Twain

Rebecca Martin’s jazz-tinged pop seduces in quiet ways. The singer/songwriter’s music is beautifully plain: her vocals are unmannered, and her acoustic guitar playing doesn’t call attention to itself. Martin’s sixth album, *Twain*, features a spare set of 12 originals and a cover of the Duke Ellington classic “Sophisticated Lady.” The well-known jazz bassist Larry Grenadier (Martin’s husband) plays throughout, and pianist Pete Rende (who also produced) and drummer Dan Rieser appear on a number of tracks. The opener, “To Up and Go,” sets the album’s tone: the song hums with an intimate emotional power that subtly pulls listeners in. “Beyond the Hillside” is stellar. The band’s accompaniment is understated, letting Martin’s voice and words work their magic. “Sophisticated Lady” starts with a solo by Grenadier before Martin joins in and the piece turns into a duet for bass and voice. “On a Rooftop” is a slice of striking pop brimming with rhythmic drive, melodicism, and appealing textures, while the excellent closer, “A Place in the Country,” has fine arco work from Grenadier.

1 - To Up and Go 2 - Beyond the Hillside 3 - Some Other Place, Some Other Time 4 - Sophisticated Lady 5 - On a Rooftop 6 - In the Early Winter Trees 7 - Don't Mean a Thing at All 8 - God is in the Details 9 - Safe This Time 10 - Beholden 11 - Oh Well 12 - A place in the Country 13 - Honestly CD Quality - 16 bit / 44.1 khz The album features a dozen new original compositions and one classic interpretation, all performed in understated acoustic arrangements based around Martin’s indelible voice and supple guitar work, and the subtly inventive support of her husband and longtime collaborator, acclaimed bassist Larry Grenadier. Martin reflects “My records over the years have become more quiet and introspective, which probably has to do with the need and appreciation for personal space…it makes sense that my reaction to a world that feels speedy, harsh and loud is to offer music that provokes slowness, emotion, and quiet.” On such melodically arresting, emotionally vivid new tunes as “To Up and Go,” “Don’t Mean A Thing At All,” “Beyond The Hillside,” and “God Is In The Details,” Martin sings with a quietly commanding intensity that lends immediacy to her lyrical insights. Meanwhile, her distinctive reading of the Duke Ellington classic “Sophisticated Lady” once again demonstrates the uncanny interpretive skills that she previously revealed on a pair of much-celebrated standards albums. Writing in the New York Times, critic Nate Chinen shrewdly observed that Martin “exudes the plainest sort of poise, almost radical in its utter lack of flash,” and that though she is “unerringly faithful to the melodies of the songs, both standards and originals,” she makes them seem “less like songs than like articulations of her state of mind.” Raul D’Gama Rose of All About Jazz wrote “Martin is a composer of considerable talent, approaching the repertoire that she serves up like a master-chef, creating rare and fine epicurean fare,” while Jazz Times’ Christopher Loudon likened Martin’s vocals to “Modgliani portraits,” noting that they “share a sharply honed, less-is-more sensibility that, paradoxically, adds to their depth, their denseness and their haunting aftereffects.” Martin and Grenadier recorded most of Twain in a small bedroom in the apartment of longtime cohort and pianist Pete Rende, who produced, engineered, and mixed the album. “For the most part, what we did and how we felt on that day became the record,” Martin says. That emotional immediacy comes through on the elegantly spare, eloquently direct recording. Martin muses, “This record has been a long time in the making. A lot of living and a lot of energy have gone into the creation of this group of songs.”