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Plays: 11017
Views: 15617 |
Formed: 1995
Official Site: www.gailmarten.com
iSound Site: www.isound.com/gail_marten_and_the_clem_ehoff_trio
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| GAIL MARTEN and THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO
http://www.gailmarten.com
They've been making beautiful music together for more than a decade performing at premier jazz and concert venues. The music of this stellar group, which is based in the Baltimore/Washington area, is rich in col |
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| GAIL MARTEN and THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO
http://www.gailmarten.com
They've been making beautiful music together for more than a decade performing at premier jazz and concert venues. The music of this stellar group, which is based in the Baltimore/Washington area, is rich in color, rhythm and style. It runs the gamut from “on the edge Latino” to “caliente” and quietly percussive!
Marten and Ehoff have won several international songwriting awards, and their most recent CD, Is It Love, is composed of all originals.
Three CDs have been produced, Beyond The Rainbow, Pure Joy and Is It Love (to be released July 2005).
Reviews:
PURE JOY
Tony Agostinelli, Editor
The Network
January, 2003
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.
KUDOS TO GAIL MARTEN AND THE CLEM EHOFF TRIO!
Greg Yost
Music Monthly
October 2003
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!…
GLORIOUSLY BEYOND THE RAINBOW
Tony Agostinelli, Editor
The Network
January, 2001
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
by Geoffrey Himes
Columbia Flier
July 19, 2001
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.
Rick LaRocca
Entertainment Coordinator
Columbia Summer Festival
Such a beautiful evening it was, indeed! You were all so wonderful … a touch of heaven under the stars.
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