René Marie
Web Site
December 2002

"I love what Kurt Elling is doing. And I really love a Brazilian singer named Claudia Villela... But actually, I find myself listening to musicians like Dave Douglas, David Murray and Henry Threadgill more than I do to jazz vocalists."

Vertigo
MaxJazz
2001

Reviewed By
Mathew Bahl
C. Michael Bailey
Jim Santella

By Terry Perkins

In 1996, singer René Marie returned to performing music professionally for the first time since she was a teenager more than two decades earlier. After playing small local clubs in Roanoke, Virginia, she moved to Richmond, began playing throughout the Tidewater region and released a self-produced recording, Renaissance, in 1998. Marie’s reputation continued to grow, and she soon landed a headlining spot at Washington, D.C.’s acclaimed jazz club, Blues Alley. In the audience that night was Rich McDonnell, founder of the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label. McDonnell immediately signed Marie to his label, and her debut release in 2000 on MAXJAZZ, How Can I Keep From Singing?, earned critical raves ­ and an award as Best Jazz Vocalist from the Association for Independent Music. Her 2001 follow up recording, Vertigo, firmly established Marie as one of the most exciting and eclectic signers on the contemporary jazz scene. During a recent telephone conversation from her home in Atlanta, Marie talked about her unusual career path, her approach to performing and songwriting, and the current state of jazz vocals.

ALL ABOUT JAZZ:You first began singing and playing piano professionally when you were in high school. But you really weren’t performing jazz at that early stage of your career. Did you grow up listening to jazz?

RENE MARIE: I really didn’t even know anything about jazz until I began playing professionally when I was 15. Prior to that, I listening first to whatever my dad put on the record player ­ everything from Mitch Miller and Hank Williams to Harry Belafonte, Ravel and Copeland. Basically, everything BUT jazz. And when I was a teenager, I listened to rock, pop, R&B and since I was politically minded, to Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets. But when I was performing back then, I stuck to things like Roberta Flack songs. I was mostly performing at school functions and at the Y, but also at some clubs where my Mom had to be there with me because of my age.

AAJ: You got married at an early age, had a couple of children and decided to put your singing career on hold to raise them. But you never really lost your love for music, did you?

RM: I still sung at home, with the kids and when friends or relatives came over. I was always singing or trying to learn something on the piano, but not with the idea of trying to get back into music professionally. It was just for fun, as it always had been.

AAJ: But that’s also when you really began to develop an interest in jazz singing, through listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and others, wasn’t it?

RM: I loved listening to Sarah and Ella, and also to Cleo Laine, who had such a great range. And while I was singing along with them, I would try and figure out how they got their voices to do certain things. So I would practice that way. In retrospect, what I was doing was much akin to taking lessons. For example, I would say to myself, what can I do to elongate my chords or thicken them. Or I would try to breathe like them or scat like them.

AAJ: Was there a specific impetus that got you back into singing professionally?

RM: It was in 1996, and my oldest son was home from college and went to a restaurant. He called me from there and said, “Mom, you’ve got to come to this restaurant. There’s this lady singing here and she’s terrible! I know you can sing better than that.”

So just out of curiosity, I went and met him at the restaurant. While we were listening, he said, “Mom, you should get back into singing.” And I offered all these excuses why I couldn’t. I’m too old, I don’t know anything about jazz. Later at home, he was talking to his father and brother about it while we were all sitting at the table. They said if you think you can make money singing, try it out and if it works, then you can quit your part-time job at the bank. But it took me a month to get some tunes together, then get the nerve to go back to that same restaurant and talk to that same group and ask them if I could play some songs when they took a break. And they were very gracious about it.

Even after that it took awhile to get my nerve up to approach a musician friend and ask to sit in with his band. It was very tentative. I just wanted to see if I could really do it or not. I was testing myself ­ trying to fit it into my life. Back then I was a Jehovah’s Witness, and there was that constant tension between singing in a nightclub and trying to go to the Kingdom Hall and live by those tenets. That tension lasted for a couple of years before I finally decided to leave that religion.

AAJ: So you were making the commitment to music. By this time you had your own group, didn’t you?

RM: It was a four-piece band with a cornet player. We played at the Ramada Inn in Roanoke. I have to laugh when I think about that place ­ playing in a funny-shaped room where the stage was an afterthought. But within a year’s time, I had my own trio and it developed from there. Frankly, I was surprised about how quickly it built

AAJ: 1998 was a real turning point for you. You recorded a CD and ended up moving to Richmond.

RM: It was a turning point in many ways. That recording proved to be the issue ­ at least it was propped up to be ­ that basically ended my marriage. I was going to a lot of rehearsals for the CD, and my husband gave me an ultimatum: quit singing or leave the house. So I left that night. There was some violence that night too, which simply strengthened my intuition that I needed to leave anyway.

I ended up moving to Richmond and performing there. I was still singing in Roanoke, and also began singing in Lynchburg. Then I got a break by getting a job in D.C. at Blues Alley, and that’s when I met Rich McDonnell ­ my first night singing there.

AAJ: On your MAXJAZZ recordings it’s really interesting to hear you sing tunes that are not usually thought of as being jazz songs. “Tennessee Waltz, “Blackbird” by Lennon and McCartney. Do you think the early influence of listening to so many styles of music ­ and coming to jazz late ­ makes you more open to adapting those songs to a jazz format?

RM: I can’t exclude songs like “Tennessee Waltz.” I’d feel like half a person if I did. It’s part of my roots, part of my personality. When I listen to my version of it on my very first CD, I think there’s just more of me in “Tennessee Waltz” then there is in a traditional jazz song like “Sleeping Bee.” It’s like there’s a touchstone inside it that reverberates when I sing it. There’s no way I could leave it behind ­ no way! I’d feel like a traitor.

AAJ: I’ve seen you perform in a small jazz club, in a concert hall and at a large outdoor festival. You always seem to be able to connect strongly with the audience. Do you a certain approach to build that connection?

RM: Man, I’m winging it! Basically, it’s a symbiotic thing. Whatever I’m getting from an audience, I try to give back something else to create the energy I need to keep going. Sometimes when I think it’s too quiet, I’ve even asked audiences, “You guys are so quiet. Is everything okay out there?” And they tell me they’re really listening. And I realize that’s just as much of a compliment as applause.

AAJ: It seems there’s been a dramatic increase in the popularity of jazz vocalists lately. A lot of younger singers are getting critical notice, and some ­ such as Norah Jones, for example ­ are crossing over to mainstream audiences. Do you have any thoughts about the state of jazz vocals today?

RM: Yes, I do have some thoughts. When I hear jazz vocalists on the radio, there seem to be very few that pique my interest. There’s just no meat on the bones! It seems to be all technique and not much emotion ­ not much melodic intrigue. I don’t know… it just boring. The thing these days seems to be to play it safe. But boy, when you do hear a vocalist who’s not playing it safe ­ that’s got something interesting to say ­ I’m right in there. For instance, I love what Kurt Elling is doing. And I really love a Brazilian singer named Claudia Villela. She’s great. But actually, I find myself listening to musicians like Dave Douglas, David Murray and Henry Threadgill more than I do to jazz vocalists. I think their music is unpredictable and exciting ­ and that’s what I’m after too. The last thing I want to be is boring and predictable. Even if my music makes some people uncomfortable or go away saying, “What was that” ­ that’s much better than being boring and predictable.

AAJ: What do you have coming up as far as new projects?

RM: I’m so excited! We’re going to be doing a live recording at the Jazz Standard in New York City. We’ll be recording for three days over Thanksgiving weekend. We have about 15 to 20 songs ­ a third of them my own originals. So we’ll have plenty of tunes to choose from for the recording. And I’m also happy because I’ll be doing the recording with my own guys ­ my band.

AAJ: Talk a little bit about your band.

RM: I’ve been traveling with my regular guys for about a year, but I’ve been working with them longer than that. Elias Bailey on bass and T. Howard Curtis III on drums have worked with me since 1998 when I was in Richmond. Elias has such feeling and emotion when he plays, and Howard is such a well-rounded musician. His background includes classical drum work as well as African percussion. My pianist is John Toomey, and I’ve been working with him for two years. I love the quirky sense of humor he has in his playing. It’s sardonic and sarcastic, but also extremely beautiful. We really think alike musically.

Over the past year, I’ve really made it my goal for us to travel together. I need that consistency of sound and the quality in the music you just can’t get with a pickup band ­ no matter how good they may be. And what’s really great is that everyone in the band has no problem with egos. I know that sounds highly implausible, but it’s true. I’m really lucky… and I know it. I thank these guys every time we play.,