Natalie Brooke’s artistry thrives in the space between vulnerability and fire. With her new full-length album, Measured in Moments, arriving October 10, the Maryland-based pianist, vocalist, and bandleader reveals her most fearless work yet. A bold, expansive statement that charts her path from quiet, ear-trained prodigy to commanding frontwoman, composer, and collaborator.

The album’s opening singles offer two distinct windows into her evolving sound. “Sometimes ft. Cris Jacobs,” released September 9, 2025 is a groove-forward meditation on life’s dualities. Led by Brooke’s soulful vocals and anchored by the lyric: “sometimes change is what I am, sometimes I’m better off running.” The track builds in intensity, slipping into a jazz-soaked breakdown before Brooke unleashes a fiery organ solo. Baltimore rock luminary Cris Jacobs answers with a spellbinding improvisation of his own, pushing the song into uncharted terrain.

“Hands” takes a decidedly different route. An urgent jazz-fusion composition that rides a staccato motif into a soaring chorus that is both sultry and celebratory, the track embodies Brooke’s invitation to the dance floor, complete with tension-building bridges and moments of release that capture her instinct for drama and motion.

For Brooke, these tracks are snapshots of a larger journey. “Pretty much always been piano,” she recalls. “I started when I was five, and just was always in lessons. I did quit lessons in middle school, which is when I picked up really learning by ear, which I think is where a lot of the creativity really started happening.” The shift from the page and toward instinct proved to be the vital catalyst cementing the foundation of her artistry.

Her evolution hasn’t been linear. Classical training gave way to a “brutal learning curve” in jazz, years of attending metal shows fed into her love of grit and volume, and eventually, vocals entered the frame. “Vocals were a completely different approach. I was actually very quiet my whole life… singing has actually been a really big challenge. I finally, secretly, started going to voice lessons and not telling anybody when I was 25,” she says. What began as therapy—“being okay with being loud and being heard”—has transformed into a defining strength.

When she first stepped into the role of bandleader, six months before the pandemic, Brooke was hesitant. The forced pause became a turning point. “When I first started my band, I was still a little shy being the front woman. Then during covid was when I decided that I can get back out there, I’m gonna not hold back. I’m gonna rip it up.” That commitment shows up not just in her stage presence—often wielding a keytar bought on impulse (“I wish I had a better story… I just bought the keytar”)—but in the way she runs her band. “I really like grit, and I really like when people like to be pushed and when they like to also push me… we always want to be hurtling forward, creating something new, and not getting stagnant.”