Martha's Prize is an instrumental jazz composition with no lyrics, written by the American pianist and composer Cedar Walton (1934-2013), who is its sole credited composer. Walton's own original performance was recorded in January 1996 and first released on his album Composer, issued by the Astor Place label on 11 June 1996. The tune is in the key of E-flat. The album's track is listed under the jazz genre, with hard bop and post-bop as its styles, and the piece is not a jazz standard.
The tune is performed by ensembles of varying sizes, from trios to big bands. Later recordings include versions by David Hazeltine (2014), Jamison Ross (2015), the Ben Markley Big Band featuring Terell Stafford (2017), the Eric Reed Quartet (2019), the Paolo Benedettini Trio (2020) and the Eric Harding Trio (2024).
