René Marie

Virginia native and Atlanta resident Rene Marie performs as a distinctive jazz vocalist whose unpredictable style shifts without warning between playful eccentricity and deep blues or soul. Possessing a striking vocal range, she draws from multiple sources, channeling Betty Carter during her more unconventional outings while her blues-infused and soul-oriented phrasing reveals admiration for Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.

For an extended period she avoided any full-throttle push toward a music career. Born in Warrenton, Virginia, on November 7, 1955, she spent her formative years in the Roanoke region, where she raised her two sons. While they were young she set jazz aside, limiting her singing to occasional appearances at friends’ weddings and believing parental duties left no room for professional ambitions. In 1995, the year she turned 40, her sons—then attending college—urged her to perform professionally; after initial reluctance she followed their counsel. Her first recording, Renaissance, appeared in 1997, and two years later she secured an engagement at the renowned Blues Alley club in Washington, D.C.

Around the same period she joined the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ roster. How Can I Keep from Singing?, her initial MAXJAZZ album, was issued in 2000, with Vertigo following in 2001; acoustic pianist Bruce Barth produced both. Vertigo reached the top position on the Gavin jazz chart and entered the Top Ten on college charts across the United States and Canada. Additional MAXJAZZ titles included Live at the Jazz Standard in 2003 and Serene Renegade, recorded with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, in 2004. The next year she joined the Imani Winds for Classical Underground.

Marking her 2011 transition to Motema Music, Marie issued the simultaneous albums Black Lace Freudian Slip and Voice of My Beautiful Country. Three years afterward she saluted Eartha Kitt with I Wanna Be Evil: With Love to Eartha Kitt. In 2016 she released Sound of Red, her debut collection consisting entirely of original compositions.