Tina Marsh

jazzy mary · January-13th-2006, 12:55 PM

Last night, after doing a little bit at the IAJE, I went down to 55 Bar to hear Kendra Shank--one of my all time fave singers--who was amazing last night w/ our own wonderful Frank Kimbrough on Fender Rhodes, Dean Johnson on bass and Tony Moreno on drums.

Well, the music was fabulous!! Kendra was in deep, soulful, fine form and the band is great too. Frank doesn't like playing the Fender but I gotta say I was excited hearing him on it---it gives him a nice, deep, soulful groove, that really melded well with the music. And, of course, he is such a fine, fine pianist--I thought he was great. I love that cat!

Anyway, I was happy to see my pal Ron Horton there and afterwards he was introducing me to all kinds of people--among them this lovely woman--Tina Marsh. I was like
"Whoa, wait a minute! My friends have hipped me to you--you're a genius".

Long story short, Tina and I hit it off like long lost school chums. Ron, Tina, Frank Kimbrough's wife, MaryAnne and I all went out to dinner afterwards and we must have talked for almost 3 hours about all kinds of things!! It was so much fun!

I think Tina is awesome (as the kids say) and she was so funny, and smart and sweet and interesting and just well, fabulous!!

I've been blessed in knowing some sweet cats like Dennis & Ron who have hipped me to folks like Tina--but I want to learn more.

So, everyone, please chime in---hip me to Tina!!

Thanks!

bluenoter · January-13th-2006, 01:15 PM

JM--

A good first stop is always AMG online, http://www.allmusic.com , even though it can be howlingly erroneous. Its Tina Marsh entry is pretty sparse but indicates that Dennis G. worked on her only album, as both trumpeter and engineer, so he might be the best person to hip you to her.

Take a look at these album credits and "click around."

Root Doctor · January-13th-2006, 01:23 PM

You might want to look here, Mary:

http://www.creop.org/

bluenoter · January-13th-2006, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Root Doctor

You might want to look here, Mary:

http://www.creop.org/

Much better. Apparently AMG missed the boat, I missed the boat, or both.

Still, take a look at what AMG lists for her overall credits (not the same link as the one in #2).

brain · January-13th-2006, 07:51 PM

Hi Jazzy Mary,

Yeah, Tina is "awesome!" I met her a few years ago in Austin and began playing with the Creative Opportunity Orchestra in Austin. I really have enjoyed being a part of the ensemble and becoming friends with Tina, whom I really admire. Her dedication to the music is deep. I know Dennis used to play with the group in the earlier days. The Orchestra is in its 26th year, I believe. Tina is a pretty wide ranging vocalist and composer and is involved in all sorts of interesting educational projects.

I got to meet Ron last year when the Orchestra played in NY and he joined us. He's an "awesome" person, too, and amazing player!

Take care,
Brian

Dennis Gonzalez · January-17th-2006, 10:00 AM

I've been singing the Gospel of Tina for many years now, and it's frustrating to see that she has never been given the recognition she so richly deserves. She was one of the first American musicians to recognize my work, commissioning me over and over to write music for her Creative Opportunity Orchestra, much of which went on to become a major part of my repertoire. Her music should have been recorded by labels such as ECM from the beginning, but instead, she's struggled for years in Austin to keep the flame of her orchestra going.

She was responsible for helping me put together my first brass band, Pneumatic Insurgence, which over the course of its life included Roy Hargrove, Kidd Jordan, and Alvin Fielder. Tina put together a recording at Willie Nelson's Pedernales recording studio in the early 90's where we collaborated with her all-vocal group, Collaborative Voices. Six male horn players accompanying six female voices can be pretty awesome.

Over the years she asked me to engineer and mix some of her group recordings, which are beautiful. One of them, Benediction appeared on daagnimRecords in 1987:

When I write my bio, Tina's story will take up a major chapter.

By the way, please look for the latest Cadence magazine. A very candid interview with Tina is published in that issue.

This is me listening to the Creative Opportunity Orchestra brass section rehearsing for the "Benediction" recording:

jazzy mary · January-17th-2006, 10:46 AM

Tina had high praise for you. She said you were a great engineer & producer too. I agreed!

Thanks for posting. I agree completely that Tina should be better known. I hope she'll start spending more time in NYC, so maybe she'll get more recogniton.

I'm going to e-mail her and tell her about this thread.

jazzy mary · January-18th-2006, 01:31 PM

I e-mailed Tina. I hope she gets my e-mail and I hope she checks out this thread!

Wouldn't it be super cool if she responded to this thread!!

jazzy mary · January-18th-2006, 02:12 PM

Yeah, Tina wrote me back! She read the thread and said such sweet things about me too!

She's a doll. I hope she chimes in!

jazzy mary · January-18th-2006, 02:44 PM

Btw, Dennis, you look really cute in that pic.!