Gail Marten: Reviews

GAIL MARTEN - IS IT LOVE
Jazz vocalist, lyricist, composer, a multi-label honor few have in their repertoire... Is It Love, a triumph in lyrics and arrangement, all original from mainstream to Latin.
Adorned with accolades as recent as “Is It Love” gathering up first in the 2005 UK Songwriting contest, Ms Marten has a unique way about bringing balance to her craft. This can be felt through the way she performs and composes her music. As you filter through the jewel box of Is It Love you experience the eclectic selections and acute sounds that makeup this pleasing production.
Sound manipulation and execution is important to the bondage of moods the music dictates throughout Ms Marten’s effort. The keyboard tones of Clem Ehoff, her long time sidekick are strong and as if he could read her thoughts; seemingly lighting up the designed moods. Percussion bonds the design and with Marty Knepp, the craft and technique is never compromised. Finally bassist Alfonso Rondon has the classic jazz piece well trained in his hands. Combined the effort and knowledge of all allows for a superb presentation.
Ms. Marten has this latinesque temper piped in throughout this journey of love. Many of the cuts seem to display different attributes and sides to this at time heartless feeling called love. With her exotic sensual tones Ms. Marten can get across what most feel but rarely admit. “Dream With Me” is such an example of pure unfiltered passion-coated lyrics. Her vocals, with eloquence, reach out to that lover inside of all of us. The piano piece just adds that perfect flair of romance to this soft-spoken musical ballad.
For fans of jazz after hours or amid a hidden café with that other set of eyes adjoining yours, this is the music score. Ms. Marten and Ehoff have produced the quintessential song for those times that one always hopes to dream about. A fine addition to your casual collection and for those special moments where jazz is the only fit!
- Karl Stober is an international freelance columnist and broadcaster.

IS IT LOVE?
From the funky opening with the title track to the wistful closer “Dream With Me,” Marten makes her points clearly with the words she’s affixed to tunes either by Ehoff or in a few cases herself (one by bassist Alfonso Rondon). The songs have a steady, mature quality. They are straightforward, yet evocative for the most part. They clearly draw on Marten’s life experience without lapsing into the mawkishly confessional. Two songs strike me in particular as both worthy performances here and promising vehicles for others. “Who Would Know” sets a lyric about the lure of secretive over the sensual sashay of a jazz waltz. The supple dance rhythm that Ehoff provides captures the song’s sense of emotional approach and withdrawal. Marten provides the music for “Her Point of View,” an arch tribute for feminine thinking set over a groove that’s two parts funky and one part latin with an occasional fillip of tango. Drummer Marty Knepp and bassist Alfonso Rondon nail the feel firmly without sacrificing its inherent ambiguities. Ehoff is a capable pianist who contributes workmanlike solos to complement the vocals. But on this session it’s Marten’s vocals that deliver the songs as surely as if they were standards she’d been singing since she was a girl.

DREAM WITH ME
This ballad is from Marten's 2005 album Is It Love, backed by an acoustic trio. An excerpt from a review by Anthony Agostinelli, editor of The Network, calls the song the "apex" of the album. Among his other observations: "Gail Marten and (pianist) Clem Ehoff interweave their respective talents her way with lyrics, and his way with musical sounds differently, yet complementary...There is an integral connection between each song...Ehoff's piano, while omnipresent, does not overly dominate, and provides the ride for what we are taking in of the organic whole. A keyboard musical lover in love."

IS IT LOVE? YOU BETCHA IT IS!
They're back! And with more passion, subtlety and warmth. Is it love? You betcha it is! Gail Marten and Clem Ehoff interweave their respective talents – her way with lyrics, and his way with musical sounds – differently, yet complementary.
I had to listen to these musical offerings right through...I could not stop mid-CD. There is an integral connection between each song, and among Marten, Ehoff, Knepp and Alfonso Rondon. I know, I know, you're thinking, "you're over the top!" But after you listen to and embrace this melodious suite of music, you will agree, "this is their best yet."
If you have ever been in love, you will identify with the lyrics to the title song. The uncertainty of love – "Are you mine, really mine, Or someone else's baby?" The passionate emotional liability -- Am I high, Am I low? Should I stay, Should I go? The adventure of it all – Should I care? Do I dare? By the time the song was over, I was in the throes of loving memories. And before you can catch your breath, you're plunged into "Who Would Know?" Who would know/Who would care/Love and war/All is fair." Give me a break, I'm outta breath and thinking room!
"Just Before Dawn," reminds us of beauty of "l'alba," the dawn of which poets write. "Moon will soon surrender/To the early morning splendor/I've tossed and turned another sleepless night/ Wondering what went wrong and who was right." Not over the top, but right on!
Each and every lyric, in each and every song, every turn of a lyric, is connected one to the other, and lays out a suite of epos – an epic theme – love! This group of emotional love anthems will not necessarily help you through a love affair, but will make it easier to understand what is going on.
Thank-you for the occasional respite from charged words – Ehoff's piano, while omnipresent, does not overly dominate, and provides the "ride" for what we are taking in of the organic whole. A keyboard musical lover in love.
As Gail, Clem and the trio swan through each and every aspect of the love experience, they ultimately arrive at the apex – Close your eyes and dream a dream/with me/At the end of day/Catch a cloud and float above the earth/Sail the Milky Way. Not satisfied with winging us along with all of this lyrical and musical beauty, we all become immersed in: Skies ablaze with setting sun /Farewell to yesterday/Twilight beckons to the moon/Purple shadows paint the way.
Is It Love? An opus of endearing proportions; a CD for morning, noon and night in Nirvana.

Thanks for the CD which I have played on both of the Jazz shows that I do here in Canada. I enjoyed the music, really liked the trio, and thought that the lyrics to many of the tunes were exceptional. Big Girl Blues, and the title track really spoke to me. I will pass this CD on to the other DJs who do Jazz at the station, along with the promo material, and hopefully they will find it as enjoyable as I did.
Thank you for sharing your talent with me.

IS IT LOVE?
The titular track of “Is It Love” sets the tone for this sophisticated and appealing album by Gail Marten and The Clem Ehoff Trio. The simultaneously roomy and intricate arrangement allows the band to stretch out; the integration of Marten’s vocal stylings with the instrumental setting is seamless.
At times Marten’s vocals are reminiscent of Flora Purim’s, although the overall tone of the album isn’t nearly as frenetic as the work of Return to Forever. She ranges from breathy to articulate from one song to another, and sometimes intra-tune.
...In “Lotus Blossom” (Ehoff’s) cascading piano fills create fittingly calming landscape. This album makes it quite evident that the working relationship between Marten and the Ehoff trio is indeed, lovely. Once its charms have been, the listener, too, must at least begin to suspect that this just might be...it could...love.

IS IT LOVE? BEYOND CATEGORY.
Gail M.
Once again,...
and for the third time that I know of, You and You and the Fellas have Made the World a Better Place to Live in. Your third CD release is a Good Thing. Indeed, it is a Great Thing! The title asks the question, Is It Love?, unrequited, rhetorical, and otherwise. The answer is a resounding YES! This CD reeks with Love. The Love of Creative Musical Ideas, the Love of Beautiful Words and Phrases, the Love that four Very Talented people have in working ToGether to make the lives of your listeners easier to transverse.
We Feel the Love, We Feel the Love. Of the 10 selections on the CD, what can I say? They are all so far ABOVE the norm that they in some cases, in my opinion, approach ART. The Art of Music, the Art of Love. WoW! You guys paint with all the Colours on the JAZZ PALETTE, and It is Beautiful, It is Love.
The TRIO. Mr. Alfonso Rondon lays down the foundation and floor for you all to walk around on. He knows his Bizzness. Plus, his wonderful musical composition together with your Poetry on Just Before Dawn is nothing short of a Standard. This is one of those songs that can stand the test of time. It Is Love.
Mr. Marty Knepp, Drums/Percussion, coming in and out and around you, plays at times with such deference and skill, that at times his Deft Touch almost Hurts. It must be a great pleasure to perform with Marty and Afonso.
Mr. Clem Ehoff. Quiet, Genius at work! Now some have stated that Clem may be a Curmudgeon. Perhaps Curmudgeons have gotten a Bad Rap in the same way the messenger is blamed for the message. They have the temerity to comment on the human condition without apology. Their versions of the truth unsettle us, and we hold it against them, even though they soften it with humor. However, underneath along with awareness, perception and a sly wit, is a Romantic. Clem's playing on the breaks between the first and second chorus of the songs on this CD bespeaks his true sentiments. His Cascading, Elegant, Romantic Jazz Interludes, are Perfect. His compositions on this CD are Flawless.
Gail Marten, Chanteuse, Saloon Singer, Lady, and Friend. You are a Tunesmith/Wordsmith/Jazz Singer of such Talent that You are, as Duke used to say, BeYond Category. Your Intelligence, Maturity and Hipness puts you In Touch. You are Love.
A few notes on some of the songs. Who Would Know/Pure Joy---Reminds me of the Sophisticated, Urbane style of Cole Porter. On Pure Joy, Clem's music and playing, and your words and Ending are Brilliant.
Her Point of View-- You must have written this for my wife Jack. I do know a person with insight and sense of humor wrote this song. The rest of the songs are ALL Wonderful, especially Shades of Blue and Is It Love. Great Songs.
But You know, every Once in a While a Song comes along that has It ALL. Music, Words, Arrangement, Performance and that Special Ambiance or Feeling that sets IT Apart. In your last CD, in my view, that Song was Sunday Rain. In my opinion on this CD, that Special Song is DREAM WITH ME. This is a Love Anthem. A Magic Carpet Ride that takes you somewhere between the Places that you Remember and the ones you Forget. It Touches your Memories and Tugs at your Heart.

GAIL MARTEN & THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO – "Is It Love"
Die amerikanische Jazzsängerin und Komponistin Gail Marten tritt seit mehr als 20 Jahren an den verschiedensten Orten in den USA auf -- in Jazz Clubs, auf Privatveranstaltungen und auf Festivals . Zusammen mit dem CLEM EHOFF TRIO hat sie nun ihre neue CD veröffentlicht, die zur Zeit in Deutschland nur über die Website der Künstlerin zu bestellen ist. Die Musik Gail Martens kann als Mainstream bzw. Latin Jazz beschrieben werden. Der Titelsong des Albums hat gerade in der Kategorie Jazz den ersten Preis bei der UK International Songwriting Competition 2005 verliehen bekommen.

A REVIEW BY AMY LOTSBERG
I've said it before; I'm not very well versed in jazz. So don't expect any well-schooled thoughts on this CD. All I can tell you is I like it...I feel like I'm in a ritzy place with a fine dinner and a frosty martini in front of me (two olives, please).
Gail Marten has a lovely voice and these songs show it off well. The piano playing is fantastic too.
...Well written and expertly performed, this is a lovely jazz album that would be great to play at a dinner or cocktail party. I could pretend that I'm a grown up. (Never mind that I'll be 40 in a month…doesn't mean I'm grown up)
Stand out songs: Is it Love, Lotus Blossom, Her Point Of View though they're really all good. If you like one, it's highly likely you'll like the whole recording.

GAIL MARTEN GRACES KITTAMAQUNDI
On a humid night in August a serene moon shone down on Gail Marten as she sang to a relaxed crowd in the hard heart of Howard County. For this lucky group gathered on the slopes of a subtly synthetic amphitheater, Latin jazz and a cool, firm voice made Columbia, MD seem like part of the southern hemisphere, if only in sentiment.
The audience ranged from toddlers to kneeslapping seniors, and was comfortably spread out on a grassy incline leading to a lake in the middle of well developed Columbia. Gail Marten sang, backed by a solid rhythm section of the Clem Ehoff trio: drummer Marty Knepp, bassist Alfonso Rondon, and keyboard player Clem Ehoff.
"Her Point of View," penned by Marten herself, was a humorous take on gender relations and the value of truth. It also had a pronounced Latin beat like many of the tunes, and provided a chance for sweetly ironic jibes, not to mention sweet singing.
The concert was just one in a series of shows presented at the Lakefront in Columbia Tuesday through Thursday throughout the summer...

SELECTED ARTIST
We select from our Loud Artists first based on the quality of your music. Keep up the great work!
After cranking up our office stereo, dancing around the office like idiots and drumming on our desks in time to your music we have approved all of the music on your CD, IS IT LOVE for distribution on iSOUND.COM.
All of the songs from Is It Love are now available on all sections of our website in addition to your artist site.
Keep the great music coming!

PURE JOY
The music is rich in color, rhythm and style…it runs the gamut from “on-the-edge-Latino” to “caliente” and quietly percussive! We are treated to collaborative latino visions of music that stir one’s soul, excites our bodies and enhances our sense of rhythm.
Clem Ehoff’s group melds jazz improvisation in a harmonically sophisticated manner driven by a pulsating latin groove…a veritable paella of sound and rhythm. Graphic images of the Caribbean washing on American shores explode on every music staff. Are you ready for all of this excitement? Clem’s playing conjures up moments of every great pianist, but is not like any previous keyboard player. He plays with his own voice.
This is a great collection of music. Somewhere, somehow, it reaches a place in one’s being that says, “all’s right with the world and the music is “to love”…this cookin’ ensemble knows itself. There is an undertow of “latintensity”, which draws one down to its core immersing listeners in its pulsating surge. The music generates a quiet intensity which can propel one to undulate in sync with that propulsion.
Gail Marten not only sings lyrics which tell a story, but recites a vivid prose which demonstrates that she has a hip awareness of life – delivered with a voice of sweetness and verve. Gail creates a rhapsodic reverie…an aesthetic which must be pleasing to most tuned-in listeners…(who) become aware that they are in the presence of a sensitive vocalist, whose instrumental voice also conveys deep messages about life.
Gail has a particularly sensuous voice. She not only stirs passion, but she generates reflective thought. Delicious, as the melding of passion and intellect often is…the girl next door dressed in a black sheath! The rhythmic surge of Alfonso Rondon and Marty Knepp lets the listener know that there is no untamed spirit in this percussive melange. It is scintillating, bubbling and brilliant.

Pure Joy, in all aspects...above all the phrasing of vocals is incredible, and deserves accolades. I especially liked Sunday Rain and One Of Those Tomorrows. The music though fluid and eneretic is also intimate...with music such as this I have spent many intimate mornings in the sunday rain. A great contribution to an era where music continues and needs to seek definition.

KUDOS TO GAIL MARTEN & THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO!
Keeping alive the musical tradition of accompanied female vocal jazz pioneered by such legends as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald is no small task. But apparently it is a task that Gail Marten and the Clem Ehoff Trio are ready and capable of handling. On their new album, Pure Joy, we find the group in top form. The Trio, comprised of Clem Ehoff–piano; Marty Knepp–drums and percussion; and Alfonso Rondon–bass, provide a solid instrumental foundation for Marten’s sultry and emotive vocals. What makes Pure Joy really stand out is the fact that all but one of the compositions were written by members of the group. It would be easy to play it safe and simply put out a collection of traditional jazz standards, but by taking a risk Marten and the Trio have succeeded in making their own statement to the jazz world. Kudos to them!…

GAIL MARTEN & THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO
Pure Joy consists (almost) entirely of music that Ehoff composed. Marten wrote the lyrics to some of them, and she has the special opportunity to sing her own words on tunes like Heaven On A Tropic Shore and Sunday Rain. ...Marten’s way of delivering dollops of thoughts or images could conform to any number of musical styles, Ehoff’s fondness once again is for tamed Latin moods. A paler version of extroverted Cuban or Brazilian pianists’ techniques utilizing multiple rhythms and harmonic lines all happening at once, Ehoff’s playing concentrates on several familiar Latin vamps within a single performance to the point of repetitiveness. ...Nevertheless, Ehoff plays with evident enthusiasm and clean-cut precision that bassist Rondon and drummer Knepp enliven with crisp movement. When Marten joins in half of the tracks, the picture is complete...visual images or light-hearted romantic moods described with uncomplicated campfire earnestness...

GLORIOUSLY BEYOND THE RAINBOW
It is a distinct pleasure to hear an accomplished vocalist like Gail Marten, with tasteful pianist Clem Ehoff at the helm, and with first class rhythm players, Marty Knepp and Alfonso Rondon, keeping it all on tack! The mix of Ehoff originals and Marten singing gorgeous standards, makes this CD a treasure trove of sparkling wonders – enhanced by the wonderful display of nature’s colors on the packaging.
When should I listen to this…in the brisk of morning, to dispel the sounds of traffic en route to wherever…at afternoon siesta time…in the early evening time…and in the wee small hours…yes, every time of day and night!
Gail Marten is as “now” as a Cosmopolitan in a frosted beaker, and knows about singing…we all know what the intention of the lyricist is, when she delivers her song!
Ehoff, who conceived the arrangements, graces the CD with his authoritative playing – never a slouch about asserting himself… Knepp’s faultless and subtle drumming and Rondon’s melodic bass, lay out a pulse which adores the pieces chosen.
Ehoff’s compositions alone would have been worth an entire CD…he has the knack of putting notes, phrases, improvisations, in a freely structured whole – the compositions are so seamless, that one thinks the music has been heard before…but it hasn’t, it is unique to the composer, which he plays effortlessly.
Did I like the CD? Of course I did…

GAIL FORCE IS IN TOWN
Columbia resident Gail Marten has been singing in mid-Atlantic jazz clubs for more than 20 years. It’s not an easy life, because there’s not enough regular work to keep a band together, so a singer is often reinventing the wheel with a new cast of players.
Marten, though, has finally stepped off this treadmill and has formed an ongoing partnership with pianist Clem Ehoff, a Baltimore jazz musician for 30 years. The pianist plays all her live gigs (including one in Columbia next week), arranged the nine standards on her new album, “Beyond the Rainbow” (Shangri-La), and wrote four original tunes for the project.
Ehoff has crafted a sound that suits Marten’s voice and savvy instincts. His understated piano phrasing, marked by open spaces and a leisurely swing, fits Marten’s conversational, seen-it-all delivery. Her fascination with Brazilian music gives the songs a tropical, midafternoon languor, even supplying George Gershwin’s “Summertime” with a Rio beat and a breathy stoicism.
…Marten creates a memorable character through her songs — a woman who has seen too much to be naively romantic but who has enjoyed it too much to forgo love’s pleasures.
In Marten, Ehoff has found a partner who gives voice to the well-seasoned textures of his music. After several of her vocals a piano instrumental such as the Bill Evans tribute, “Remembering Bill,” almost seems to sing beneath Ehoff’s touch.

GAIL MARTEN & THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO
Singer, Gail Marten, teaming up with pianist, Clem Ehoff...have collaborated to highlight Marten’s covering of standards on Beyond The Rainbow...Marten leads the group on the majority of the tracks with Ehoff’s arrangements that highlight her sunny disposition, even on tunes with customary undertones on regret or loss, like Jobim’s Once I Loved. More often than not throughout Beyond The Rainbow, Ehoff combines Marten’s straightforward approach to singing standards with his fondness for Latin rhythms, and you get results like I’ll Remember April, built upon Ehoff’s vamp. As a song stylist, Marten is quite effective with a sure sense of pitch and unhurried phrasing, allowing words like “boy” in Nature Boy to escape as an exhalation rather than forcing the lyric upon the listener. Instead of changing the feel of a single tune, Ehoff converts the conventional singing of Nature Boy into a medley ending with a samba version of You Don’t Know what Love Is. The fact that Marten alludes to Over The Rainbow for the title of her CD leads one to fear that her version will be a gushing piano bar version, but not so. She restrains herself, as does the trio, for a more introspective version of the song, albeit one that contains few surprises. Ehoff’s Remembering Bill is the most affecting of the trio’s pieces, as he lets the Evans influence flow through, even as it wasn’t evident on the other tracks.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
“Foreign Affairs” reveals Marten’s evolution from straight-ahead jazz singing into a style heavily influenced by third-world rhythms and flavors. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the opening selection, a medley of Duke Ellington’s Caravan and Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia.
The African allusions in both titles are supported by African motifs in the music, and Marten and her band emphasize these motifs far more than most interpreters. Salvadoran percussionist Ricky Loza and Alfredo Mojica, Jr. set up the rapid-pulse Afro-Cuban rhythms that give the song its equatorial feel.
These rhythms force Marten to sing the song differently than if she were backed by the usual swing beat. Early in the song, she sings, big throaty sustained phrases that build steadily but surely against the busy rhythms. Later in the song, she adopts a light, skipping phrasing that works with the percussion. Not coincidentally, the result reminds one of the early, acoustic collaborations between Brazil’s Flora Purim and Airto Moreira.
An even better venture in the same style is Xenobian Love Song, in which the polyrhythms take on a melodic character. Marten responds with a simple but strong Latin-pop vocal that transforms this exotic composition into the recording’s most appealing piece.