JAZZ VOCALIST/SONGWRITER
ASCAPlus Award 2007-2008 and 2008-2009
Born in Philadelphia, Gail Marten (Divac/Hurlbrink/Cooke) began her singing career in 1980 shortly after moving to Maryland. Performing throughout the mid-Atlantic region, Marten has captivated audiences at music festivals, concert venues, jazz clubs and private social events. In the '90s she held long term engagements at many premier area hotels and bistros and has since worked with many jazz notables including Cyrus Chestnut, Benny Waters, Reuben Brown, Abdu Rashid Yaya, Billy Colucci, Gary Grainger, Greg Hatza, Arnold Sterling at scores of venues including Baltimore's Pier Six Concert Pavilion, Ethel's Place, Eubie's at Baltimore's Fish Market and Eubie Live!, New York's West End Club and Rita Dimitri's, Blues Alley, Bohemian Caverns, Charlie's-Georgetown in Washington, DC, and The Hilton Hotel in Gatwick, England.
Marten met pianist/composer Clem Ehoff at the Renaissance Hotel in Baltimore where they worked together for the first time in the ’90s. They established an ongoing musical connection, and three CDs were recorded, BEYOND THE RAINBOW 2001, PURE JOY 2003 and IS IT LOVE 2005, for which they received numerous awards for songwriting and project development.
In October 2009 Marten's newest CD, IN LOVE AGAIN, featuring pianist Larry Willis, bassist Herman Burney and drummer Eric Kennedy, was released to great acclaim. The music from the CD is on regular rotation at radio stations world-wide.
AWARDS: Marten and Ehoff have won several international songwriting competitions for their original compositions and lyrics: "Is It Love," "Big Girl Blues," "We Can Learn To Fly" from their CD IS IT LOVE and "Heaven On A Tropic Shore," "Always There," "One of Those Tomorrows" and "A Lovely Dream" from their CD, PURE JOY. Their CDs have been nominated "Best Jazz CD" by JPF in 2004 for PURE JOY and again in 2006 for IS IT LOVE. The title track, "Is It Love," was also nominated as "Best Vocal Jazz Song."
OTHER AWARDS: ASCAPlus, Women's Radio Best of the 2000's, John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Billboard Songwriting Contest, Broadjam's Summer Music Challenge, Lyric Awards Global Contest, Song & Film, Finland’s Vantaa Jazz Heritage Assn., Film Music Network...
DISCOGRAPHY: In Love Again, Is It Love, Pure Joy, Beyond The Rainbow, Here I Go, Foreign Affair
Marten is currently at work in the development of a theatrical project with Camay Calloway Murphy.