Okage sama de (おかげさまで) means “I am because of you” in Japanese.
With a humble and grateful heart, I acknowledge that all that I am is because of God, the creator and sustainer of life, love, and breath; my parents who nurtured me and made my education possible because of and in spite of the difficulties they had experienced in their lives; my brothers, my family and my friends who continue to cheer me on when I stumble and remind me that I am loved; my many teachers and mentors who saw things in me that I did not yet see and believed in me; the Coast Salish and Kanaka Maoli people who nurture and steward the lands upon which I live and have lived; my faith communities who keep their hearts open; my husband and child who continue to support me unconditionally and share their love and joy – to all of you I give a humble and grateful acknowledgement that I would not be the person I am without your presence in my life. Thank you so much! My words are inadequate to express my heartfelt gratitude🙏.
Wycliffe Gordon, the 2022 Jazz Journalist Association Trombonist of the Year and my combo instructor at the 2022 Jazz Port Townsend workshop declared, upon hearing more about me, that my job is “full-time jazz student.” ❤ It is true that learning is a lifelong endeavor for me and I find great joy in continuously learning everything about jazz and anything else which sparks my interest.
I currently play keyboards and piano in jazz and contemporary Christian worship settings. I have also been learning how to create electronic music using the MIDI outputs from my keyboard to drive the Ableton Live Lite program.
I am originally from the lands of the Kanaka Maoli people (today known as the State of Hawai’i), and my music is strongly influenced by many different soul-filled musical traditions, including Gospel, Jazz, Pop, R&B, and Hawaiian genres. Learning hula dancing in my formative years taught me about rhythm, movement, expression, storytelling, and reverence for the land. I studied classical piano with Gervaise Tompkins and fell in love with Broadway show tunes and jazz ballads she picked out for me. I learned about big band music from the 1940s and 1950s and loved listening to the Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller big bands.
One day, mom dragged us to a concert in the town of Wailuku with some band I had never heard of before called the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The first half was wonderful! But then mom did something unexpected. At intermission, she stood up and said, “we’re going to say hi to Dave Brubeck” and dragged my brothers and I up to the stage and started telling people that she knew Dave and Iola Brubeck. I thought my mom had gone crazy and I wanted shrivel and hide. But when Iola stepped out on stage, she recognized my mom. It turned out that while my mom was a student at Mills College in Oakland, California, she earned extra money for tuition by babysitting. She knew the Brubecks because she had taken care of their kids. Iola invited us to sit backstage with her for the second half of the concert, and of course I was enthralled with the music and with the famous song “Take Five.” It was an evening I have never forgotten. That was the moment I truly fell in love with jazz and jazz piano.
College, work, and other things got in the way for a long time, but occasionally I would pick out some sheet music and would try to play it. But the harmonies I was reading on the sheet music didn’t sound anything like what I was hearing in recordings. So one day I realized that I wasn’t getting any younger and decided to take jazz piano lessons. I found a great teacher in John Hansen at Music Works Northwest and still have weekly lessons because there is always something I can work on. I have also studied with other teachers, including Jared Hall, Dawn Clement, Erik Hanson, Antoine Martel, and Anton Schwartz. One day, I thought I should learn how to sing, so I started studying jazz voice with Kelley Johnson. Learning to sing has really helped to improve my jazz piano playing.
In 2019, south Indian classical singer Priya Raghav and I collaborated on an original work titled “Safe To Heal” which examined lived experience at the intersection of south Indian classical music and jazz. My compositions explore intersections of jazz and other forms of musical and creative expression, my heritage as an American of Japanese ancestry, my spirituality, and my lived experiences of life on settled land where many people and cultures meet.
I find exhilaration in music, photography, art, writing, and other creative practices. It is a joy to make and share music with others, including at local jam sessions, with a local Brazilian jazz band “The Rio Thing,” and at the yearly summer Bainbridge Island Studio Art Tour.
My middle name, 恵, (pronounced “Kay”), was given to me by my maternal grandfather and means “blessing.” I did not always appreciate this name. However, as I have gotten older, I have come to realize that this name had deep meaning for my parents, and today it reminds me that my mission is to serve others and to help make this world a little bit better by my having been here.
Through my music, it is my hope that love, compassion, hope, and peace find rest in your heart.
marissa 恵 singleton 