It’s a tale as old as time. Young musician throws caution to the wind, leaves the Midwest (in this case, Des Moines, Iowa) to try to make it in the Big Apple. Only this time, the big city didn’t chew her up and spit her out. She got gigs, she got a music teaching job at Fordham, and in 2023, Hannah Marks released her first album Outsider, Outlier. The record is completely unique. It sounds like Alanis Morissette fronting some punky avant-garde jazz band from another dimension. There’s angst, there’s humor, there’s heartbreak. Then, the bassist was ready for a change for her second album, which was released this summer.
“My first record was a product of COVID. I was doing a lot of songwriting. I created most of that music by myself. I had an amazing band represent it, but there’s a lot of production, sounds, and layering. At the time I made my first record, I felt like I was not ready to contribute something to the more traditional jazz canon, which is why we did something on the outskirts. Combining my love of jazz with experimental music, punk rock, noise rock, that kind of thing. I have so much respect for the tradition that I really was like, I need to take my time. Over the years, I transitioned away from songwriting into writing instrumental music again. I took time to work on my playing as a soloist, which is important,” she said.
At DC Jazz Fest, Marks tore it up, playing several tracks from her new straight ahead instrumental jazz album Feed The Fire. It’s ambitious in its composition and execution. The title track is one of two Geri Allen covers on the record, and that line has become kind of a personal mantra for her.
“I even have a tattoo that says, ‘Feed the Fire’. I first heard that song when Jason Moran played it… with his trio, Bandwagon. I came to hear him play at the Village Vanguard a few months after I moved to New York. The way they played that song was so inspiring. The way they lifted Geri up and her music was really inspiring. I’m also a fire sign, I’m an Aries, and so I left that show feeling like I’m supposed to be in New York. This is the music I want to play. This is how I want to represent myself. I was really inspired by it,” she said. Moran would become an important mentor and producer for Marks.
Hannah Marks will appear at Smalls in New York on December 3 before unveiling her Jazz Gallery Commission world premiere December 9 and 10. As Dee Dee Bridgewater said of her sometime bass player, “She’s one to watch.”
Hear the complete interview below:
