Tina Marsh

Who was Tina Marsh?

Tina Marsh was a jazz vocalist and composer based in Austin, Texas. Marsh was the creative director of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, a large jazz ensemble which she founded in 1980. In 2000, the Austin Chronicle inducted Marsh into its Texas Music Hall of Fame. In 2008, the Austin Critics Table inducted Marsh into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame. C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz has described Marsh's music as "progressive big band, a kind of marriage between the avant-garde and postmodern classical. Marsh, like [Carla] Bley, favors low brass in assembly and solos. She uses her voice in a creative Meredith Monk sort of way that is not unattractive."

Marsh was born in Annapolis, Maryland. During the late-1970s, Marsh worked as an actor in musical theatre in and around New York City and Philadelphia. While living in New York, she began forming ideas about jazz singing. After moving to Austin, Marsh attended concerts by Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers at Armadillo World Headquarters. These performances inspired her to form her first professional group, New Visions Ensemble, with Alex Coke, Rock Savage, Booka Michel and Horatio Rodriguez.