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Rebecca Martin
By Mitch Ritter
(As seen in Dirty Linen)
Published: December 2005/January 2006

Such a generous debut of refreshing music composed, played, and sung by Rebecca Martin. Without finding an arranger's credit, I'm led to believe that the multi-tasked Martin must've done the seductive and evocative arrangements with co-producer Brian Bacchus. Occasionally, as on "These Bones Are Yours Alone," Martin's vocals get a bit precious. Yet I cannot think of any other singer, songwriter, or musician whose recording so completely fit on such a varied array of stages. "If Only" could be an internal soliloquy in an exceptional Broadway musical. "Lead Us" has vocal polish and a pop hook, yet Bill McHenry's tenor saxophone within the ensemble's rhythm section satisfies as finely calibrated jazz. Martin's lyrical themes hew closely to love, loss, and the passage of time, but her narratives switch perspectives with alacrity. "Lonesome Town" is an inviting interior landscape, with Martin's gently plucked electric guitar embraced by McHenry's breathy tenor sax, while Darren Beckett's carefully accented drum and cymbal work follow her around pre-bedtime solitary rituals. Matt Penman then bridges the piece with an acoustic bass solo as dreamy as Martin's vocal fade.

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Hear and Now: 2004's Overlooked CDs
By C. Bottomley & Jim Macnie
(As seen on VH1.com)
Published: January 2005

Psychedelic Texans, NYC Brazilians, jazz singers with pop sensibilities - here are some impressive titles that deserve more hype.

Rebecca Martin - People Behave Like Ballads
Martin's debut has even more going for it than the wonderful title. Here's a singer who uses Joni Mitchell's Hejira as a template for her finely etched ideas, while letting jazz moods lead her where they may - indeed, it's a jazz ensemble that creates the background here. But the gentle tunes work like pop, with gauzy melodies supporting Martin's romantic ruminations, the clever refrains feeding back into the disc's dreamy aura.

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Excerpts from
Young Women's Club
By Dan Ouellette
(As seen on Downbeat.com)
Published: December 2004

It's an old story: female jazz vocalists dominating sales and eclipsing instrumentalists in the marketplace. Earlier this year, Blue Note CEO Bruce Lundvall said, "I don’t think it's that much different today than it was in the past. I would guess that in the '50s, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington outsold the instrumentalists of the day like Monk and Miles."

But there's something new in the air with a new paradigm emerging. Following the past-decade leads of Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall and Norah Jones, female jazz vocalizing has taken on manifold hues and shapes distinct from those voiced by the improvising chanteuses of old. While there always seems to be a plethora of albums by female singers, there's a new brew that's forged by tradition, informed by standards, both old and new, and powered by originals.

It's contemporary jazz that isn't smooth or grooved necessarily, but that speaks to the attitudes and moods of the present and is inspired as much by Joni Mitchell and Carole King as by Fitzgerald, Vaughan and Billie Holiday. Still, what often gets radio airplay is what's accessible rather than what's challenging. It's this esthetic that makes the question if this is the new "smooth jazz"--a formula for the market--something to ponder. But to classify these vocalists as "smooth" would be incorrect.

A key ingredient to this new vocal crop is composition—soulful expression steeped in the now. Some may argue that it isn't jazz, but it could well be that today's vocalists like Ann Hampton Callaway, Rebecca Martin, Erin Bode, Jane Monheit, Jillian Lebeck, Madeleine Peyroux, Renee Olstead and Claudia Villela are helping to mold the jazz to be.

.... Hailing from the singer-songwriter camp, Martin agrees that 'bringing music to a more intimate place" is one of the characteristics of the up-and-coming class of female vocalists. Plus, she points out how the singers of the past played different roles than those of the present. "Ella and Carmen as well as June Christy and Anita O'Day had to be able to step into a composer's world and have the music arranged around their singing," says Martin, whose MAXJAZZ debut 'People Behave Like Ballads' is a collection of 16 originals- poetic songs arranged with a jazz infused sensibility. "That was the tradition and it was a luxury situation. Today, for singers to get work they have to lead. And they also want to write."

A songwriter and guitarist who has more in common with Jones than Krall, Martin predated Jones on the New York scene by a decade. She was co-founder with Jesse Harris of the early 90's group Once Blue and recorded three CD's on her own, including her 2002 self-produced album of standards, "Middlehope". Does she consider herself a jazz singer? "I used to say no, but I was thinking in the traditional sense," she says. "But today, I say absolutely, in the modern sense. At its simplist, jazz is swing and improvisation. That's there in my music, but not in the way we're accustomed to."

At a recent showcase at Joe's Pub in New York, Martin's set resembled a jazz outing more than it did a stereotypical singer-songwriter gig. The band was made up of jazz musicians, including tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, who brought alive the inherent harmonies in Martin’s compositions.

She was signed by MAXJAZZ when the label was looking to expand beyond its straight ahead jazz stable. "Without a doubt, Norah's success made someone like (MAXJAZZ President) Richard McDonnell more open to what I was doing," Martin says. "I fit on a jazz label. I'm working in a group situation that is like a jazz band. But categories are far less important because in this day and age things are changing and evolving so fast." ...

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Rebecca Martin
Crossing Musical Boundaries
Artist Interview By Donna Kiruma
(As seen on JazzReview.com)
Published: November 2004

November 2004 - Rebecca Martin doesn't worry too much about fitting into any single category. She's too busy making music, whether it's a fresh take on old standards or writing her own original, intimate tunes.

The singer-songwriter is showing that she can do both with equal grace and skill.

The Maine native proved to be an innovative interpreter of jazz standards with her acclaimed 2002 release, "Middlehope." That recording drew the attention of Richard McDonnell, the founder of MAXJAZZ. He went to New York City to see Martin perform, expecting to hear a set of standards, but instead he found her singing her own songs. Martin was soon offered a deal with MAXJAZZ, making her the label's first singer-songwriter.

The result is "People Behave Like Ballads," a collection of 16 original compositions. The new album defies musical labels, melding the boundaries of jazz and folk. The songs are seamlessly tied together by Martin's strong, soprano voice. It is one of the year's best CDs.

Martin talks to JazzReview.com about the new CD and why music should be a public service.

JazzReview.com: When you started making "People Behave Like Ballads," what were your goals?

Rebecca Martin: "My goal in general was to document where the band was at that time. The songs I had waited a lot of years to record because I wanted to try to collaborate with the right label. By the time I got to recording, there were so many songs that songwise, it was a very hard record to make. Initially, it was going to be 11 or 12 songs. I had 40. I ended up choosing 16. I'm not quite sure what it was about these particular 16 tunes. It just felt like a balanced collection of songs. Ultimately, what I wanted to do was capture the band as we all were, which I'm very proud of.

The title comes from a book of poetry and illustrations by Robert Tristram Coffin, a fellow Maine poet. This particular book, I believe, was first published in the '50s. I found the title and thought it was perfect. One of the reasons, which is sort of my own private joke, is that folks are always complaining that they want more up-tempo songs. When I found that title, the first thing I thought was yeah, but people behave like ballads, and that's why I write so many of them."

JazzReview.com: Your previous CD, "Middlehope," was largely standards. Was it always intended that "People Behave Like Ballads" would be all originals?

Rebecca Martin: "I'm a singer-songwriter. My background is not straight-ahead jazz. I'm a singer-songwriter who loves the challenge of interpreting songs. I enjoy beautiful songs. That's the bottom line. The reason behind the standards record being made was that I was offered an opportunity to record with that label, Fresh Sound. Quite frankly, that deal wasn't favorable in terms of my music and the publishing aspects of it, which is always a drag to have to be concerned about that stuff, but you have to be. You have to protect the music.

I decided that instead of going down that road I would do a record of songs that weren't mine and to spend time doing working and listening to other singers. It was a wonderful education for me. I got a chance to discover Blossom Dearie, June Christy and Stan Kenton's whole stable of singers like Chris Connor and Anita O'Day and hear songs that were a little left of center. Not all of them, but a few like 'A Fine Spring Morning' and 'Ridin' High.' I love that record. I'm proud of it. I think it documented the sound of the band at that time, but I know it has confused folks. They are trying hard to understand and want to know what I think I am. Am I jazz singer? Not really, but you're not really a pop singer so what are you? I'm not breaking stuff down like that. I don't think about music in that way."

JazzReview.com: What period did you write the 16 songs that are on the new CD?

Rebecca Martin: "I started writing on my own around 1998. I had been co-writing before that with Jesse Harris, who I shared a band with called Once Blue. In 1998, the band disbanded, and I went off on my own. That's when I started playing guitar and writing, so the body of work that I have, at this point it's probably 60 or 70 songs, is the culmination of the last six years.

The next record will be another record of originals, which will also span quite a range of time. I don't like leaving songs out. I'm sad when a song can't get recorded."

JazzReview.com: You're MAXJAZZ's first singer-songwriter, correct?

Rebecca Martin: "Pretty much. In my opinion, there are two others who are crossing the line. One is Claudia Acuna. Though tagged as a jazz singer, she's been writing, too. It's very lyrical and not so traditional, fusing music from her home in Chile and the New York jazz scene and her love of melody and lyrics. In a way, that might have started it. Then, there’s Erin Bode. To me, she's much more of a singer-songwriter than a jazz singer, too.

My roots are deeply singer/songwriter in the New York scene. Outside of New York, people are struggling to understand what I am. Luckily, the press has been fantastic, and, in most cases, has been helpful in giving people a reference point, and it's an open perspective, which has been really great."

JazzReview.com: If someone asked you, how would you describe your music?

Rebecca Martin: "I just wouldn't. I don't think it's important. I understand why it is necessary in this day and age with marketing and people wanting to understand everything. But, you can't understand everything.

By being signed by MAXJAZZ, I understand the confusion. What MAXJAZZ has done is they've created a business that allows for creativity. What they started out doing and what they'll continue to do is going to be augmented by music that they feel is creative and people who they like, which is a very important thing to them. That's great. A label like that has flexibility to do more and other things, which is a giant service to music. The people who are finding me... I love the jazz audience. That audience is open. If the music is honest, that audience will respond to it. I'm grateful to be in this place."

JazzReview.com: Let's talk about some of the songs on "People Behave Like Ballads." Tell us about the first song, "Lead Us."

Rebecca Martin: "That song is a more recent song. When I look at the body of work, it's incredible how it absolutely tells a story that's my story. Sometimes when I finish a song I think it's about one thing and in time I realize that actually that's not what it's about at all. It's more closely related to me than I thought. Each tune is written very similarly in that the guitar and melody are absolutely the very first part of it. The lyrics come from the sounds that are being made out of the melody. It's a late-night process, my favorite time to write. A lot of what's going on in that moment in my life is contributing to the feeling of the song. It's never one particular story. It's a combination of a lot of different things, emotions. All in all, that is how every one of these songs was created. It isn't a linear process."

JazzReview.com: The songs have a confessional quality to them.

Rebecca Martin: "Yeah, it's definitely important. What’s the point in writing otherwise if you aren't connecting to it in a deep way."

JazzReview.com: How about the song "These Bones Are Yours Alone?"

Rebecca Martin: "There's really nothing more to tell except what I just explained. The process of writing these songs is all the same. The meaning behind them is my private relationship with them. By explaining my feelings in that moment, I don't feel it is a service for anybody who likes the music. I've turned this question around and have asked people what they think the song is about. That tune in particular. I mentioned this in a review somewhere else, and the response was so completely different than what my intention of the song was, and it was so great. It was such a great take on it."

JazzReview.com: This is always a hard question, but is there a song on the CD that stands out for you?

Rebecca Martin: "I guess at different times different songs stand out to me. One of my favorites is 'I'd Like To Think It's Coming.' I love how everybody fell into it and how the arrangement was captured. That tune and 'Lonesome Town' are the very first takes of those songs. That's exciting to me when that happens and everything just falls in. That song, for me, is a gift."

JazzReview.com: You've said that music should be a public service. What did you mean by that?

Rebecca Martin: "One of my favorite parts of performing live I have to say is when people come up to me and they’ve been crying or I see people crying and leaving. I love that. We are so afraid to experience sadness. We are so concerned about being happy, and that's an important thing. Being grateful, I think, is more important... My desire is to make people feel all sorts of things, ultimately that are healing and warm, but sadness, too, or melancholy or nostalgia. In that respect, I feel it is public service work and it's why I love it."

JazzReview.com: Do you remember an early experience of listening to the radio or hearing a record and being moved?

Rebecca Martin: "Two come to mind. The first one was Joni Mitchell's 'Court and Spark.' I was probably between 10 and 12. Another record that did it to me was Rickie Lee Jones' first record. That was really powerful.

Since coming to New York, I have been inundated with so much great, fearless music. A lot of it has become more instrumental, but there are plenty of singers. One musician that I will mention is Gary Karr, an acoustic bassist. I think his background is more classical. To me, it's incredible music. One record features just him and an organist. It's so intense."

JazzReview.com: Why did Joni Mitchell resonate with you?

Rebecca Martin: "I think that my ear appreciated her melodic sensibility. I've always been moved toward to people who have a gift of melody. It's funny with Joni because I have never been able to remember her lyrics all the way through, but I can sing every one of her melodies. The way that she used language strengthened the melody. It intensified the way that I heard the melody."

JazzReview.com: You've been compared to Joni Mitchell, who not only has the singer-songwriter label but also a history in jazz.

Rebecca Martin: "That's really generous. Let's be honest. It's so awful when people compare music to something like Joni or Billie Holiday or Shirley Horn. It's not accurate. That's what I mean about categories. I'm inspired by Joni, but I'm not like Joni Mitchell, and I'm not like Laura Nyro. I'm just making music. People are digging it or they're not."

JazzReview.com: We have an idea of what you were listening to while growing up. Tell us more about what you were like as a child and how music fit in.

Rebecca Martin: "Music is a part of every child's life. How it is encouraged or how it develops is something else. I've been singing for as long as I can remember. My mother has always made that an important part of our lives. We would sing every night at the piano. For a really long time, music wasn't something that I had thought about as a career. It was something that I found that I could do and was encouraged to do and developed a love for it. I've always loved music."

JazzReview.com: One of the things that did a while back was perform at Lilith Fair. How was that experience?

Rebecca Martin: "That was one of the best experiences of any festival. It was very organized. Sarah McLachlan's heart is so good. She went way, way out of her way. The whole tour was set up so the sound was wonderful. The audiences were wonderful. She would greet you in your trailer with a gift and thank you for being a part of it. She would give a percentage of the monies she raised, which were considerable, to a local charity in whatever town she was in. She would bring the performers together to do a question-and-answer panel with the press, so everybody got to meet each other. It was very communal. Even though there were huge audiences, there was somehow still intimacy. The stages were all interesting. There was the main stage, which housed the artists that most likely everybody came to see. Then you had the B stage, which I thought was a hip place. There was Juliana Hatfield, Victoria Williams. We were there on that stage. Cassandra Wilson was on the B stage. That's pretty cool. The third stage, which was a much smaller stage, but Jill Sobule was there. People who were raging and a force to be reckoned with. It was a nice mix of people."

JazzReview.com: If you were putting on a show, who would you invite to be on it?

Rebecca Martin: "I think there would be several configurations. The first one would be a lot of singer-songwriters that people need to know about, but don't. People who are under the radar and doing the most innovative work in songwriting that I know of in New York. This would be a stage filled with people like Frank Tedesso, Larry John McNally, Dorothy Scott, Jane Kelly Williams, Timothy Hill, Alice Bierhorst. There would be more.

The other one that I would love to do would include Blossom Dearie. She's so fresh and alive at this point in her career. It's exciting. It would be singers who I admire like Blossom Dearie. And Nellie McKay. It would be a wacky combination."

JazzReview.com: You're performing quite a bit now.

Rebecca Martin: "I just got back from Maine and New Hampshire. I'll be doing the Midwest in December, the Southeast in January and the West Coast in February."

JazzReview.com: What's next for you?

Rebecca Martin: "I'm really focused on touring. That is something that I've been wanting to do for a lot of years. I'm working on two other records right now. One of originals and another project that I think is going to take a while. I'm putting lyrics to contemporary standard tunes that are written by a lot of my contemporaries."

JazzReview.com: Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about?

Rebecca Martin: "I always like to say how much I appreciate my band. They've been with me for a long time and helped me to develop the sound of these songs. I'm also grateful to James Farber, who is a recording engineer who has worked with me for two records."

For more information: http://www.rebeccamartin.com

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Rebecca Martin
(As seen on JazzTimes.com)
Published: November 2004

Eight years ago, singer-guitarist Rebecca Martin should have earned Norah Jones-sized success with EMI released her sensational debut disc, Once Blue, recorded with her then musical partner Jesse Harris (who would go on to win a Grammy for penning Jones' massively popular "Don't Know Why"). Sadly, Once Blue went nowhere (though it has since been remastered and released with nine bonus tracks). Martin's solo follow-ups, Thoroughfare and the standards-oriented Middlehope (the latter issued by Barcelona's Fresh Sounds and, just so you know, very much in print), didn't cause much of a stir either. Now, with Martin added to MAXJAZZ's increasingly impressive vocal roster and out with and album, People Behave Like Ballads, that rivals Once Blue in its raw splendor, here's hoping she gets the airplay and attention she's so long deserved. If so, ironically, chances are she'll be categorized as the latest addition to the Jones school of soft voiced, folk-jazz singer-songwriters. Such would, however, be an injustice. Not only was Martin around first, but apart from the ethereal beauty of her voice she's really nothing like Jones.

If comparisons must be made, let's give Martin proper due and credit her as the logical successor to Joni Mitchell. She sounds a little like Mitchell (if Joni were crossed with Cyndi Lauper, that is). More important, she echoes Mitchell's depth and authority in her writing. As evidenced throughout the 16 tracks that fill Ballads, all Martin originals, she is fearless in her pursuit of gut wrenching emotional honesty. Listen to the sagacious understanding of romantic conflict at the heart of "Here The Same But Different" (co written with guitarist Steve Cardenas) and the fundamental appreciation for the fulfillment that can be found in relationships' challenges that defines "It's Only Love." Explore the devastating heartbreak of "It Won't Be Long" (penned with Richard Julian). Hear the cautiously expanding optimism of "I'm Not Afraid" and the chilled disappointment of "Gone Like The Season Does." Let Martin's astute, erudite perspectives on the human condition wash over you, and you'll know you're in the company of emerging genius.

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Rebecca Martin
(As seen on Newsday.com)
Published: November 2004

One of the good things to come from the success of Norah Jones is that labels are taking chances on adventurous singer-songwriters. Three of the most interesting recent releases, the self-titled "A Girl Called Eddy" (Anti), Keren-Ann's "Not Going Anywhere" and Rebecca Martin's "People Behave Like Ballads" (MaxJazz) build on that singer-songwriter foundation with jazzy inflections and sensibilities. Martin, who plays Tuesday and Wednesday at Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St., has been lurking on the periphery of the jazz scene and the singer-songwriter crowd. Her recording of mid-tempo and slow tunes features a stellar cast of musicians and searing, introspective lyrics.

In many ways, it feels like a post-millennial version of Joni Mitchell's mid-'70s classic, "The Hissing of Summer Lawns."

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Songwriter Perfects Tunes About Unfinished Feelings
By Ellis Widner
(As seen on Ardemgaz.com)
[ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ]
Published: October 2004

It's rare that a title can lure you to pick up an album. Rebecca Martin's People Behave Like Ballads (MaxJazz) practically dares you not to. The intriguing phrase, from Maine poet Frank Tedesso, suggests thoughtful, intelligent songs with emotion and heart.

Martin delivers on the promise suggested by the title with one of the year's best albums.

While it's released by a jazz label, People Behave Like Ballads is an album that draws upon jazz, folk and pop and will appeal to those who like the work of Norah Jones, Diana Krall or Katie Melua. There's a connection between Martin and Jones. Martin started the band Once Blue with Jesse Harris, who wrote Norah Jones' hit 'Don't Know Why.'

Martin is in the rich singer-songwriter tradition of Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Laura Nyro. Her voice is expressive, vibrant and emotionally textured ... sometimes reminding of Nyro's smoky soufulness (particularly on 'Lead Us') and a youthful Mitchell's range. But like the post-Hissing of Summer Lawns Mitchell, Martin's music embraces jazz phrasing and harmonies and she sings without adornment or artifice.

It's the perfect voice for her original songs, which have a depth rare in popular music. There's some darkness, as her lyrics pull you through the ever-shifting landscape of the human psyche. If the songs seem complicated, it's because the human heart is rarely all that simple. Emotions emerge from human complications, communications and miscommunications and our reactions to them.

These 16 tunes are filled with well-written, poetic lyrics and memorable phrases that reflect on human behavior and misbehavior. For example: 'Even if you choose to go on your separate way / I’m hoping You'll be back / here the same but different' she sings in 'Here the Same but Different.' Or from 'It's Only Love': 'Don't be afraid of what you're feeling for me / Because this mess we've made is only love.' And from 'These Bones Are Yours Alone': 'The truth is what matters, but it's twisted and mired / These bones are yours alone.'

Her storytelling prowess is rich, sometimes because of what she doesn't say. Martin is rather cryptic, the listener has room to fill in the picture or experience a lyric as a sort of mini-biography. After all, who can really know the whole story?

Martin's songs, like life, are about mixed emotions that don't tie up in neat little packages. She embraces these emotions and appreciates them, and life, for exactly what they are, not for what she wants them to be.

The song 'If Only' starts simply, gathering power around the stark arrangement and the love's wisdom-from-experience viewpoint: 'She'll give her life / before she even knows it.' It's a quiet little tune with a startling, unsettling power. 'Gone Like the Season Does' is a bittersweet lament that contrasts our need for love against the reality of a lover's stone-cold hand. Other tracks are joyous, probing, romantic, moving. There's not a misstep in this set's 16 tracks.

The performer also is a skillful guitarist, sometimes offering complex chords and open tunings as Mitchell does.

So, do people behave like ballads?

In Rebecca Martin's world, where songs are mirrors that reflect the full complexity of human desires, foibles, aspirations, longing and hopes, yes, they do.

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Rebecca Martin: Here, the Same, But Different
By Phil DiPietro
(As seen on AllAboutJazz.com)
Published: October 11, 2004

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 measure of skill and individuality she displays with her incendiary way with a torch song (a measure already in the five-star range), it is far surpassed by her own way with her own tunes. Now, we have People Behave Like Ballads, chockfull of sixteen originals. Heartrending, heartfelt, heartwarming and heart-wrenchingly real, her songs and her delivery of them, her "serving them up," as she likes to call it, triumph in realizing her ambitious goal to tell things the way she (and we) feel them, expressing sentiments rather than providing narratives. Similarly, their structure breaks new ground rooted in another of her ambitions: to have her words grow naturally from her melodies; that is, to have the actual lyric grow out of the sounds she makes when she originally composes, humming or scatting the tunes. Most obviously, you might hear this in the distinctive way Rebecca delivers strange, yet engaging (oh, she is soo engaging-swoon) pronunciations of words in a lyric.

Listen, and you'll hear other levels of sophistication in the songs. The last line of a "verse" will become a "chorus," yet the "chorus" will really be a theme only to be supplanted later by another melodic fragment which might turn into a "refrain." Where do these ideas come from? First and foremost, they come from her, but one look at her band roster, including Bill McHenry on saxophone, Ben Monder and Steve Cardenas on guitars, Matt Penman on bass , Darren Beckett on drums and Pete Rende on keyboards, shows she's inexorably tied to jazz. All her bandmates have recordings of their own or have appeared on others that share a common theme-the quest to find new forms at the crossroads of jazz, pop, rock and folk. So it is with Rebecca Martin, and it appears with People Behave Like Ballads, her evolution has been expedited. It's a reemergence, of a sort, for her, after the dissolution of the fantastic "Once Blue," her band with then-boyfriend, now Verve recording artist, Jesse Harris, in 1997. Evidence of the jazzy evolutionary chain would be the personnel in that band - Jim Black, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Anthony Wilson, Ben Street and Kenny Wolleson were all members. The independently released and under-heard Thoroughfare, also featuring her husband, bassist (to Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau, no less) Larry Grenadier, and the aforementioned Middlehope provide documents of her logarithmic, but traceable progression. But People Behave Like Ballads is a breakthrough record, taking her complete game up a notch at the same time that the availability/publicity machine's been put into motion. New open ears are sure to find her a delight while the old ones will find her here, the same, but different.

All About Jazz: So is this new CD, the one for MAXJAZZ, standards, originals or a mix of both?

Rebecca Martin: All originals- 16 songs. Two of them were co-written. The first with Steve Cardenas, who is one of the guitarists on this record. We've been making music together for many years. The original version is on his first record She-bang (Fresh Sound). The song's title is "Para Ti," meaning, "For You." When he and I were touring back in '96, he was working on it in the van, and it inspired my lyric and new song title "Here The Same But Different". At the rehearsal for our record date, I thought it would be a good time to bring it out for the band to play- I'm very glad I did. It's one of my favorite tracks on the record. "It Won't be Long" is a collaboration with Richard Julian a singer-songwriter and an old friend of mine.

AAJ: I was thinking since you signed with MAXJAZZ, this might be another standards record along the lines of your last one, Middlehope.

RM: I'll do another one for sure some day. We're fleshing out songs for that project currently while I continue to write. MAXJAZZ had heard Middlehope which was brought to them through my friend, Ron Simblist and Jana La Sorte. Richard came to New York to hear the band because, to his credit, he makes a point of getting to know the artist and musicians personally before making any sort of decision. At that time, Middlehope was a project that I had done several years prior, so the current music that I'd been working on was a body of original tunes, which is what he heard in NY that day. He was really open to it...and I was able to make People Behave Like Ballads the way I'd envisioned.

AAJ: I'm sure the reception for this will be amazing.

RM: Thank you. I'm really proud of it. The band is wonderful. It features Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, Bill McHenry, a drummer named Darren Beckett - someone I only recently met, a musician from Ireland who was a gold mine find - he's very soulful and earthy- and Matt Penman on acoustic bass, and finally, Pete Rende, who is a big part of what I do now. Pete plays a myriad of instruments on this record that include piano, pump organ, Wurlitzer, Fender Rhodes, Pedal Steel. His music is a beautiful, textural backdrop for my songs and my singing.

AAJ: Well, you picked some great players.

RM: I've been quite fortunate, I know.

AAJ: Those are two of the best guitar players on the planet, Cardenas and Monder, not to mention the rest of the guys.

RM: I really think so.

AAJ: Are they playing together on most of the tunes?

RM: Yes. I can't ever get enough of that sound.

AAJ: These guys can get very textural-both of them. Where was it done?

RM: Sear Sound, in New York City. It's Walter Sear's place. He has a very impressive studio with probably one of the best mic collections in New York - maybe in the country. Maybe even on the planet. We were downstairs, using the board that was rebuilt by Walter himself. With a bit of budget, we were able to record the basic tracks in two days. It was luxurious to have that extra time.

AAJ: Did you rehearse it a lot?

RM: We rehearsed at my place a few weeks prior to the record date. I made a weekend of it upstate at the house, with a paella and late night poker games.

AAJ: Did you say paella slash poker?

RM: Yes! A lot of the pre-production work had been done by performing so regularly together over the years in NYC. So the weekend was more of a run through and an excuse for all of us to spend time together like that.

AAJ: You don't seem to gig a super lot.

RM: I haven't so much outside of the city in the last few years. New York is accessible, and all of the musicians are in town. I was not willing to put my energy into being on the phone to get things going outside of our area. Playing in NYC on a regular basis made it practical for us to develop the music and build an audience here. I've halted that recently to re-fuel, as it just felt like the natural thing to do. This particular record was a big process, and I've needed the time afterwards to lay low, practice and write. I'm looking forward now to get out and present the music and musicians, especially with the support of MAXJAZZ.

AAJ: It's a good thing you want to be on the road, because I would assume they're going to want to put you out there.

RM: I'm very dedicated to it. Not since my time in "Once Blue" have I been on the road in the way that I'm anticipating now. I've been working with the same booking agent and tour publicist Roadwork Music, two great women who've stood by me for about 5 years. We've been preparing for this for a long time. With the addition of MAXJAZZ I'm ready to go.

AAJ: Well, by my ears you're way more wonderful than a lot of folks that are hugely popular already, and you beat some of these folks to the punch a long time ago, but people didn't get the chance to hear it.

RM: It's been a long road to get to where I am now. I feel very strong about where I am creatively.

AAJ: Do you have loads more than the sixteen on the record?

RM: About 40 more currently that I feel are truthful and balanced.

AAJ: When you speak about writing the truth, I think about the lyrics.

RM: I do too, mostly...

AAJ: But you're writing the truth on the musical end too, if you ask me. Now, you could say the music emphasizes jazz with pop sensibilities or you can turn that around and say it's pop with jazz sensibilities. How did that evolve?

RM: The music's truth always seems to be there. It's the source. I am not worried about being self-conscious when it comes to harmony and melody. As for the music as a whole, without a doubt, the sound that we've created is a complete collaboration with all of the musicians. Everyone I've ever played with in NYC has added to it. My own influences are mutt like, I suppose like all of us who grew up in rural areas in the 80's. My household was quite eclectic, musically speaking. I had a pretty mean diet of pop, classical and jazz. My mother is a beautiful piano player and we would sing together most nights the songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter and various Broadway musicals. My family was also very involved with our Acadian heritage, which is what I mostly am, so there was a great deal of Acadian fiddle music as well...and my grandfather Joseph Agape played a mean fiddle. After our Sunday family dinners each week there would be some sort of music session. My mother sought out a recording studio for me to be involved with when I was about nine years old. I spent my entire growing years there exploring sound and music. Growing up on 200 acres in Maine was a wonderful place to process it all organically.

AAJ: Please expand a little on the music studio thing.

RM: My mother was searching for an outlet that would allow me to grow as a singer when she came across "The Outlook Recording Studio". I began going for voice lessons and soon it became this great opportunity to record. Conni, the co-owner of the facility was very supportive of my singing. I was surrounded by musicians and sessions consistently. I started spending more and more time there as a teenager, of course, and made several recordings by the time I was 16. I have never been intimidated by the studio as an adult, and I believe that being exposed to one at an early age was responsible for that.

AAJ: Yeah, most people don't have a comfort level at a studio until after they've gigged and had bands and everything else.

RM: I watched the studio evolve from 16 to 24 tracks, using Studer/Trident equipment. It's gone digital now, which I know is the going trend, but a shame. I will always appreciate that I grew up using tape. I was able to get to a deeper appreciation with my first real studio experience having Joe Ferla at the helm. He engineered the first Once Blue Record back in 1995 (there were two, a second recording by Steve Addabbo in 1997), and my first solo recording, Thoroughfare in 1998. Joe recorded Middlehope to tape as well.

AAJ: Ok, now wait. How did you get from 9 years old in Maine to Once Blue? Did you just do music forever?

RM: I have.

AAJ: Did you ever go to music school?

"There is a great deal of myself exposed in these songs. I find this provokes what's underneath the surface in us all, which is what I want to achieve. That's when the healing can take place and is the reason that I'm drawn to do this sort of work."

RM: Yes, at the University of Maine in Augusta to study Jazz Performance. After a year there, I was ready to get to New York. I eventually came to the city by myself. I found an apartment in the Bronx and landed a production job at MTV.

AAJ: Really?

RM: I was in an art-punk band that played in rock clubs throughout New York City. I was the background singer and keyboardist...not much of a keyboardist.

AAJ: So where were you playing? Like CBGBs?

RM: Exactly, CBGBs and Woody's , an assortment of rock clubs. I had to be in the city to do so and had to find a way to support myself. On my way to NYC from Maine, I had a short stint at SUNY New Paltz studying film production. At MTV, I began in the graphics department as a production coordinator, and later moved to on-air promos in the production management department. I met Jesse-Jesse Harris—within a year or so of coming to New York.

AAJ: Did you start working with the band right away?

RM: No, we were a couple first. For six months he accompanied me on guitar. I hadn't heard much of his music until about a month after we were already together. I went to hear him play at the Ludlow Street Cafe, and I have to admit I was a little nervous. I was waiting for him to begin with a friend, and whipped around so quickly when he started his set. I'd never heard anything like it. It took some time before we wrote together. One of our first collaborations was "I Haven't Been Me" which I feel is the signature song on the very first Once Blue record.

AAJ: Care to comment on his new record for Verve?

RM: It's a great record. There are two songs that I listen to over and over, "I Wish I Were a Bird," and "I Have No Idea." The other record of his that I enjoy is his first with the Ferdinandos. It has his version of "I Don't Know Why" and another called, "It's Alright to Fail". What a lyric, so absolutely penetrating and sad, which is my favorite kind of song (laughs).

AAJ: Penetrating and sad is just wonderful, which your stuff gets to as well. How do you get the Once Blue CDs now?

RM: It was re-released by EMI Toshiba in Japan. They've included 9 extra tracks to the original record, which are the rough mixes of the second record. It's still hard to find, but it's out there.

AAJ: I saw you guys play in Harvard Square.

RM: Anthony Wilson was on that gig...

AAJ: He's with Diana Krall now, right?

RM: He is. I loved working with him. In Once Blue he was very part-oriented, as well as being a great improviser. He would come up with guitar parts that could define the song. He's a good friend of Jesse's from way back. I believe they met through a connection at Bennington College.

I want to say something about Once Blue, because so often people ask me about it. I'm really proud that I was a part of that music. Once Blue was a definitive moment in my music. Crossing paths and collaborating on a regular basis with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Wolleson, Jim Black, and Ben Street had a big influence on me. Talk about good timing. With Jesse, I was writing melodies that were uncompromised. And lyrically, what we were coming up with was the most poetic writing I could ever have hoped for. The melodies dictated the lyrics. That is true with my own writing today.

AAJ: That's a different approach than the norm, isn't it?

RM: Everyone has they're own way of doing it. Most of the folks I know are very crafty and have a narrative in mind. I'm driven to express a strong emotion or sentiment. There is a great deal of myself exposed in these songs. I find this provokes what's underneath the surface in us all, which is what I want to achieve. That's when the healing can take place and is the reason that I'm drawn to do this sort of work.

AAJ: Tough to explain but probably the most important thing you've said so far.

RM: Sometimes people ask what a song is about which is really hard to answer for this reason. The inspiration for my songs are for me. The result, I choose to make available on a record for anyone who is interested to hear.

AAJ: Can you talk me through a couple of examples from your new record?

RM: All of them are good examples because they are all written in the same way. I was asked recently what "These Bones are Yours Alone." was about. I decided to turn it around and ask that person what their interpretation was. "Skeletons in the closet?" I thought it was wonderful and quite fresh to my ear, but not my intention. It had never even occurred to me. That is why its source needn't be important to anyone- so long as it's my truth, it can be a universal truth. I want those who listen to have their own relationship to these songs. That is what I mean when I discuss balance in my lyrics. Even though the songs are very personal to me, my overall objective is for the listener to make them into whatever it is they need them to be.

AAJ: Kind of like jazz or instrumental music, all of which involves putting your own thing on it.

RM: That's a wonderful compliment. I don't ever want the lyric to encumber the music.

AAJ: Anything about the musical compositional aspect that you go through-like influences, jazz changes versus pop changes, etc. Do you compose on guitar?

RM: I do it all on guitar and by ear, organizing sections that I think sound good so as to inspire a melody. The band helps in deepening the harmonic and emotional quality. Steve, Bill and I have been working together for such a long time...

AAJ: How'd you meet those guys?

RM: Once Blue brought Steve and I together. Bill and I were in line for at least an hour one night at Small's waiting to hear Kurt's band, with Mark Turner, Ben Street and Jeff Ballard many, many years ago. We had met over the years, but never spent much time together. We decided that night that we really should get together and play. The first session I had with Bill was at his place. He had me hold one note for an entire song! I actually found that work tape recently. I remember thinking, "Does this guy know that I write songs?" But it was a marvelous musical experience. It made me think about tone, breath, intonation as well as how to blend with a collection of instruments. Both Steve and Bill are excellent teachers. Pete Rende, Matt Penman, Ben Monder, Darren Beckett and Dan Rieser have come to the music through mutual friends all at different times. There has never been a methodical thought process in putting people together. But I know that by working with great musicians there will be a beautiful outcome. As you can imagine, being with this stellar group, my ears have had the chance to develop in an intense way.

AAJ: Would you say that perhaps, with some of the tunes you've written before that they've reharmonized or recontextualized, that now, as you go, you're starting to add these elements yourself? To tell you the truth, it's very surprising for me to hear you don't know theory. You're tunes are so hip in so many ways, it just seems to me you would.

RM: It is my ear and the relationship that I've developed with my guitar that I depend on for songwriting. I'm definitely not trying to be hip about it. I explore the guitar for bass lines and build rich harmony around it - so to inspire something challenging melodically for me to sing. The musicians have had a lot of time through performance to flesh out their parts.

AAJ: Every one of them are great composers too.

RM: Yes. So it seems songwriting and putting bands together is a mix of intuition and good fortune. I've witnessed many songwriters hiring folks because they've played on this record or that, and are looking for a similar sound. There aren't any shortcuts in the long process of developing trust and relationships with musicians.

AAJ: Uh, you've assembled a pretty bad-ass posse there.

RM: Thank you.

AAJ: I was surprised to find out you didn't already know McHenry from Maine.

RM: That's right. Ben Street's from Maine too, but I met him in New York City as well. It's been fun to watch their careers develop, even in some cases from a far. I met Ben Monder through Ben Street many years ago at a birthday dinner. I'd always hoped we'd have the chance to work together, and I'm really happy that we crossed paths recently. He's an amazing player as you know, and one of the brightest guys...

AAJ: A total intellect. A quiet genius. A quiet hilarious genius.

RM: I know that amongst the musicians he's an important part of their diet.

AAJ: I'd say he's an immense figure. You mention his name to anybody who knows his playing, his music, who plays any instrument, their eyes widen! I'd love to be his agent! My problem is I have his number but not the numbers of the people I need to call on his behalf!

RM: T hat's really nice of you to say. I feel the same way. I saw Ben play with Bill's band recently at The Village Vanguard with Paul Motian and Reid Anderson. What Ben was doing that night was just outrageous.

AAJ: I'd say he's the best musician in any band he's in and leave it at that.

RM: The musicians are crucial, though I anticipate playing a few solo performances in the future so to experiment and strengthen the songs and their structure so they and I improve.

AAJ: Have economics ever made you think about that? You could easily pull off a solo gig.

RM: It is a big investment to have a band, but I've never thought of doing it any other way.

AAJ: In the Lillith Fair days, you were always with a band as well?

RM: With Once Blue, yes indeed. We opened a lot of shows for wonderful artists in pretty big theaters. The sound was excellent, though I prefer small rooms. The intimacy of a small place matches the music. The label was paying for us to be on the road, so we did whatever came our way. My favorite tour was opening for Shawn Colvin. That audience was fresh, forward and always growing. There was an energy that was current and exciting, not unlike the Jazz audiences that I, too, am a part of. I'd like to work in front of them with this record, though there's a bit of a prejudice toward female singers I think.

AAJ: C'mon, jazz singers are enjoying a great resurgence.

RM: Yes, it's true, but I'd say it's still tough. Women are encouraged to be as polite and non-threatening as can be in order to have commercial success.

AAJ: Well, you have such your own bag.

RM: I hope this new audience will be open to what I am doing.

AAJ: I can't imagine that they wouldn't. I know they'll be crazy for you.

RM: I'm real comfortable making this music.

AAJ: What about Thoroughfare? Did you release that yourself?

RM: I did.

AAJ: How was that for you?

RM: That was the last project that I made that went without a hitch. It just magically came together. It was recorded in a day, as was Middlehope. Just more simple, and fresh out of the demise of "Once Blue." I worked with Joe Ferla as an engineer and co-producer. Larry, Kenny Wolleson and Steve were the musicians I was current with then. A lot of the songs on that record were intended for the second "Once Blue" release. They never got the chance to be recorded, and I was happy to do a different version of them on Thoroughfare. I had just picked up the guitar in a serious way, and wrote a few songs that were included. The historical aspect of making records, to look back and see where you were then and how it helped to define you is a great process. Very journal like. It was Larry and my first project together. We had our little 1974 Beetle that we'd drive out to the recording studio. Exit 13 off the Palisades Parkway (laughs). A magical, magical time in my life. Larry used an electric bass for Thoroughfare which is really unusual for him. When we were rehearsing the songs at Kenny's, Larry didn't bring his bass because Kenny had always had one there. When we arrived, we learned that the person who it belonged to took it back, so Larry picked up Kenny's old Danelectro that was in pretty poor shape. It's pickup was held together by a matchbook! We all loved it's sound and decided to use it on the record.

AAJ: Yeah, he doesn't play that axe much.

RM: He doesn't, though he does have a few electrics at home.

AAJ: Middlehope is a real personal take on the standards. Personally, I think that after this new record , Fresh Sounds will have to do a special pressing for your Middlehope record the way they did with the first Bad Plus record.

RM: I would never have made Middlehope without my Fresh Sound experience. Being who they are ultimately encouraged me to make a record of standards. I wanted to keep my band recording and together while I continued to write, so decided to move forward with it. It was a wonderful experience working with Jordi. He gets excited about the music though doesn't interfere with the Artist's vision. Working with MAXJAZZ is very much the same. Richard and Clayton were there for the recording, and it was really comforting for me to have them there. They brought the loveliest wine along with their musical spirits...

AAJ: That's what I want to be when I grow up.

RM: What?

AAJ: One of those guys who gets to bring wine to your recording date and hang out.

RM: If you don't know already Phil, you're in the fold and have an open invitation to the next one. I'm not kidding.

AAJ: I'm going to hold you to that- in print! So, you implied earlier that this new one was a tougher record to make. Can you expand on that?

RM: We had some major problems with the end result of this record and I had to have it remixed.

AAJ: Did you make them remix it or someone else?

RM: I made the decision. I could not pass the original mixes on to MAXJAZZ.

AAJ: Wild-ass guess. Was the first mix a huge Rebecca and an eensy teensy rest of the band?

RM: That is logical, but the problems with the sound were much more complicated then that. It was all wrong without going into detail. Steve Addabbo helped me coordinate another overdub and mixing session. James Farber saved the day once again. He did the same on Middlehope. Without his wonderful work, his openness to any situation, his patience, long hours and good humor - both of these records would not be what they are.

AAJ: Well, it sounds like you have a confluence of things that have come together for you here.

RM: Absolutely. I'm working with some of the best musicians and engineers a person could ever hope for. I've been able to work in the most wonderful studios on the East Coast. I've had many people over the years work very hard to help me realize my goal and navigate my career in this nutty business, and I've now found a wonderful, sophisticated label who supports me now in what I do.

AAJ: Anything you want to leave us with?

RM: I'm just really happy to be where I am right now, and am looking forward to many more recordings. I try not to look too far ahead, but I have to admit, the future of our music does excite me.

Visit Rebecca Martin on the web at www.rebeccamartin.com.

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Norah Opens Doors
By Dan Ouellette
(As seen in Billboard)
Published: October 2004

While singer/songwriter Rebecca Martin predates Norah Jones on the New York pop-meets-jazz scene by several years, Martin is certainly benefiting from Jones' chart success.

After three CDs - including one on Spanish jazz label Fresh Sounds New Talent and a well received 2002 self-produced disc of jazz standards, "Middlehope" - the guitar-picking Martin made her MAXJAZZ debut, "People Behave Like Ballads," Aug. 31. That night she celebrated the release with a show at New York club Joe's Pub. The impressive set included such melodious originals as "Play For Me" and "It's Only Love," interspersed with tunes popularized by Ella Fitzgerald and Helen Merrill.

The co-founder with Jesse Harris of early-'90s group Once Blue, Martin sang with pitch-perfect grace at Joe's while her band, featuring the tenor-sax cool of Bill McHenry, negotiated the complexity of her poetic songs, arranged with a jazz-infused sensibility.

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November 2004
New Artist Spotlight
Rebecca Martin
"People Behave Like Ballads" (MAXJAZZ)
By Bill DeMain
(As seen in Performing Songwriter)
Published: November 2004

Rebecca Martin is a vinyl artist in a plastic world. Though her new release, 'People Behave Like Ballads', is pressed on a compact disc, there's no disguising its true identity. It is an LP, a long player, in the best sense of that old-fashioned term. It invites you in. It moves at a slow-grooved pace. It unfolds like a satisfying conversation with a good friend, sharing its secrets in a confidential tone. Think of it as the 'Before Sunset' of singer-songwriter albums.

"This record is very personal, very intimate," says Martin. "And I think that comes from slowness. As the title suggests, a lot of the songs are ballads. I love things to be slow, and I love that challenge of trying to listen more. And I like having that space in the songs."

Space is an important part of Martin's writing. On standout songs such as 'It's Only Love,' 'Here The Same But Different' and 'Lonesome Town,' what’s left unspoken between lines is often as powerful as what's being said. A recent NEW YORK TIMES review described her approach to writing as 'cryptic storytelling,' a phrase that Martin agrees with.

"I don't necessarily think I'm writing a story in a linear way. I think what I'm expressing is a feeling. The melody dictates the words. I like singing a melody over and over to see what words pop out of the melody, and to construct it that way. A friend told me one time with regard to my music, 'we remember moments in our lifetime. We don’t remember hours.' And I love that idea. All of the things that were happening at the time these songs were written were very complex, and with many different sides. That's true with everything. You cannot sum up anything. So what I think these songs are, they're feelings and they're vignettes; they're moments of something that I think is very positive and comforting. They're songs for me that represent a part of my spirit that keeps on chugging."

Born in Maine and raised on a diet of standards and show tunes, Martin's professional career began in New York City in the early '90's, when she formed the group Once Blue with Jesse Harris (who would eventually pen most of Norah Jones' debut). Their 1995 self-titled record on EMI is a small masterpiece of jazzy pop, worth seeking out for the stellar writing and Martin's lilting vocal performances.

"What I got from Jesse was enormous," she says. "I really feel a deep gratitude for that experience and for having him in my life. It was unbelievably fortunate that we found each other – big turning point in my writing."

When Once Blue split, Martin took the plunge as a solo artist, teaching herself guitar. For such a latecomer to the instrument, she has developed a strikingly original style, buoyed by gorgeous open tunings. "I was looking for certain sounds in the harmony," she says. "I don’t always know what I'm playing, which isn't so uncommon. I'm just using my ear to create sounds and, I suppose, my intuition to compose form in a way that's agreeable. Open tunings helped me to get to a place a little bit quicker that is much more interesting harmonically."

Building on the success of two solo records, Thoroughfare (1999) and Middlehope (2002), Martin has attracted some of New York's finest musicians into her orbit, including Steve Cardenas, Bill McHenry and Peter Rende. "The musicians are as important to the music as the songs themselves. It's just bringing the songs in, keeping everything open and letting the musicians create what they want to create. That's how I've gotten this enormous gift of the music I have now, through those relationships."

As she looks forward to touring behind 'People Behave Like Ballads', Martin reflects on her journey as a songwriter. "It's all completely mysterious. Even if you have a song that pops out of you in five minutes or 20 minutes, that's really great. But you know what? You still have to work. The most important part of it all is working hard at it. Without that, you lose your flow and your forward motion and your interest in being curious and your interest in growing. It's about being open and going out there and doing the best you can, and doing as much as you can so that you're current in your life and your growth."

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The Buzz
Rebecca Martin - "People Behave Like Ballads" (MAXJAZZ)
By Steve Israel
(As seen on recordonline.com)
Published: October 1, 2004

I have heard the next Norah Jones, and her name is Rebecca Martin. Like Jones, Martin has a fresh new acoustic-electric sound that straddles the borders of folk, jazz and pop.

On her new album with the terrific title, "People Behave Like Ballads," Martin makes beguiling music that's deceptively complex. With a voice that often sounds like a young, pre-cigarettes Joni Mitchell, Martin sounds wise and warm as she sings about "the road (of life) that twists and sways."

It's a road of lost love: "Will you ever come to trust/In the passing of time/So there'll be room for both of us/Here the same but different."

It's also a road of found love: "These bones are yours alone," she sings.

Like Jones, these often understated songs take a while to stick to you. But when they do – and they will – they'll never leave.

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CRITIC'S CHOICE | NEW CD'S
Appreciating Life's Mixed Emotions
By Ben Ratliff
(As seen in The New York Times)
Published: August 23, 2004

'People Behave Like Ballads'
Rebecca Martin

Rebecca Martin's last album, "Middlehope," a collection of standards and songs by other composers, suggested a strong musical personality with an intuitive undercurrent: Ms. Martin's mannerisms didn't seem indebted to any jazz singer in particular. Her arrangements used jazz as a starting place, with players from New York's jazz scene like Kurt Rosenwinkel and Bill McHenry, and pointed toward a more widely appealing form of pop.

It was no coincidence that among the songs she covered was "One Flight Down," by Jesse Harris, which was also recorded the same year by Norah Jones on her record "Come Away With Me." Ms. Martin used to be in Once Blue, a band she led with Mr. Harris, before Norahmania changed the landscape for any singer-songwriter with a jazz background.

Two years later, we have "People Behave Like Ballads." (It comes out next week from MaxJazz.) 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.

On this long, focused, slow-moving album, Ms. Martin keeps getting at the feeling that very little in life makes sense. "Even if you choose to go on your separate way/ I'm hoping you'll be back/ here the same but different" is one way of putting it (in "Here the Same but Different"); other phrases scattered through the record, like "you're not what you say you are" and "the truth doesn't matter" and "I don't mind that I'm not afraid," are further iterations of essentially the same principle. These songs are ruled by cryptic storytelling, so that you never get the full outline of the relationships she's writing about. In the end it's a record about living through paradox, choosing to appreciate mixed emotions rather than building one-sided certainties of oblivion or hopelessness around them.

Ms. Martin plays guitar as well, and a lot of these songs sound written around that instrument, suggested by the harmonies of sliding parallel chords; every once in a while there's a hint of Joni Mitchell, who has composed similarly. But she doesn't write the same song over and over.

One song, "If Only," gathers strength around a drone, gradually widening with two electric guitars, organ, saxophone, bass and drums; another, "Gone Like the Season Does," keeps making fresh chord changes, stepping sequentially from one level to another.

Some of the musicians from "Middlehope" have returned for this more mature record, including Mr. McHenry and the guitarist Ben Monder; one quietly devastating little song, "It Won't Be Long," has Richard Julian as co-writer.

The relaxed self-possession in the songs and in Ms. Martin's dusky, middle-range voice, which stretches out on vowels for a while before the vibrato kicks in, suggests that she may not particularly care whose camp she's put in, or who she's compared to.

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TIME OUT NEW YORK
 Published: August 2004

All breeze, grain and vulnerability, singer-songwriter Rebecca Martin's voice is a bit of an acquired taste, sort of like Cyndi Lauper's. She's a habit well worth acquiring, since that affords entree to the altogether remarkable songs she penned for "People Behave Like Ballads" (MAXJAZZ). A band of seasoned young jazzers (Bill McHenry, Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder) adds blood to Martin's sophisticated tunes, just like Wayne and Jaco used to goose Joni.

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Featured Artist: Rebecca Martin
CD Title: People Behave Like Ballads
By Don Williamson
(As seen on JazzReview.com)
Published: August 2004

Year: 2004
Record Label: MAXJAZZ
Style: Jazz Vocals

Musicians: Rebecca Martin (vocals, guitar); Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder (guitar); Bill McHenry (tenor saxophone); Peter Rende (piano, Fender Rhodes, organ, pedal steel, mandolin, background vocals); Matt Penman (bass); Darren Beckett (drums)

Review: Some people behave like ballads and some people act like children and some people live lives like operas and some people bounce through their days like free improvisation and some people do things like scat singing and tap dancing and some people are as straightforward as plainsong and a very few people perform like epics and some people exist in trance and some people don't do much of anything at all and resemble quarter-note rests connected through serial silence. But giving Maine poet Robert T. Tristram his due, let's buy into his conceit and sit back and allow singer Rebecca Martin, also from Maine and an admirer of Tristram's, to expand upon it throughout the entire length of a CD as she puts words and music to the idea and thus comes across as a noncategorizable observer of human behavior and a fancier of the predicaments that people can get themselves into as they behave, some badly and some well. And for those reasons, Rebecca Martin-as the wife of bassist Larry Grenadier and tireless worker along with Charles Lloyd's wife, Dorothy Darr, in raising funds for Billy Higgins' much-needed liver transplant and in active pursuit of her own career in the midst of New York City's jazz scene and still developing a sound quite different from anyone else's-has come up with something quite different on People Behave Like Ballads.

What she has come up with is a CD, seemingly simple and direct, that combines astute ironic lyrics with unpretentious melodies that tell the short stories of people's experiences, rising from the particular to the universal. At first glance, there seems to be guitar overkill, for Martin herself plays guitar…as do Ben Monder and Steve Cardenas. But all three contribute to the extroverted sound she wants to achieve as she accompanies herself, one solos and one plays rhythm, all of which attains a folk song-like atmosphere combining wryness, abstract thematic intentions and everyday details. Like Joni Mitchell or before her, though, Martin, injects the harmonies and phrasing of jazz even as she sings without pretense or embellishment. Indeed, contemporary comparisons to Martin lead to more obscure singers like Susanne Abbuehl or Annette Peacock, who combine the mysteries of poetry with song.

So what does Martin sing about? Well, she sings about unrequited forgiveness: "In a world where no one/Seems to be thinking/Keep your thoughts warm and forgiving." She sings of, not surprisingly, love: "Don't be afraid of what you're feeling for me/Because this mess we've made is only love." She sings of despair: "It's mostly quiet here but not today./What will become of me?" She sings of loneliness: "In my best dress and make-up/To meet the night./I can hardly reach the sink./Everything's cock-eyed/To the drunk that I'm turning into." She sings of ambivalence: "What's yours is soon coming./It's tragic, but beautiful." She sings of the human condition as humans conveniently behave like ballads to the greatest possible extent within the sixty minutes contained on the disk.

Just when it appeared that MAXJAZZ's Vocal Series was predictable as it raised the profiles of deserving jazz singers without major-label contracts, it has gone outside of the box to stretch the accepted wisdom's definition of jazz by presenting Rebecca Martin's individualistic music, on which she behaves like an artist who is developing her own identity separate from that of any other singer.

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POP/JAZZ
Rebecca Martin -- "People Behave Like Ballads" (MAXJAZZ)
By Terry Lawson
(As seen on freep.com)
Published: August 2004

THREE STARS
out of four starts

The understandable desire to discover and record the next Norah Jones or Diana Krall has generally resulted in the bland-leading-the-bland. But this second record by Martin, whose previous collection of standards rose above the ordinary with the help of the underrated jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, is a decided exception.

Martin moves as slowly and surely as Shirley Horn through a set of original, melancholy and mysterious ballads (inspired by real people behaving in ways both nice and not), usually accompanying herself on a sensuously strummed guitar. Her voice has the world-weary awareness of a Billie Holiday, if not the resignation, while her lyrics are as smart, if not as precociously clever, as Nellie McKay's. You can decide for yourself is this is jazz or sophisticated pop. I've just decided to dig it. In stores Tuesday.

By Terry Lawson, Free Press staff writer

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Lifestyle
Riffs: Assorted Jazz
By Ron Wynn
(As seen on NashvilleCityPaper.com)
Published: August 27, 2004

Rebecca Martin's People Behave Like Ballads is the type of album that probably wouldn't have been recorded even five years ago. But the popularity of Norah Jones has convinced several labels that there's an audience for singers whose voices and music blend jazz and folk, even though Martin has a more natural jazz affinity than Jones. She plays acoustic and electric guitar as well as mandolin and sings with a warmth, soft yet steely quality on such songs as "Learning," "When The Rain Comes," "East Andover" and "Here The Same But Different" among others. Bill McHenry's booming tenor sax embellishes Martin's vocals in the same way the late Zoot Sims great solos aided Phoebe Snow's vocals decades ago. But Martin's voice doesn't sound as anguished as Snow's, or as country as Jones. Instead, there's more swing and blues sensibility in her phrasing, and more authority in her guitar work. There's really no one around right now doing the mix of swing-tinged arrangements and folk-driven ballads and vocals featured on this fine CD.

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REBECCA MARTIN/People Behave Like Ballads
 By Chris Spector, Editor and Publisher
The voice of the entertainment retailer and broadcaster
(As seen in Midwest Record Recap)
Published: August 2004

Hard writing poet Martin is so far ahead of the curve that she had a band with Jesse Harris when Norah Jones was still trying to find a way out of Texas. With hard core left of center writing that might not be for everyone, this is the kind of set that will make a believer out of anyone that comes in contact with it. A very creative outing that demands to be heard.

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NY TIMES Best of 2006
#8 Paul Motion Trio 2000 +1 "On Broadway Vol. 4 or The Paradox of Continuity" (Winter/Winter)
 By Ben Ratliff
(As seen in The New York Times)
Published: December 23, 2006

"The great no-frills jazz drummer, keeping a strong pulse inside another of his unlikely groups - this one convened to play standards, including the oracular pianist Masabumi Kikuchi and the sweet-voiced singer Rebecca Martin."

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NY TIMES - Critics Choice
Paul Motion Trio +1 "On Broadway Vol. 4 or The Paradox of Continuity"
 By Nate Chinen
(As seen in The New York Times)
Published: August 7, 2006

"Jazz has always had use for the music of old Broadway, those crafty 32-bar love songs that now take up the pages of the Great American Songbook. And the relationship, though casual, has been mutually beneficial: more than a few standards would have quietly expired without the fresh inhalation of a Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald or Sonny Rollins.

The drummer Paul Motian has tapped the songbook too, though it's striking how steadfastly he resists other artists' interpretive residue to get to the root of a song. There aren't many obvious fingerprints in "On Broadway, Vol. 4," the latest in a long-running series, except those of the musicians: the leader with the tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, the bassist Larry Grenadier, the pianist Masabumi Kikuchi and the vocalist Rebecca Martin.

Ms. Martin sings on more than half the album, in a confessional tone with a modest, plainspoken style. She uses few of the expressive devices of a jazz singer, which gives her the advantage of seeming convincingly sincere, rather than cloying or clever, on a soufflé like Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Folks Who Live on the Hill."

Singing "Tea for Two" at a honey-drip tempo, she sounds discontented and daydream-addled, as Irving Caesar's lyrics prescribe. On "Everything Happens to Me" she captures a mood of self-pity precisely, without sounding pitiful. It helps that throughout her portion of the album, she has no harmonic accompaniment: just the austere support of bass and drums, along with some sensitive obbligato from Mr. Potter, who distinguishes himself on nearly every track. When Ms. Martin sits out, Mr. Kikuchi comes in. His pianism involves artfully hesitant single-note lines and feathery, mysterious chords. It's a perfect complement to Mr. Motian's wind-rustled percussive style, and an effective contrast to Mr. Grenadier and Mr. Potter's earthier contributions.

Mr. Kikuchi inspires a more abstract take on the material than Ms. Martin does - and vocalizes less soothingly, with guttural emanations - but the sound throughout the album is consistent. And the sequencing, which stirs together tracks featuring either voice or piano, creates a logic of dynamic tension and release. That logic anchors the substance of "On Broadway, Vol. 4," which is most remarkable for its sense of wonder. It brings you back, unassumingly, to the songs."

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Billboard/All Music Guide
Paul Motion Trio +1 "On Broadway Vol. 4 or The Paradox of Continuity"
 By Jonathan Widran
(As seen in All Music Guide)
Published: August 2006

"Legendary for his long term associations with Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and other icons from across the traditional jazz and fusion landscape, Paul Motian celebrated his 75th birthday in 2006 with a return (after a 13-year hiatus) to a cool concept he succeeded with three times before: unique and thoughtful approaches to songs made famous on Broadway. On the first three installments of the series (which began in 1988), he worked with the powerful trio of saxman Joe Lovano, bassist Charlie Haden, and Bill Frisell, but interestingly enough, his all-new lineup (including Chris Potter on sax, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Masabumi Kikuchi on piano) doesn't feature the guitar, which was one of the most appealing elements of the earlier trilogy. Nonetheless, these are thoughtful, sparse arrangements of songs that range from some everyone knows (including a very ambient, spacious arrangement of "I Loves You Porgy" and a sensual vocal version -- sung by Rebecca Martin -- of "How Long Has This Been Going On") to others whose show tunes origins may have been forgotten. Martin's smoky voice and Potter's wide range of emotional sax tones are the highlights of this low-key, sensual affair."

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Amazon
Paul Motion Trio +1 "On Broadway Vol. 4 or The Paradox of Continuity"
 By Lloyd Sachs
(As seen on Amazon.com)
Published: August 2006

"With a batch of strong new recordings as a leader and accompanist, the great drummer Paul Motian is marking his 75th birthday in style--nowhere more entrancingly than on his fourth survey of tunes with Broadway origins. This is the first to feature a singer, rising star Rebecca Martin, whose daydreamy, girlishly self-possessed vocals add new wrinkles to everything she touches. Playing behind her on ballads including "Everything Happens to Me" and "Never Let Me Go," tenor saxophonist Chris Potter recalls a bygone era with his muscular lyricism (this may be the best he has ever sounded on record). There's nothing standard about these treatments with their airy, exploratory quality, and ghostly effects. The album also features bassist Larry Grenadier (Martin's husband) and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi and includes seldom heard material such as "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town."

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The Guardian
Paul Motion Trio +1 "On Broadway Vol. 4 or The Paradox of Continuity"
 By John Fordham
(As seen in Guardian Unlimited)
Published: August 11, 2006

"Volume three of deviously delicate percussionist Paul Motian's On Broadway series appeared two years ago - representing the former Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett drummer's 1980s and 90s reinventions of standard songs in the company of Bill Frisell and Lee Konitz. This is a contemporary update on the same venture, recorded last year with Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, a jaw-droppingly inspired Chris Potter on sax, and a young singer - Rebecca Martin - who may even come to upstage Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux.

But though all 13 songs are Broadway classics, this set is a million miles from dinner jazz, since everybody is improvising their socks off - and it is hard to imagine a more creative reappraisal of The Great American Songbook. Rebecca Martin delivers the familiar lyrics with a downbeat fragility that has a little of Peyroux's world-weariness, but more quirkiness and intonational spin. The way Potter, Motian and bassist Larry Grenadier wrap counter-melodies and polyrhythms around her is a triumph of consummately musical yet adventurous jazz-making. Tea for Two mixes trancelike vocals with hollow, warbling tenor improvisaton; Motian kicks and thrashes beneath the sax and voice on In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town; and there's plenty of purely instrumental exploration, some featuring the abstractly Hancockish Kikuchi - although his Jarrett-like tendency to mutter and chatter as he plays might strike an unsuitable note for some. A 2006 classic."

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NY TIMES Best of 2002 Top 10 LIST
#5 Rebecca Martin "Middlehope"
 By Ben Ratliff
(As seen in The New York Times)
Published: December 29, 2002

"This is a fresh jazz singer set loose in folk-pop, or vice versa; you never quite know which. But her posse of accompanying musicians (including Bill McHenry, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Jorge Rossy, all of them up there in the best of the current jazz mainstream, give you a clue."

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POP REVIEW | REBECCA MARTIN
A Singer and Her Band Find a Place at the Edge of Jazz
By Ben Ratliff
(As seen in The New York Times)
Published: October 2002

A lot of negligible pop music gets passed off as "jazzy"; a couple of diminished chords is all you need. But the singer Rebecca Martin, who seems to have the outer sensibility of a pop singer and the inner resources of a jazz musician, can get close to jazz, and both sides of the equation make out well.

Performing at the Living Room on Wednesday night, Ms. Martin had with her a band that beamed out a sound similar to the music on her last album, "Middlehope" (Fresh Sound): tenor saxophone, guitar, bass, drums. By now that sound has grown familiar; it's an empathetic, affective, folky mist with jazz filigree, and Bill Frisell (at times), Cassandra Wilson, Ms. Martin, and Norah Jones all inhabit various corners of that world.

Ms. Martin's soprano voice recalls the range Joni Mitchell had in her younger years, and she has a similar sense of throwing her voice up into high areas, making it sound effortful; her intonation, however, is faultless. She mixed in melody-rich tunes like "A Fine Spring Morning" (which Blossom Dearie recorded in the late 50's), and Lionel Hampton and Johnny Mercer's standard "Midnight Sun," with her own material, showing a natural leaning toward songs about solitary impressions. In short, she demonstrated what a post-hippie version of the Cafe Carlyle might sound like.

At the Living Room — where she will perform again on Oct. 16 and 30 — she played acoustic guitar with the band, which included the tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry and the guitarist Ben Monder, both significant within New York's jazz scene; the arrangements were tight and careful, and there was practically no soloing.

If it was pop, it was pop that only a jazz musician could have thought of. "One Flight Down" was a bare-bones duo of voice and saxophone. (The song also appears on Norah Jones's recent album; Ms. Martin used to be in the band Once Blue with Jesse Harris, who writes and plays guitar for Ms. Jones now.) "Midnight Sun" was arranged for a voice-saxophone-guitar trio and Ms. Martin's own "Lonesome Town" was as slow as midsummer air. Everything was spare and still flexible; Mr. McHenry's soft, strong saxophone tone, playing soft, edited-down accompaniments to Ms. Martin's vocal lines, worked as a complement and sometimes a foil. It was mellow, mature music.

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Middlehope
Rebecca Martin | Fresh Sound New Talent
 By Phil DiPietro
(As seen on AllAboutJazz.com)
Published: May 2002

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 fashion.

I mean, it's difficult to get over the notion that everybody must know she's great already. She was great with her band, Once Blue, who released a record on EMI in the mid 90's. That record featured Kurt Rosenwinkel, who is also part of the band here, and co-songwriter/guitarist Jesse Harris, who is currently playing a big part in the success of Norah Jones' debut record.

Intimate, beguiling, personal, enticing, sensual, captivating, alluring…absolutely enthralling… wonderful even... Writing these words to describe the music lead me to actually seriously consider the question of whether a recording by a male artist is even capable of stirring such feelings in me (or any other heterosexual male reviewer, for that matter). No question, listening to this music produced a crush which will not be dissipating anytime soon. I mean, by the third song in - "The Midnight Sun"- when she sings, "Your lips were like a red and ruby chalice, warmer than a summer night", I was down for the count, and by the time I got to the middle part of the tune, where she merely hums the melody along with the saxophone, I just melted. And oh, so you too will melt, trust me. Nary six minutes of the disc (the Harris-penned "Then a Wall Came Up Inside Me" and the superb take on Cole Porter’s "Ridin' High) break what could be called a mid-tempo sweat, but generate more heat – no let's call it provocative, personal, incendiary fire - than a lot of other jazz recordings will anytime soon. It's a delicately private date, alive with intensity and urgency, wherein you'll feel as though Rebecca has one hand around your neck and the other clasping one of yours so tightly that you might begin to dance with her as you feel the answer to the question she asks in the closing chestnut, "Where is Love?".

Now some credit for the boys in the band, who really must get equal billing for creating the chamber-like, exposed vibe of this date. Maybe it's because most of them are her very close friends, like Rosenwinkel and the equally adept Steve Cardenas on guitar, Bill McHenry on sax and Jorge Rossy on drums. Perhaps it’s because one is far beyond friend- her husband, bassist Larry Grenadier, who is well known for being equally as courageous as Rebecca in the face of intimacy with his other musical associates, Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny. The jacket features a photo of the instruments propped up on walls and chairs in a small room-maybe Rebecca (and Larry)'s place-who knows? But it conveys the other kind of intimacy at play here- the relaxed, but incredibly tight-knit variety between all the musicians (including, of course, Rebecca).

On to some of the sounds themselves. The guitarists are nicely paired here, with Rosenwinkel taking many of the longer solo excursions, such as on "The Sweetest Sounds" and "Ridin High" and linear fills (make sure to dig 'em on Dindi!) Cardenas provides nylon on "One Flight Down (a song Harris wrote for Once Blue, but donated to Jones' new disc, as well) and Dindi, sung gorgeously by Rebecca and Bill McHenry (on vocals, not sax!) in duet. On "Where is Love", the guitarists paint together in counterpointillistic hues, creating layers of unraveling harmonies. McHenry provides breathy, breathtaking, letter-perfect takes on these ballads, especially on "The Midnight Sun" where, two minutes in, he soars, flute-like, into the stratosphere, only to go heartfeltly deep moments later, intertwining romantically in the adoring, warm embrace of Rebecca's voice.

It’s Rebecca's record, so let's pause to dig the completeness of her game, shall we? She’s definitely got the chops, but like her bandmates, is so far beyond thinking about them at this point, they're an effortless given. Phraseology? Part of the beguilement –explore it with me in the way she says/sings "to shine", in the phrase, "the stars forget to shine" (Midnight Sun), the pause in between the words "belong" and "to" in the phrase, "stories of love belong to you and me" (Dindi), or the way she pronounces the word "again" (as in wild, beguiled and whimpering, simpering) on "Bewitched". Efficiency? This recording was done on a single day-January 6, 2001.

But it's the intangibles that convey and evoke emotion that make the great singers. I mean, truly-isn't that the essence of the mission of the musician as artist? Is it cliche to say that through their music, the best of them show us their heart, their soul, their most intimate feelings and make us feel them too? Hard to do –even more so on a (mostly) standards date, but achieved in 2002 here by Rebecca. Think of all the singers that have achieved that before-quick-now put her in their class.

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Middlehope
By Geoff Melton
(As seen on MusicCorner.com)
Published: 2002

From my very first encounter with Rebecca Martin (at the time she was vocalist for Once Blue) I've been completely captivated with her enchanting vocals.  For her latest disc Middlehope she has collected some of her favorite jazz standards and recorded her own versions in a one day session (a few cuts written by her former Once Blue partner Jesse Harris are also included). Unlike Once Blue (an out-of-print disc that is well worth tracking down) and her solo debut Thoroughfare, both of which were more a mixture of jazz and pop, Middlehope is virtually pure jazz and a wonderful display of her emotional vocals, which are rich and soulful.  Combined with the work of the talented musicians she's gathered for this session, Middlehope is another disc of pure aural pleasure from Rebecca.

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Featured Artist: Rebecca Martin
CD Title: Middlehope
By Donna Kiruma
(As seen on JazzReview.com)
Published: May 2002

Year: 2002
Record Label: Fresh Sound/New Talent
Style: Jazz Vocals

Musicians: Rebecca Martin (vocals), Bill McHenry (tenor sax, vocals), Steve Cardenas (electric, nylon string guitar), Kurt Rosenwinkel (electric guitar), Larry Grenadier (acoustic bass), and Jorge Rossy (drums)

Review: Martin, a singer-songwriter who has toured with Shawn Colvin and Emmylou Harris, has a storyteller's knack for interpreting lyrics. Like her folk sisters, she naturally settles into the subtleties of a song. Listen to the opening line from the Rodgers and Hart classic "Bewitched." Martin is both young and weary as she sings, "He's a fool, and don't I know it." Her honey-and-whiskey voice delivers a kick to even the most familiar of songs.

Her crossover appeal will no doubt lead to comparisons to Norah Jones, who's been caught in a "is she or isn’t she jazz" debate. The two singers even share a song – Jesse Harris' "One Flight Down." The gentle pop number can be heard on both "Middlehope" and Jones' hit CD "Come Away With Me."

While both women blur musical boundaries, Martin's effort is a solid jazz album with fresh takes on "The Midnight Sun," "How Do You Say Auf Wiedersehn?" and "Dindi." She's already earned the praise of jazz stalwarts Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau.

Recorded in one day, the album features Steve Cardenas and Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitars; Bill McHenry, tenor saxophone; Larry Grenadier, bass; and Jorge Rossy, drums.

"Middlehope" is a gem.

Tracks: The Sweetest Sounds, A Fine Spring Morning, The Midnight Sun, Dindi, How Do You Say Auf Wiedersehn?, Bewitched, Then A Wall Came Up Inside Me, One Flight Down, Ridin' High and Where is Love?

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Thoroughfare
By Richard Cuccaro
(As seen on AcousticLive.com)
Published: 2002

Rebecca is the diva who was the lead singer for the regrettably defunct band Once Blue and is the leader of The Independence Project. When we received her CD in the mail, it was time to begin reviews of recorded work. She doesn't just sing-- her vocals glide.

Thoroughfare is a blend of acoustic pop and jazz, with a poetic sensibility toward its subjects. Rebecca's voice, with a soaring bell-like tone, floats above a pristine blend of acoustic and electric Metheny-like guitar by Steve Cardenas, bass by Larry Grenadier and light, articulate work on the traps and percussion by Kenny Wollesen. The CD is suffused with goodbyes and the hurt is still around, but the singer is in control of her emotions here. The voice takes the pain, and, examining it, turns it over in the singer's hand and even tosses it lightly in the air. The CD opens with 'Goodbye my Love," a bittersweet look back at an affair that has ended. The lyrics are just cryptic enough to suggest the possibility of something more than a lost love. The rythmn is bouncy and light as if to say, "Ah well, time to move on." "Your Arms Around Me Now" looks at the fear that a lover might disappear back into the crowd but whose presence now is all that matters. Reverb, echo and Rebecca's background harmonies combine to recreate a sweeping ecstasy. The title cut "Thoroughfare" has a Latin, bossanova-like beat. Its coolness makes good use of Rebecca's smooth vocal style. The last cut, "The Red Wall," is my favorite. I heard Rebecca do it live and the emotions ride on the surface here just the way they did then. There's nothing quite like sitting in a small club, sharing the same space with her…and hearing that voice live.

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Thoroughfare
By Karen Iris Tucker
(As seen on Acoustic Guitar Magazine)
Published: 2002

Rebecca Martin, the former singer-guitarist for the now-defunct band Once Blue, embraces her breezy jazz-pop tendencies on this ten-song solo outing. Martin is an of-the-moment kind of writer whose tenderhearted narratives about down-and-out little guys like "Joey" and even the bum who broke her heart in "Empty Hands" ("Why I put what meant the world to me in your empty hands") are accompanied by gently plucked acoustic notes. Backed by a polished three-piece band, Martin’s blurred snatches of sunshine and occasional world-weariness come off equal parts fresh and fearless.

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Thoroughfare
 By Geoff Melton
(As seen on MusicCorner.com)
Published: 1999

The first time I heard Rebecca Martin was a live performance by her previous band Once Blue at a taping of the radio show Mountain Stage. I was immediately taken by her gorgeous vocals and their beautiful jazz-inflected pop songs, and grabbed a copy of their debut disc. While it was unfortunate that the band broke up after that one release, Rebecca has finally released her enchantingly beautiful solo debut Thoroughfare. Thankfully Thoroughfare isn't that much of a departure from Once Blue, continuing down the familiar path of gentle, largely acoustic, pop songs with jazzy nuances that really set them apart from the pack. Rebecca's deeply emotional, lilting vocal-work and heartfelt lyrics are the icing on the cake of this superb release that was by far my favorite disc of 1999.

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"Rebecca sings with feeling and soul - and always with fantastic intonation. Her take on these songs, from the interesting and beautifully conceived instrumentation that surrounds her to her wonderful interpretation of them is fresh and exciting."

-- PAT METHENY (www.patmetheny.com)