Live & Local: René Marie takes over The Morning Set

This portion of the interview above has been edited for length and clarity:

Steve Chavis: After an extended residency in Virginia. We are so happy to welcome back to Colorado; lyricist, composer, arranger, playwright, actress, educator, speaker, activist…We just like the way she sings - René Marie in the house! 

René Marie: Thank you, Steve. Thank you so much. It sure feels good to be back, but wow, so many changes, starting with the radio station. It's beautiful here.

Steve: Okay. Let's call it a return to the scene of the crime because we love to tell the story of how you and your bodyguard slash partner in life, Jesse, met here at KUVO on the phone bank years ago during a pledge drive. True story or just a rumor?

René: It's an absolutely true story, and one day, when we have time, we would love to tell you the things that led up to us meeting at KUVO on the 13th. Of course, at the time that we met each other on that date, neither one of us realized all the things that had worked together to make it happen. But then we got to talking and realized, oh, it wasn't just us behind it. It was meant to be not just with me and my husband, but with me and KUVO - it was meant to be. Because I remember when I first moved into Denver and listening to KUVO on the radio and anytime you guys would play my music, I'd call and thank you because I was really grateful for that. I still am. And so it's been a beautiful relationship ever since then.

Steve: We've been with you all the way through your recordings Experiment In Truth, Voice of My Beautiful Country, Black Lace Freudian Slip and more, which we'll get to. But it's great to have you here and pick out some music and tell us what's going on.

René: This is fun. What'd you want to know?

Carlos Lando: Well, tell us a little bit about this tune here that we're going to lay on folks, called the “Joy of Jazz.”

René: “Joy of Jazz” is the name of a jazz festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, and we were fortunate enough to be asked to come and participate. This was, I don't remember the year, sorry, but I had never been to Africa, anywhere in Africa, and to be there and to take part in the festival… we went on a safari. We did other things, met amazing people, and saw the spirit that was cooperative, and I was sitting on the bus, and the melody came to me. I remember at the time, Kevin Bales was the pianist, and he was sitting in front of me, and I said, "Hey Kevin, this melody sounds like any other song you've ever heard." That's my biggest fear. I'll be writing something or think I'm writing something. And I started singing to him and sang the whole thing to him, and he says, "No, no." So that's how the song was inspired by the Joy of Jazz Festival.

Carlos: Alright, René Marie, the “Joy of Jazz” on The Morning Set.

Lyrics: “In South Africa, everybody has

Appreciation for the joy of jazz

They feel that groove

Their bodies move

And then it ain't nothing but a party…”

Carlos: Yeah, there's a lot going on in that song, tell you what! from the recording Sound of Red, we heard the “Joy of Jazz,” Ms. René Marie.

René: It is joyful.

René: There's another tune coming up while I'm here. That was inspired by a location as well.

Steve: Thank you for doing that, because I'm always advocating for particularly artists in Colorado to use this amazing setting as songwriting material, because there's always songs about Central Park or this thing or that thing. I want some Colorado, some swing, some jazz, some neo-soul.

Abi: We got something special here.

René: I wrote [this] as a result of going on a river trip, a canoe trip down the Colorado River with a complete stranger. I have to say he was getting this river trip together that day, we met at KUVO on that first day, and I said, "Sure, I'll be a part of it." And the trip from Denver to where the group was meeting was so beautiful. I'd never seen the sky so blue, and I started singing this little "paddling down the Colorado River." So anyway, we recorded it and here it is. Colorado River Song.

Lyrics: “Oh, we are paddling down the Colorado River

And we are singing a Colorado River Song.”

Carlos: I love it. So simple but so inspiring.

René: It's so much fun. And this is one of the songs [that] is so easy to sing because the chord changes, not the melody, but the chord changes are from "When You're Smiling." 

Steve: I hear it now. I hear it now. 

René: And this didn't occur to me for more than a year, like over a year! And then what is this? And I started singing "When You're Smiling" along with it and realized, oh my God. But I think that's okay. That's allowable.

Carlos: No, it is allowable. 

Steve: For my purposes, I just want to say thank you, René Marie, for your composition, for your interpretations, and for your voice. You speak to things in very interesting and artistic ways and we need that. So please, happy living in Colorado - Keep it up!