with live performance, interactive ...

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Live Review

Rene Marie With Experiment In Truth At The Jazz Corner

Read "Rene Marie With Experiment In Truth At The Jazz Corner" reviewed by Martin McFie


Rene Marie The Jazz Corner Rene Marie with Experiment in Truth Hilton Head Island, SC December 28-29, 2018 There are no sharp edges to Rene Marie's voice. Her singing has a warm, soft-velvet quality. She does, however, have an extensive range and an ability to change direction and tempo with surprising ease and speed. She was joined by Experiment in Truth, a trio comprised of John Chin on piano, Elias Bailey on ...

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Album Review

Rene Marie: I Wanna Be Evil: With Love to Eartha Kitt

Read "I Wanna Be Evil: With Love to Eartha Kitt" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Iconoclastic and often enigmatic singer Rene Marie was plain when she once said that she never wished to record a tribute disc. After four successful recordings with MAXJAZZ, including one (Vertigo (2001)) provocatively pairing “Dixie" with “Strange Fruit," Marie took a hard left to address in music some of her pressing artistic concerns. This resulted in 2011's Black Lace Freudian Slip (Motema) and her loving ode to America, Voice of My Beautiful Country (Motema, 2011). No, Marie had no intention ...

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Album Review

Rene Marie: Black Lace Freudian Slip

Read "Black Lace Freudian Slip" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Budding jazz instrumentalists are often told that they need to find their own voice but, ironically, those who use their actual voices are often expected to adhere to the sonic standards of those who came before. Fans and press who value originality in jazz instrumentalists wring their hands in frustration when more John Coltrane clones come into the picture but, on the other side of the coin, the masses applaud and herald singers with voices crafted in the images of ...

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Live Review

Rene Marie

Read "Rene Marie" reviewed by Geoff Anderson


René MarieNovember 1, 2008 (First Set)Dazzle NightclubDenver

René Marie is a jazz singer, and one of the better ones in the business these days. She performs the standards and often does so in a straight ahead, straightforward but still unique manner. She's not content to exclusively reinterpret the jazz songbook, however. She writes her own songs and is also known to occasionally select a pop song not typically heard in a jazz context ...

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Recording

Grammy Nominated Vocalist René Marie's First All-Original LP "Sound of Red" Out Via Motema Music May 13

Grammy Nominated Vocalist René Marie's First All-Original LP "Sound of Red"  Out Via Motema Music May 13

Source: All About Jazz

René Marie, the “outrageous” (Wall Street Journal) vocalist has taken the recording process one giant step further with the release of her most personal album on May 13. As the follow-up to 2013’s Grammy award-nominated album I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt), Sound of Red is her first album of all-original songs written and co-produced by the contemporary jazz chanteuse herself. It’s been a “remarkable path to jazz” (NPR) for René. As a fearless force in the ...

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Recording

Blue Engine Records Celebrates the Holidays with BIG BAND HOLIDAYS: New release from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis features guest vocalists René Marie, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gregory Porter

Blue Engine Records Celebrates the Holidays with BIG BAND HOLIDAYS: New release from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis features guest vocalists René Marie, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gregory Porter

Source: Michael Ricci

CD streets October 30, 2015; limited edition 180g vinyl coming soon Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine Records celebrates the most wonderful time of the year with the release of Big Band Holidays, a compilation of holiday classics performed live by the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Special guests on Big Band Holidays are some of today’s commanding new voices in jazz: René Marie, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gregory Porter. Big Band Holidays will be released ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: The return of Rene Marie, Gaslight Cabaret Festival, and more

Jazz this week: The return of Rene Marie, Gaslight Cabaret Festival, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Check out more events at Jazz Near You: St. Louis. This week's lineup of jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis puts the spotlight on vocalists, starting with an internationally known singer once signed to a local label, and continuing with the latest set of shows featuring performers from the thriving local cabaret scene. Mix in some improvised music with a side order of poetry, and various instrumental performances in a variety of styles, and there should be something ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Rene Marie gets "Evil" like Eartha Kitt

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Rene Marie gets "Evil" like Eartha Kitt

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Today, let's spend some video time with singer Rene Marie, who's coming to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, March 4 through Saturday, March 7 at Jazz at the Bistro. A Virginia native who will turn 60 in November, Rene Marie was something of a late bloomer, not beginning her professional singing career until she was past 40 and her two sons nearly grown. She was one of the first artists to sign with the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label in 1999, ...

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Performance / Tour

Stephanie Jordan, Germaine Bazzle, Betty Shirley featured in Jazz Journey concert with Virginia native Rene Marie

Stephanie Jordan, Germaine Bazzle, Betty Shirley featured in Jazz Journey concert with Virginia native Rene Marie

Source: Sylvain Music Notes

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation presents a Jazz Journey concert featuring the legendary song stylist Rene Marie, along with three of New Orleans' greatest female jazz singers: Germaine Bazzle, Stephanie Jordan and Betty Shirley. The concert takes place on Friday, Jan. 13, at Dillard University's Lawless Memorial Chapel in New Orleans, Louisiana. Admission is free. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts promptly at 7:00 p.m. René Marie, the award winning singer and Virginia native whose ...

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Performance / Tour

Rene Marie Brings Her Strong and Diverse Songbook to the Exodus to Jazz Stage on November 13th

Rene Marie Brings Her Strong and Diverse Songbook to the Exodus to Jazz Stage on November 13th

Source: Jazz@Rochester

I love discovering artists who, for one reason or another, I haven't listened to before but then come across them and think “this is great stuff... why haven't I heard this before." That's what's happened with vocalist and songwriter René Marie, who I found out more about after realizing she would be gracing the Exodus to Jazz stage at the Reformation Lutheran Church on November 13th in an early concert at 5:00 pm. Starting her singing career after the age ...

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Recording

René Marie to Show Us Her Black Lace Freudian Slip

René Marie to Show Us Her Black Lace Freudian Slip

Source: GoMedia PR

René Marie, the award winning jazz, soul and blues singer-songwriter whose voice has been compared by critics to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn and whose social advocacy to Nina Simone's and Abbey Lincoln's, will be releasing her new album, Black Lace Freudian Slip (Motema Music,) on October 11. Black Lace Freudian Slip is a collection of thirteen original songs written by René Marie and recorded with her trio of Kevin Bales on piano, Rodney Jordan on bass and Quentin Baxter ...

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Performance / Tour

Rene Marie: No Shortage of "Imagination"

Rene Marie: No Shortage of "Imagination"

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter

In one 70-minute set, she sang an original gnarly blues, a 19th century traditional hymn, a Spanish poem set to music, and two merged songs of “Imagination" from Tin Pan Alley and Motown. But think nothing of it, this was merely standard operating procedure for singer/songwriter/activitist Rene Marie. Of course such a performance might be well out of the ordinary for anyone else. Rene started generating critical buzz about a decade ago, in part reflecting her talent, in part reflecting ...

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Contest

Only Two Weeks Remain to Enter Rene Marie's "Voice of My Beautiful Country" Contest to Win a Trip to Washington DC

Only Two Weeks Remain to Enter Rene Marie's "Voice of My Beautiful Country" Contest to Win a Trip to Washington DC

Source: GoMedia PR

In celebration of her Motéma Music, debut, Voice of My Beautiful Country, award winning singer-songwriter and trailblazing vocalist René Marie is asking fellow Americans to follow her lead, listen to their inner voices, pull from their own experiences and creatively express to the world what they love most love about their country. They can use poetry, photography, spoken word, video or music, to best display their own “Voice of My Beautiful Country." Until May 31, 2011, fans across the US ...

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Contest

Award-Winning Vocalist René Marie Invites Americans to Show Their “Voice of My Beautiful Country,” in Celebration of Her New Release on Motéma Music, For A chance to Win a Trip to Washington, DC

Award-Winning Vocalist René Marie Invites Americans to Show Their “Voice of My Beautiful Country,”  in Celebration of Her New Release on Motéma Music, For  A chance to Win a Trip to Washington, DC

Source: Cary Goldberg

In celebration of her newest CD, Voice of My Beautiful Country, on Motéma Music, award- winning singer-songwriter and trailblazing vocalist René Marie is asking her fellow Americans to follow her lead, listen to their inner voices, pull from their own experiences, and creatively express to the world, what they love most about their country. They can use poetry, photography, spoken word, video or music, to best display their own “Voice of My Beautiful Country." Beginning April 5, 2011 and running ...

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