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| Vocalist RENE MARIE and her Live At Jazz Standard Vocalist, composer and musical risk-taker, René Marie has taken the jazz world by surprise. While her story may be unusual - how she didn't sing in public for more than 20 years, how she finally left her husband and job at a bank in 1998 to launch a music career and succeeded so quickly - it has been through her recordings that she has proven she is worth lauding even if she had the most ordinary of backgrounds. On her 1998 self-produced debut CD, Renaissance, she turns the formerly bouncy “Mr. Sandman” into a steamy stroll through restless yearning and renders “Tennessee Waltz” as a gut-bucket blues-yodel about lust and betrayal, revealing how Marie claims new ownership of time-worn standards. On How Can I Keep From Singing?, her MAXJAZZ debut, she hits the ground running with a positive interpretation of “God Bless the Child” at a blistering tempo, then abruptly shifts gears by pairing the spiritual “Motherless Child” with a graphic portrayal of “Four Women.” Vertigo, her second MAXJAZZ project, is full of emotional and vocal twists and turns in a musical landscape that covers everything from Marie's original love-passion conundrum, “Don't Look At Me Like That”, to the controversial pairing of the confederate anthem “Dixie” with the anti-lynching lament “Strange Fruit.” On her last recording, Live At Jazz Standard, she scores a juxtaposed musical coup by opening Leonard Cohen's “Suzanne” with a scatted, a cappella version of Maurice Ravel's “Bolero” to create what one reviewer described as an “astonishing and goose-bump raising centerpiece.” On her fourth MAXJAZZ release, Serene Renegade, Marie sings not only about her remarkable story but also those of her father, her mother, her sister and brother and her sons. With this recording, she reminds the listener of her great ability to mine the spirit of a song and interpret it in affecting fashion. The music world has definitely been moved by Marie. The Academie du Jazz in France selected Vertigo the Best International Jazz Vocal CD of 2002. The other nominees were Joni Mitchell and Cassandra Wilson. Both JazzTimes (U.S.) and Jazz Review (UK) chose Vertigo as one of the best CDs of 2002 while DownBeat critics voted her one of their “Rising Star Vocalists.” Her third MAXJAZZ release, Live At Jazz Standard, hit the top 20 on Billboard's jazz chart a month before its official release. Her first two CDs also topped the jazz charts and won AFIM (Association for Independent Music) Awards for Best Jazz & Cabaret Vocal. [Others nominated included Karrin Allyson, Jimmy Scott, Nnenna Freelon and Susannah McCorkle.] How Can I? was selected as one of the top five jazz albums of 2000 by SESAC (Society for Stage Authors and Composers), joining Tom Harrell, Stefon Harris and Greg Osby as the best in their field. National Public Radio (NPR) touted her as one of the most innovative and exciting vocalists to come upon the jazz scene. And prestigious venues like The Kennedy Center, Jazz At Lincoln Center, Le Jazz Au Bar and the Jazz Standard have called upon her. She's performed at major festivals and halls around the world including in Portugal, Russia and France. Some critics have suggested that Marie is from the same mold as other great jazz vocalists of the past and present. But in reality, her artistry was formed from unique experiences during her early years in Warrenton, Virginia, up to her present life in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied classical piano, sang in an R&B band and soaked up knowledge from her tutors in rhythm, harmony, emotional intensity and improvisation - Maurice Ravel; Hank Williams; Harry Belafonte; Peter, Paul & Mary; Sly and the Family Stone; Nina Simone; James Brown; Aaron Copland; and the Beatles. Married at 18 and a mother of two sons by 23, she shifted her focus to raising her family, which proved to be a useful period of incubation. She started listening to jazz and singing it around the house, gave piano lessons and composed as she exposed herself and her sons to a wide variety of music - show tunes, jazz, hip-hop, world music and rap. Her diverse jazz influences - from Joe Zawinul, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter - and her wealth of life experiences contribute to the open and adventurous spirit in her performances, arrangements and compositions, distinguishing her as a gifted artist. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |