Jazz Police - Carole Martin Sings From the Heart at the Artists Quarter, October 30-31

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Thursday, 29 July 2010

Carole Martin Sings From the Heart at the Artists Quarter, October 30-31

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Carole Martin ©Andrea Canter

Once a nightly fixture on the area club circuit, Carole Martin all but disappeared from the Twin Cities jazz scene for a few decades. But now with two acclaimed recordings released in the past few years (Pieces of Dreams, Songs From My Heart), Carole has returned to more or less regular performing with at least a few gigs per year at the Artists Quarter. An alternative to bobbing for apples and greeting little goblins, this weekend Carole will entice, seduce, and perhaps surprise listeners expecting the usual playlist of standards and torch songs, for there is nothing “standard” about the way this chanteuse wraps herself around a lyric and explores a melody from a deep well of passion and experience. Carole will be in the very fine company of pianist Phil Aaron, bassist Tom Lewis and drummer/son-in-law/AQ owner Kenny Horst.

Phil Aaron © Andrea Canter

Carole Martin was destined to a career as an entertainer, growing up in Glencoe, MN, in a family of musicians and circus performers. A self-taught singer, she notes that “I was brought up on singers like Tony Bennett, and I loved Nancy Wilson and Irene Kral.” In high school she sang in the choir and, with two sisters, sang “Canadian Sunset” on a Faribault radio station. Married at sixteen and divorced with three children a few years later, she started out singing pop songs at Minneapolis clubs like Mr. Nibs, but was more attracted to the jazz tunes she heard at the adjacent Duffy’s. She worked nights on end in her 20s at Twin Cities clubs such as the White House, Harbor Room, King Solomon's Mines and the Point, receiving her on-the-job training from such local legends as Percy Hughes. Her first recordings, For the First Time (1965) and The Music That Makes Me Dance (1968), were well received at the time, but it would be years before she returned to the studio.

Tom Lewis © Andrea Canter

When regular club worked petered out in the 80s, she turned to selling mens’ sportswear. She made a brief return to music in the early 90s, performing on the stages of earlier incarnations of the Artists Quarter and Dakota, but quit a few years later following the death of son Dale. But gradually—and with the memory of Dale’s encouragement ("You've got to sing, Mom”), Carole resumed public appearances, special engagements and finally a return to the recording studio for her first release in 35 years. Pieces of Dreams was an immediate success, described by Jon Bream (Star Tribune) as “the finest jazz-vocal CD from the Twin Cities in many a moon.” [click here for a Jazz Police review]

Kenny Horst © Andera Canter

Fortunately Carole did not wait another three decades between recordings, releasing Songs From My Heart last November. [Click here for a Jazz Police review] With the Artists Quarter stage serving as sound studio, this recording has the intimacy of a small bar, a place where you can sit back and listen as the storyteller weaves her tales of love lost and found. Noted New York-based pianist Rick Germanson, an AQ favorite who appears on Songs…, "Carole could definitely work anywhere in the world. What she has that puts her above a lot of singers is that she always tells a story. Some singers I work with don't even hear what they're singing. Carole's honesty comes through in her music, and obviously she knows how to entertain a crowd." Adds the great saxophonist Irv Williams, also on her CD as well as a frequent member of her quartet, "Carole has all the tools. She has looks, a great personality, and nobody can sell a song better than she can.”

Now with six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Carole Martin sings not because she needs to support her family but because it brings her joy. And the years off stage seem to have only deepened her talent. In an interview for the Star Tribune, she noted, “I really found later in life, and maybe it's because of everything I've lived through, that I became the singer that I really wanted to become, and that's one reason I started recording again."

There's no better treat (and no tricks!) than a weekend at the AQ with Carole Martin.

The Artists Quarter is located in the lower level of the Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul (at St. Peter and 7th Place); call (651) 292-1359; www.artistsquarter.com. Sets begin at 9 pm. Pieces of Dreams and Songs From My Heart are available from the AQ or local and online record outlets. Quotes from the Star Tribune (November 2005).

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