Over the past 25 years, Rebecca Martin has become a nationally known, critically acclaimed singer and songwriter. She moved from Maine to New York City in the early ‘90s and lived there for a decade before she and her husband, jazz bassist Larry Grenadier, migrated north to live in Newburgh, NY, before establishing a home in Kingston, NY.

Rebecca began her career as part of the groundbreaking duo “Once Blue.”  She made several albums on EMI Records and toured throughout the United States and Canada with Lisa Loeb, Emmy Lou Harris, Squeeze, Shawn Colvin and many others.

“…a generation of jazz singers, some of whom see Ms. Martin as a touchstone. Among them are Gretchen Parlato….’She’s been a great guide and mentor and sister in my songwriting,’ says Ms. Parlato.    “A Voice That Leaps Among Genres” in The New York Times.

In 1998, Martin started her solo career, and has since produced six critically acclaimed solo recordings: All have appeared as critic picks or landed in the Top 10 Recordings of the Year lists by publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Telerama and many others, and she was nominated for best female jazz singer by the Jazz Journalist Association for her performances on “When I Was Long Ago.”  Her collaborative projects include “On Broadway Volume 4 or the Paradox of Continuity” with the legendary Paul Motian (Bill Evans), where she was the first singer in history to make a recording with the drummer; the singers and songwriters Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens with their trio project “Tillery”; as well as a 2017 release with the Argentinian composer Guillermo Klein called “The Upstate Project.”  Most recently, Martin released a collaborative project with Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, the National Jazz Orchestra from Porto, Portugal called “After Midnight“.  Sterophile Magazine writes, “Martin is a rarity among jazz singers: a true composer…The orchestra is a continuous source of beauty on this album. It surrounds Martin with an envelope of complementary impressionism. Its lush textures and rich colors deepen the rapt atmosphere that is Martin’s natural habitat.”

“The singer Rebecca Martin helped keep Niagara, a water-bottling company, from tapping a reservoir near her adopted home, in upstate New York. “What’s more important than drinking water? Nothing,” she says.” “A Jazz Singer Fights Niagara Bottling” in New Yorker Magazine.

Rebecca describes herself as “a creative tumbleweed” when looking over the past 25 years. “My life has always been about three things: music, organizing, and family. They are my core and each not only led me into unexpected places, they also fed off of one another. They are their own ecosystem.”

She continues to tour the world and has performed her original music in prestigious venues and festivals such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Village Vanguard, Casa da Musica, Barcelona Jazz and Umbria Jazz festivals. 

“Rebecca Martin may be of a school unto herself; the closest she might come to Americana would be such as the works of Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, John Berryman, W. D. Snodgrass and Allen Ginsburg.”  “Rebecca Martin” by Raul de Gama, Jazz da Gama