Once Blue (Rebecca Martin and Jesse Harris) Live at the Handlebar from 1996 Available on iTunes.

 

                           Click on image to purchase on iTunes

 

Once Blue is a bit of a long ago dream. Some 25 years ago I came to New York City from the state of Maine, landing in the Lower Eastside of Manhattan with the songwriter Jesse Harris and a young Ben Street, Kurt Rosenwinkelkel and Jim Black. Later, Kenny Wolleson, Steve Cardenas and Bill Dobrow would join us. It was a vibrant time for songwriting, and a fortunate start for us in the city.

What you are about to hear is a 22 year old recording of a live board mix at the height of our music making. We were a very young band on the road, spending much of our time touring the country to open for popular acts that included Lisa Loeb, Shawn Colvin, Squeeze, Emmylou Harris and others. Rolling into the Handlebar in South Carolina on January 19th, 1996 for our own concert was a refreshing and creative respite.

I was happy to find this performance of our group tucked away in a box for decades. Long before social media, music relied on miles and miles of performances in order to be heard. Although Once Blue was an influential band in New York City in the early 90’s, there isn’t anything available that has captured who we were as a live band which was one of our strengths. I’m pleased to be able to share this with you. It is my wish that you will enjoy our collaboration from long ago.

Rebecca Martin
May, 2018
Kingston, NY

Rebecca Martin and Guillermo Klein’s THE UPSTATE PROJECT available to pre-order.


PREORDER
The Upstate Project (Release date: April 14, 2017)

VISIT
The Upstate Project’s website for more information

 

The Upstate Project is a landmark collaboration that unites a group of world-class musicians who’ve already distinguished themselves in their individual creative pursuits.

Rebecca Martin is widely recognized as one of her generation’s most talented and versatile vocalists and songwriters, effortlessly bridging the world’s of jazz and songwriting while working alongside some of the music’s most esteemed players.  Argentine-born pianist-vocalist-composer-arranger Guillermo Klein is renowned throughout the jazz world for his inventive, eclectic compositional approach and his distinctive harmonic sensibility.  Their rhythm section is composed of bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, two of jazz’s most in-demand players.

The four participants’ distinctive talents interact in unexpected and inspiring ways on The Upstate Project, which offers exquisite, gently intoxicating melodies, vivid, haunting lyrics, and effortless instrumental interactions. Read more

TILLERY (Rebecca Martin, Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens) Available on Bandcamp Exclusively.

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Now you can purchase the Tillery recording, a collaborative project by Rebecca Martin, Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens on Band Camp.

PURCHASE ON BAND CAMP

4 1/2 Stars in Downbeat Magazine (October, 2016)

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TWAIN #1 in Jazz in France. Martin Featured on Art of the Song Nationwide on Public Radio. West Coast Performance in August.

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Rebecca Martin’s latest recording TWAIN, a collaboration with longtime partner bassist Larry Grenadier and produced by Pete Rende was catapulted to the #1 spot in Jazz in France on iTunes and Amazon.  Revered music critic MICHEL CONTAT who writes for Telerama France, one of the largest publications in the country, gives the album four stars:

“TWAIN: The miraculous alchemy between a singer and bass player”
Rebecca Martin and Larry Grenadier are a couple who play together and separately, as he is also known for his key role as bassist in the famous Brad Mehldau Trio. We were introduced to them together through their enchanting disc When I Was Long Ago” (2010 Sunnyside), where the famous singer totally reinterpreted standards with a spell singing verses rarely included in the reference versions. This time, the deputy is a pianist and a drummer, and the very discreet duo assert a familiar song (“Sophisticated Lady”) with others that are all original that sound old and with a unique intimate beauty. We cannot overstate the importance of sincerity, as with Rebecca Martin, it is built entirely in art. Her voice is that of the love and confidence of maternal comfort. How the bass lines support is love itself. Such a disk is something miraculous in the avalanche of vocal jazz. – Michel Contat

Earlier this year, NATE CHINEN of the New York Times featured Martin in a full page Arts & Leisure piece titled “A Voice That Leaps Between Genres” proclaiming her work as an inspiration to a generation of jazz singers. Read more

Rebecca Martin and TWAIN Featured in New York Times. Martin a ‘touchstone’ to a generation of jazz singers for singing and songwriting.

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KINGSTON, N.Y. —  A New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure piece written by Nate Chinen was published this weekend on Rebecca Martin and her upcoming release TWAIN on Sunnyside Records (available nationwide on Tuesday, March 26th).  “Ms. Martin is a vocalist with an earnest and unaffected style and a songwriter of unforced insight; Mr. Grenadier, her husband, is in the top tier of jazz bassists. Together they made Ms. Martin’s new album, “Twain,” due out on Sunnyside on Tuesday, in cloistered intimacy, recording a dozen of her songs with no initial accompaniment other than upright bass (his) and fingerpicked acoustic guitar (hers).” Read more

Singer and Songwriter Rebecca Martin Discusses the Lyrics on TWAIN, Community and Collaborations.

From "Twain". Photo credit: Pat Kepic

Singer and Songwriter Rebecca Martin Discusses the Lyrics on TWAIN, Community and Collaborations. 

Along with release of TWAIN on March 26, Martin looks ahead to performing with her trio TILLERY that features GRETCHEN PARLATO and BECCA STEVENS at the Kennedy Center for the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival In May

Kingston, NY – “I get all of my material for and emotional connection to the songs I write or interpret these days from hands on experiences,” says the singer and songwriter Rebecca Martin reflecting on the songs from TWAIN (Sunnyside Records). “I’ve become so active in our community that my life as an avid reader has transformed itself into one of an avid doer.” Read more

NPR Chooses Jazz Singer and Songwriter Rebecca Martin’s Upcoming Release TWAIN as “One to Look Out For” in 2013.

Photo Credit: Pat Kepic

NPR Chooses Jazz Singer and Songwriter Rebecca Martin’s Upcoming Release TWAIN as “One to Look Out For in 2013”.   Record Release and a live recording scheduled at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York City in March. 

In anticipation of the jazz singer and songwriter Rebecca Martin’s upcoming release on Sunnyside Records, NPR’s Patrick Jarenwattananon includes TWAIN as one of 15 buzzed about jazz/ish albums to look out for in 2013.

“The vocalist Rebecca Martin’s last album was a collection of standards, recorded only with a saxophonist (Bill McHenry) and a bass player, Larry Grenadier. Think of TWAIN as a sequel of sorts: It’s a program of mostly originals, backed only by Grenadier, who is also her husband. As a singer, she has a sense of nuance that fits a spare setting well; as a songwriter, she’s already put out several albums of her own tunes.”

Rebecca Martin will be accompanied by bassist Larry Grenadier at New York City’s Rockwood Music Hall room 2 on Thursday, March 28th, two days after the records release.  They will perform one set of original compositions and standards. The performance will also be recorded by Pete Rende in preparation for a live recording.  Tickets are $15.00.  The Rockwood Music Hall (stage 2)  is located at 196 Allen Street, NYC 10002. Tickets can be purchased online at the ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL.  For more information, call 212/477-4155.

A highly accomplished husband and wife team, Grenadier and Martin earn continual accolades for their live performances. Renowned critic Alain Burnet of Montreal’s La Presse wrote “In the circles of Jazz in New York…[Martin’s] approval rating has risen steadily over recent years, and for good reason. In Montreal, she still remains a secret….I will not keep it to myself: count me in!”

WATCH Rebecca Martin and Larry Grenadier perform “Born to be Blue” written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells live at Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington Center in Washington, DC. Filmed by Christian Amonson.

For more information about Rebecca Martin, contact Patrice Fehlen at September Gurl, PR at 718/768-3859 or email patrice@septembergurl.com

NPR: 15 Jazz Albums To Look Out For in 2013

 

“Rebecca Martin, Twain: The vocalist Rebecca Martin‘s last album was a collection of standards, recorded only with a saxophonist (Bill McHenry) and a bass player, Larry Grenadier. Think of Twain as a sequel of sorts: It’s a program of mostly originals, backed only by Grenadier, who is also her husband. As a singer, she has a sense of nuance that fits a spare setting well; as a songwriter, she’s already put out several albums of her own tunes. Out March 26.”

SEE the list on NPR. By Patrick Jarenwattananon.

Sunnyside Records will Release Rebecca Martin’s Sixth Solo Album TWAIN on March 26th, 2013

 

Singer/Songwriter and Jazz vocalist Rebecca Martin’s new album TWAIN features a dozen new original compositions and one classic interpretation, all performed in understated acoustic arrangements based around Martin’s indelible voice and supple guitar work, and the subtly inventive support of her husband and longtime collaborator, acclaimed bassist Larry Grenadier.

Martin reflects “My records over the years have become more quiet and introspective, which probably has to do with the need and appreciation for personal space…it makes sense that my reaction to a world that feels speedy, harsh and loud is to offer music that provokes slowness, emotion, and quiet.”

On such melodically arresting, emotionally vivid new tunes as “To Up and Go,” “Don’t Mean A Thing At All,” “Beyond The Hillside,” and “Some Other Place, Some Other Time,” Martin sings with a quietly commanding intensity that lends immediacy to her lyrical insights.

Meanwhile, her distinctive reading of the Duke Ellington classic “Sophisticated Lady” once again demonstrates the uncanny interpretive skills that she previously revealed on a pair of much-celebrated standards albums.

Writing in the New York Times, critic Nate Chinen shrewdly observed that Martin “exudes the plainest sort of poise, almost radical in its utter lack of flash,” and that though she is “unerringly faithful to the melodies of the songs, both standards and originals,” she makes them seem “less like songs than like articulations of her state of mind.” Read more

Rebecca Martin New Recording ‘Twain’ in the Works

Photo by Pat Kepic

 

 

 

Rebecca Martin is heading back into the studio to make a new recording of originals (and a standard) with Larry Grenadier in March/April. A March 2013 release on the Sunnyside Label has been scheduled.