The performance opens with the words of poet Mary Oliver from her best-selling book A Thousand Mornings:

“I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall–
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.”

Marlow draws a chuckle from the audience, setting the scene for the launch of her debut album Medicine Man. She performs with Véronique Serret as concert master, who leads a string quartet and band featuring prominent musicians Ben Hauptmann on electric guitar, Hamish Stuart on drums, Clayton Doley on organ and keys, and Jonathan Zwartz on double bass.

Martha Marlow performing Medicine Man at The Great Club, Marrickville

Marlow comes from a musical family. Zwartz, who is her father, won the 2018 ARIA award for Best Jazz Album with Animarum. Marlow’s mother, Jane Lindsay, is a singer, while her grandfather Alex Lindsay is a former New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster, who played violin on St Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is clear that Marlow herself also has...