For those unaware, recognized in the vocal jazz performance and scholarship worlds, Ellie Martin is a highly respected vocalist, composer, educator, and Jazz studies scholar.

She is currently the vocal jazz instructor at the University of Toledo, as well as Toledo School for the Arts. She performs a wide variety of repertoire from Brazilian music, American Songbook, Bebop, as well as her original compositions.

A fearless improviser, Ellie delivers songs with individuality, passion, and honesty. Career highlights include performing at the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, the Sunset Jazz Festival, and the Michigan Jazz Festival.

Ellie’s new album is entitled Morning Glories (due out May 11th, 2025) and is a remarkable exploration of family and nature, communicated through the perspective of a 39-year-old singer, songwriter, and mother.

A self-proclaimed Vocal Jazz Nerd, Martin holds a degree in voice from McGill University of Pittsburgh. She has returned to the University of Toledo to teach the vocal jazz ensemble, and, as aforementioned, she also teaches voice at the Toledo School of Arts.

Martin’s personal triumph as a cancer survivor has only enhanced her appreciation for the visions of her children, the wonders of nature, and the joy of life itself. The songs on Morning Glories explore these themes in depth.

For example, the title track uses morning glories as a powerful visual for children - both beautiful and fragile, yet chaotic and unpredictable, like vines sprawling in every direction.

1. Love And Light (5:11)
2. Spring’s Around The Corner (3:09)
3. Little Flowers In Bloom (4:09)
4. Shattered Window (4:22)
5. Asking Us To Change (4:02)
6. Morning Glories (5:53)
7. Pays De Desir (Intro) (1:07)
8. Pays De Desir (3:49)
9. Unraveling (3:49)
10. Woman In The Frame (6:04)
11. Lonely In A Crowd (4:00)
12. Dancer In The Dark (3:41)
13. Everything Must Come Down (3:54)

Set to a collection of elegantly crafted melodies, Martin’s messages of hope, passion, discovery and love opens on the soulful Love And Light and the free flowing Spring’s Around The Corner and then we get the balladry gossamer of Little Flowers In Bloom, the veritably glistening Shattered Window, before both the confidently sculpted Asking Us To Change and then the strident fare of the title track Morning Glories is brought forth.

Along next is the beautiful intro to Pays De Desir before the full-length version is upon us, and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the low slung Unraveling, the shimmeringly impassioned Woman In The Frame, the upbeat and playful Lonely In A Crowd, the album rounding out on an enraptured Dancer In The Dark, closing on the gently emboldened Everything Must Come Down.

www.elliemartinmusic.com