About Marya Zimmet
In my childhood home in New York City’s Greenwich Village, music was strictly forbidden. We ate only cold porridge and slept on wooden boards. Haha! I'm just kidding! My parents played Billie Holiday, The Beatles, Lead Belly, and Mozart; my older sister loved Judy Garland and The Four Seasons. "Come and See the Peppermint Tree" was my favorite record. At school, we sang old folk songs and choral music. James Taylor and Cat Stevens were my first (imaginary!) boyfriends, Grace Slick my role model. I had a brief acting career (retired at age 11). When I was 14, Mom and I moved to California. I sat on cushions in a San Francisco commune listening to Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Rod Stewart. Lying on my bunk in 10th grade at a Colorado boarding school, I identified music as my “calling.” Santa Cruz, L.A., an Indian guru, singing and acting lessons, "free" school, public school, prep school, no school... At age 21 I returned to NYC, got my G.E.D., studied jazz at City College, and discovered The Great American Songbook. Then followed a brief (33-year) detour to pursue a doctoral degree and career as a school psychologist, during which time I periodically engaged in varied musical endeavors: a 5-woman folk group, a couple of jazz trios, and the creation and performance of several cabaret shows.
About On The Road To Love
I began this CD project -- my first -- just prior to retiring from my job in February 2020. I chose songs that I have loved to listen to and to sing from different periods of my life, traversing different genres. By March, the Covid-19 pandemic had shut everything down. Silver lining: plenty of time to prepare! I finally hit the recording studio with my arranger/musical director/pianist, Tedd Firth, and a fabulous band (Mark McLean on drums, Phil Palombi on bass, Nathan Childers on saxophones and woodwinds, and Pete Smith on guitar), with Jackie Presti producing the vocals remotely, in November 2020. We continued the recording process during the historic insanity of the presidential election and its aftermath, and wound it up in early spring 2021.
This recording experience was revelatory, distressing, exhilarating, excruciating, and deeply gratifying. Confronting and struggling with artistic challenges, breaking through and overcoming them, then discovering new ones and tackling those . . . Aargh!! Ah!! it’s the creative process, baby!
