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Rebecca Martin
In the beginning, bards went from village to village, bringing folks the news of the day with their ballads. The oldest Anglo-Saxon term for this singer of words was "scop," which means "shaper." In other words, it was up to the balladeer to "shape the world" for those who cared to listen. Not all of those Medieval songs were about battles, about castles lost and kings dying. There were also songs that spoke of love and hope, of life and death, of joy and despair. In a harsh world, "Carpe diem" or "Seize the day," became a favorite motif. Listening to the words of the traveling bard, any common villager, any man or woman or child would soon realize that they were not alone with their feelings, that others had the same thoughts hidden in their hearts and minds.
That's how it started, with music as a public service. And yet, down through the years, and with the advent of technology and marketing, music often loses the purity those early storytellers - those "shapers" - meant it to have. In the new millennium, we seem to have forgotten what it was all about in the first place. Rebecca Martin is one who remembers: "Music should be a public service."
Rebecca left her native Rumford Point, Maine, behind and made the big move to New York City in the spring of 1990. It was there that she met and formed a band with a musician and songwriter named Jesse Harris. They called the band Once Blue, and what happened next was one of those too-good-to-be-true show business sagas. In 1995, Davitt Sigerson, the newly-named president of EMI Records, had just left a nightclub in the city and was headed home. When he noticed an EMI limousine parked in front of the venue next door, he decided to drop in, see if anything special was happening. Something was: Rebecca Martin was on stage that night. When Sigerson heard her sing, he approached the stage and signed them on the spot.
The group's self-titled debut drew rave reviews, and before long Rebecca and the band was touring with Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris, The Lilith Fair, and others. Unfortunately, a 1997 restructuring of EMI's parent company incorporated EMI Records into Virgin and Capitol Records and Once Blue became a part of history. Jesse Harris went on to write songs for other artists and last year, won a GRAMMY for his song, "I Don't Know Why," which was recorded by Norah Jones. While the big city might be the place to work and perform, after ten years there, it was no longer the kind of life Rebecca craved. So she packed up and headed upstate, back to those small-town sensibilities she had left behind in Maine. With nature and animals and the best people around her, Martin began to concentrate again on matters of heart and soul. By 1998, she had written and produced a solo recording, Thoroughfare, and soon after was signed again to a label, this time with Fresh Sounds/New Talent (Barcelona, Spain).
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Rebecca Martin: When I Was Long Ago
by Raul d'Gama Rose
The immortal duets of vocalist Sheila Jordan with virtuoso bassists Cameron Brown and Harvie S, and with pianist extraordinaire, Steve Kuhn, now have a boon companion in Rebecca Martin's extraordinary trio album, When I Was Long Ago. Placing it with Jordan's legendary recordings is a must. The bassist on this session, Larry Grenadier, is in fine form, stretching melodically, harmonically and rhythmically, just as Brown and Harvie S did for Jordan. The addition of saxophonist Bill McHenry adds a second ...
read moreRebecca Martin: The Growing Season
by Phil DiPietro
Rebecca Martin's name keeps showing up in the jazz press, but she's more appropriately classified as one of the best singer/songwriters today. She's issued sessions heavy on standards, specifically 2002's Middlehope (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2004), and sung them lately with drummer Paul Motian, garnering her deserved high praise. But as stunning and personal as her work in the standards realm has been, her real strength is crafting and presenting her own songs, intimately spellbinding listeners into her world.
She ...
read moreRebecca Martin: The Growing Season
by John Dworkin
It's been four years since Rebecca Martin last led a record date. In the interim she's given birth to her son Charlie, recorded on a Paul Motian project, and founded a citizen organization dedicated to local projects and government. Luckily for us, she's also taken the time to harvest a fresh batch of beautiful, original songs to enjoy on her CD The Growing Season. It's a strong continuation of her songwriting and fits squarely into her wider creative continuity.
read moreRebecca Martin: Paradox Of Continuity
by John Dworkin
To assume that singer/writer Rebecca Martin's comparatively small recorded output is a reflection of her level of development as an artist would be a mistake. Her latest recording is with Paul Motian on his recently released Trio 2000 + 1 Winter & Winter recording, On Broadway Vol. 4: Or The Paradox Of Continuity. She is the first vocalist to record for the legendary drummer's On Broadway series. Upon first consideration, Motian's often elliptical style and Martin's more straightforward approach to ...
read moreRebecca Martin: Here, the Same, But Different
by Phil DiPietro
Rebecca Martin's last recording, Middlehope, demonstrated conclusively that she is a unique interpreter of standards in intimate, beguiling, personal, enticing, sensual, captivating, alluring...absolutely enthralling... wonderful even... ways (see review ). One might assume, as does the first question in this interview, that her way with a chestnut probably got her signed to MAXJAZZ, a label with a growing roster of enchanting chanteuses of the jazz cannon. One would be wrong - assumptions won't do for Rebecca Martin. You see, whatever ...
read moreRebecca Martin: People Behave Like Ballads
by Jim Santella
With her session of sixteen original songs, singer Rebecca Martin sends a message. She tells stories about love and how we feel about our relationships. These are folk songs. The music that accompanies her tender lyrics also gives off a glow of folk music charm. While the message is universal, the instrumental harmony remains rooted in that part of European culture that migrated to North America centuries ago. Hence, Martin's folk music echoes the folk ballad of North America.
read moreRebecca Martin: Middlehope
by Phil DiPietro
Here is another terrific example of why I, and others like me, bother to engage in this practice. An incredible talent, a remarkable spirit, a true artist of substance this close to being absolutely huge, but not quite-yet. She's one of the few that brings to the reviewer the simultaneous feelings of incredulity, at having the opportunity to make them more widely known, and gravity, in recognition of the heady responsibility that underlays the task of extolling them in credible ...
read moreRebecca Martin:The Growing Season
Source:
JamBase
By: Bill Clifford
Before Nora Jones, there was Rebecca Martin. In 1995, working together with songwriter Jesse Harris - the chief songwriter of Jones' Come Away With Me - Martin released Once Blue by the band Once Blue, a jazzy, sultry mix of noir. The duo split soon after its release, but Martin has released music under her own name in the years since, including The Growing Season (Sunny Side), her sixth CD. While Martin works with stellar supporting musicians, ...
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Rebecca Martin and Kate McGarry: Two Appealing Blends of Jazz and Folk
Source:
All About Jazz
Both Rebecca Martin and Kate McGarry are native New Englanders in their 40s, and both create exceptionally appealing blends of folk and jazz in their new albums. Yet thanks to their contrasting voices and arrangements, Ms. McGarry's If Less Is More . . . Nothing Is Everything" (Palmetto) and Ms. Martin's The Growing Season" (Sunnyside) take their listeners on divergent sonic paths. Ms. McGarry sings in a broad, bluesy soprano that dominates her sound. Ms. Martin sings in a slightly ...
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Rebecca Martin Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
To assume that singer/writer Rebecca Martin's comparatively small recorded output is a reflection of her level of development as an artist would be a mistake.
AAJ Contributor John Dworkin caught up with the energetic Martin at a hometown cafe, and sheds some light on this up-and-coming singer/songwriter, including some intriguing insight into working with drum legend Paul Motian on his latest Trio+1 release, On Broadway Vol. 4: Or The Paradox Of Continuity.
Check out Rebecca Martin: Paradox of Continuity at ...
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RAUL D'GAMA ROSE http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37581#.UC7v0GDgKi4
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“The songs are all hers this time, and nearly every one carries a chilling mule-kick, originating either in Ms. Martin's lyrics, her singing or the arrangements of her modest band. It's a facile comparison to put these songs against Norah Jones's, but at least it helps to orient them in the new landscape. Those of the more popular singer turn love into a pleasant abstraction. Ms. Martin's have more depth, darkness and traction; they deal with emotion closer to the complicated way it actually occurs.” Ben Ratliff, the New York Times