Still in the Groove: Martha Reeves Keeps Searching

Still in the Groove: Martha Reeves Keeps Searching

🎙️ What does a life of creative longevity sound like? In Martha Reeves’ case, it still has plenty of rhythm, purpose and joy. 💃🏾🎶

Martha Reeves has spent more than six decades giving people reasons to dance. Her voice powered Motown landmarks like “Dancing in the Street,” “Heat Wave,” “Jimmy Mack,” and “Nowhere to Run,” songs that still spill from radios and playlists with enough spark to lift a room. Now, as she approaches her 85th birthday, Reeves isn’t interested in nostalgia. She’s still chasing the next song. “The word retirement doesn’t mean a thing to me,” she says with a laugh. That outlook fuels Searching, her first new album in 22 years. Recorded in New Orleans and co-produced by acclaimed trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis and her longtime manager Chris Roe, the project blends Motown soul with jazz, blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues. Rather than revisiting old triumphs, Reeves sounds energized by fresh collaborators and a new musical setting. Ask her about the recording sessions and she laughs before finishing the first sentence, as if she’s still standing in the middle of them. “It was a magic carpet ride,” she says. “The collection of musicians, the place, the studio—it was just beautiful.” Players arrived from Cuba, New York, Alabama, Georgia, and beyond, gathering in New Orleans to build a sound that lets Motown shake hands with the Big Easy. Horns rise in bright bursts, the rhythm section settles deep into the beat, and Reeves’ unmistakable voice ties it all together with warmth that hasn’t faded. She lights up when talking about Marsalis, recalling the quiet authority he brought to the sessions. “He was very, very serious,” she says. “Anything he said he was going to do, he did it.” Having watched legendary producers at work during her Motown years, Reeves knows disciplined musicianship when she sees it. She remembers watching Marsalis conduct the horn section and seeing the respect he commanded from every player in the room. “To see Delfeayo work with those horns and the magic that happened with these arrangements—I can’t wait for people to hear it.” The experience also gave Reeves something she deeply appreciated: a genuine creative voice.
“I was asked my opinion. I was asked to add lyrics or add songs that I had written,” she says. “It’s like I’ve graduated.”