M2K Jazz

Bio – Marianne Matheny-Katz (M2K Jazz) – written by Sandy Asirvatham__________________________________________________ ___________ The rock-n-roll dreams of our youth may get shunted aside as we grow up. The halls of government and business and good-paying jobs may be teeming with frustrated former musicians and secret air-guitar players. In at least one case, though, a woman who once abandoned her considerable youthful promise as a singer has found her way back to it—and her growing body of fans is extremely glad for that.Marianne Matheny-Katz is an economic analyst for the Army by day, but one of Baltimore’s finest-ever jazz vocalists by night. A two-time second-place winner in the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition, Marianne has been compared in the press to “Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith and at moments a slightly higher pitched Sarah Vaughn,” and her pure sound has been likened to “a beautiful horn.”Born and raised in New York City, Marianne sang folk songs in coffee houses in her teens and twenties, but stepped back from the spotlight in order to raise a family and pursue her economics career. After a long hiatus from active performing, in 1997 she began singing with the Annapolis-based band Park House Jam (www.parkhousejam.com).Marianne certainly has the “pipes” to belt out the kinds of raucous, party-friendly blues and R&B covers favored by Park House’s fans, but at some point she felt called toward the subtler art of jazz vocalizing. She began performing jazz standards and studying with some of the area’s most accomplished musical mentors, including pianist Vince Evans and vocalists Ronnie Wells, Sheila Jordan, and Jay Clayton. In 2003 she formed her own M2K Jazz Ensemble. Its regular and guest performers have included keyboardist/composer Lafayette Gilchrist, guitarist O’Donel Levy, and saxophonist Craig Alston.With M2K and other jazz/blues combos, Marianne has been a featured performer at the Frederick Blues Festival, Artscape, Baltimore Blues Festival, Columbia Lakefront Festival, Takoma Station, Talianos, 49 West, Twins Jazz, Starland Café, The Tremont Park Hotel, and many other venues. Her performances, low-key but beautiful, always entice new listeners to join her rabidly loyal fan base.Never happy to hog the spotlight, Marianne has also become an enthusiastic promoter of other local musicians. A founding Board member of the Baltimore Jazz Alliance (BJA), she has produced the highly successful concert series “Music on Pagoda Hill” in Baltimore’s Patterson Park, and with fellow BJA member Camay Murphy, she spearheaded a jazz concert series at the Maryland General Hospital, which featured the Eubie Blake Legacy Band. Jazzway 6004 (www.jazzway6004.org ) is another initiative Marianne and her husband Howard have embarked upon to produce the first regularly scheduled house concert series, devoted to jazz, in Baltimore. Jazzway 6004, features local, regional and touring jazz artists, and kicked off on June 1st 2007 to a sold out audience.Marianne’s addictive voice can be heard on her 2003 CD with Park House Jam, FULLY EXPOSED. She will soon release an album of jazz standards performed with Vince Evans, as well as a live concert CD, recorded at a 2005 event featuring Marianne, the M2K musicians, and several guest vocalists.__________________________________________________ __________Sandy Asirvatham is a Baltimore based free-lance writer and an accomplished jazz musician with a brand new CD called “Memoir”. She wrote the popular Baltimore City Paper column, “Underwhelmed” from 1998-2003.