Hannah Marks Fires Up the Jazz World

Welcome, Hannah.

Thanks for joining us today.

It's so great to see you.

I know you're in the midst of a very exciting phase of your career.

You were named from Downbeat Magazine's 2026 Critics Poll as a Rising Star Bassist.

That's a mic drop.

on

its own.

But you also released a really exciting new album this year.

You were honored with an ASCAP Foundation Herb Albert Young Jazz Composer Award.

And as a result, you're set to play with your quartet at the DC Jazz Fest on September 5th.

That's all great stuff.

But I'd love to just rewind and hear a little bit more about your origin story, like how you came to New York, you know, when did music first catch fire inside you?

Yeah, these are great questions.

I'm happy to be here.

I'm originally from Des Moines, Iowa, and I spent the first 21 years of my life in the Midwest.

I went to Indiana University for my undergrad and then moved to New York in 2019.

When music really took hold for me, you know, it's hard for me to actually think of the exact age.

I know I was a very creative kid.

I was also really into visual art growing up and illustrating and doing collages and have been into photography for my whole life.

But I started playing electric guitar as a second grader.

And I didn't really take to that instrument, so my teacher had me switch to electric bass.

And I think that's when I really started to feel some kinship with the instrument, stronger interest in it.

And then it was at a jazz camp in Indianola, Iowa, in eighth grade, where I really fell in love with jazz.

I heard Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and Cannonball Adderley's Something Else.