Introducing Singer Eva Martin--Chanteuse Extraordinaire

What a treat to be part of Le Jazz Fun in the debut performance by Eva Martin, an academic turned French teacher and singer. Eva has a gorgeous voice that's been waiting patiently through her other careers for the time and training needed to bloom.  

That training began when her brother, jazz guitarist Alex Martin, recommended a top flight voice coach:  Dr. Trineice, aka Trineice Robinson-Martin, formerly on the faculty of the Princeton University jazz program and now at Berklee College of Music. Trineice in turn recommended pianist and composer Phil Orr--my close musical collaborator--to be Eva's pianist, helping her expand and arrange her repertoire. 

As Eva tells it, she had always wanted to be a singer, and in fact sat in at a Paris jazz club earlier in her life. The band members encouraged her to continue, but she claims to have had only five notes she could sing. That, along with skepticism about the chances of sustaining herself with music, caused her to pursue instead an academic career. During this time, raising a family, her kids were the ones who got the benefit of her singing. Having achieved what she wanted in academia--a dissertation, a PhD, a book--she shifted to teaching in order to stay in the Princeton area. In 2025, she made a New Year's resolution that proved to be transformative: “Sing for 10 minutes a day. Just for joy.” That precipitated the sequence of events and mentoring that led to her vocal debut. 

With Kai Gibson on bass, Logan Bogdan on drums, and myself on sax and clarinet, we were the opening act at the April 11 Francophone Festival on Hinds Plaza. 

Here's a link to a video of the performance. 

By coincidence, I had played jazz with Eva's brother Alex in Durham, NC 25 years ago. Alex came up from his home base in Washington, DC to be part of the FrancoFest performance.