The Club (2015)

Marty Elkins was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. As a child she listened mostly to the soul stations in New York, and the late night R&B shows like Jocko’s Rocket Ship. She left there for college in Boston, and while in college was given a copy of Ella Fitzgerald and Ellis Larkins. She was also exposed to Charlie Parker, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, and Louis Jordan, but the life changing day was when she found a copy of Billie Holiday’s “Lady in Satin” in a local Woolworth bin in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Literally holing up in her room with this recording, and a Bessie Smith record she acquired, she became devoted to jazz and began listening to it exclusively. She had the good fortune to meet musicians in that area who played jazz such as Herb Pomeroy, Ray Santisi, Jimmy Mosher, and Dave McKenna among others. Dave McKenna had a steady gig at the Copley Plaza…

If Buffy Sainte-Marie has a trademark as an artist it's that she doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks. Since 1964, she has fought to make the records she wants and has seldom allowed the vision of her producers or record labels to sway her intentions. She doesn't fit the mold of a "folksinger" as a septuagenarian any better than she did 50 years ago. Power in the Blood, her first new recording since 2008, is another highly individual statement from Sainte-Marie the artist and activist…