Heidi Martin

About the Artist

Four of Martin’s original compositions from her debut album HIDE were selected as soundtrack for Revolution ’67, a documentary on the 1967 Newark Rebellion. Washington, D.C.-based vocalist, composer, and educator known for blending jazz with 60's & 70's folk influences and socially conscious lyrics on recordings: HIDE 2005, See hear, LOVE 2011, Gifts & Sacrifices in 2023, ATTUNEMENT (late spring 2026 official release) Martin received the 2024 Berger-Carter Berger Fellowship from Rutgers Dana Library Jazz Studies Dept., for her research on the Abbey Lincoln Estate. She composed 8 compositions for the album ATTUNEMENT featuring a rhythm section of luminaries: Marc Cary piano, Michael Bowie bass/coproduction, Eric Kennedy drums. She has shared the stage with Tim Warfield, Raymond Angry, George Burton and Nicholas Payton. She has appeared as a featured vocalist on recordings with Russell Gunn and Dana Murray. “My music is lyric-driven, socially conscious, intimate, full of self-discovery and originates through reception. What becomes work, is what heals me…and may that be what lives on…” ~HIDE   I am a thoughtful evolution…   We are formless in each other informing each other of our selves….   Interdisciplinary work: I center myself in the elements of deep listening, improvisation, and interdisciplinary exchange. Informed by black american and african traditions where opportunities for exchange exist between musicians, between disciplines and between artists and audience…I have drawn my courage up to be present in these opportunities to seek the truth, heal and develop my work.  Living in Brooklyn in the mid 1990s, a musician shared with me, that would later be understood as fusion and world music, shaped by artists such as Dr. Randy Weston who expanded the music by collaborating with Gnawa musicians from Morocco. As well as Don Cherry and his work with poets, and musicians from around the world. There is room to hold one's own voice and identity while being informed by the elders of the higher healing arts.   reviews on my first recording HIDE:   All About Jazz: “A breezy stroll through the Civil Rights movement at a level deeper than the mere political. Martin has a vision—oneness with all—and she promotes it with her lyrics. She cuts to the chase with little conversation, more Hemingway than Faulkner. But there's stll a distinct Southern vernacular in her words.” All About Jazz Wine is a mixture of spirits that stimulate the senses of sight, smell, and taste. The voice is a similar mixture of spirits—a fermentation of styles, shapes, and sounds. From the female perspective, Heidi Martin's voice has a heavy Rickie Lee Jones bottom with a suggestion of Joni Mitchell and Betty Carter and just a hint of Janis Joplin in the finish. From the male perspective, John Hiatt provides the tobacco, Ray Charles the mossy expanse, and Isaac Hayes the vinegar. The bouquet is distinctly Southern, and it deepens with subsequent listenings. Hide is a biopic of the 21st Century American South: the sticky sensuality and dusty prejudice that endures, never changing. Musically, Hide is the same, but sparingly so, Muscle Shoals and Memphis distilled to the pure essence. The instrumentation and musical arrangements are like the drop of water added to the sacramental chalice, the vehicle for the lyrics to manifest in the aural sea of forgiveness. Hide is a demanding, inventive recording that pays the listener dividends in thoughtful consideration and insight.” ~All About Jazz   “Heidi?” What a name for a soul singer... Heidi is very much her own self and I’m responding to that sense of self ... deep enigma reveling in vulnerable openness. Singing some very, very personal experiences and emotions. You can almost see her heart pulsing. There is almost nothing here but voice and the barest cushion of music. In her voice one hears a someone laying it all bare for the world to stare at and pick over, or like Heidi perceptively says, if you’re telling the truth one word is worth a thousand pictures. What is very, very clear to me is that Heidi has thought deeply about her self-identity and about her identification with black folk. She speaks and sounds from the inside, regardless of what she looks like (and, of course, we are wise enough to know that not only can looks be deceiving, but beyond deception,race itself is no absolute indicator of culture and consciousness). Heidi’s music is deeply grounded in the black experience. It’s anchored bone deep… I also really, really like her phrasing and how she uses the sound of her voice to augment the songs. Sometimes it’s not the words but the little moans, hums, croons and occasional hollers that uplift these songs to something you find yourself wanting to hear again. And again. As a professional writer, I’m attracted to the poetry of her lyrics. The casual way she is intelligent… …listen to Heidi surveying the contemporary territory with songs like “ISM” and “Your Life.” —Kalamu ya Salaam, Review of HIDE     My influences extend beyond sound to include visual art, I was shaped by an early experience of an encounter with Miles Davis—meeting him in Finland and later traveling to Germany at his invitation—where I was able to witness his visual art practice firsthand. Observing Miles create his art by day and by night; his performances at Gasteig Philharmonie Munich, Germany. Witnessing his work with bold, colorful markers, and experiencing his relationship to visual art as distinct from his musical presence and performance, revealed to me how artists process, heal, and discover themselves differently across mediums. I studied at the University of the District of Columbia with Profressor Jones and privately with elder musicians including Rueben Brown and Grady Tate, developing a strong jazz foundation - maintaining a commitment to improvisation-creative risk, while seeking cultural connections and keeping my identity. My mission as an artist is to create work that is exploratory thru poetry and music. That invites vulnerability, presence, and connection. I am continually seeking deeper vocal and emotional expression, balancing control and openness, structure and surrender.    As Abbey Lincoln said, “It’s my life, it’s my work…” What Love Endures was commissioned by Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant (2022). Premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2023. Performes both nationally and internationally at: DC Jazz Fest, Washington, DC NOMAFEST, Omaha, NE Mad JazzFest, Virginia Black Arts Fest Atlanta, Georgia Winter JazzFest, NYC Pori Jazz Festival Pori, Finland and Hotelli Vaakuna Helsinki, Finland Rick’s Café, Casablanca, Morocco (Concert & Master Class).