Written by Claire Martin is a multi-award-winning vocalist and OBE, with a career of over 30 years in the UK as band leader, festival curator, broadcaster and educator. On the 27th September 2024, Claire released her new album Almost in Your Arms, on Stunt Records and distributed by Cadiz Music.
Photo by Rikki Borkum
The first time I heard Claire Martin live was at Brighton Jazz Festival on the 29/09/24 performing stylish re-workings of classics from the Great American Songbook. She played at the Horatio Bar on the Brighton Pier, one of the best locations for jazz in the area. Claire was supported by an amazing rhythm section: Rob Barron on piano, Adam King on bass, and Mark Taylor on drums.
Claire’s warm and articulate voice guided the audience into various jazz songs, from upbeat songs to ballads. “Make me rainbows” by John Williams was played with a beautiful arrangement, creative double bass, beautiful mood and rhythm. Claire’s voice told the story of the song and revealed itself as an alto voice with lots of different shades. The bluesy articulation in the voice’s scatting was very captivating, and one of the highlights of the whole concert. The third song was “Any place I hang my hat is home”, a popular song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The band captivated the audience with a 12/8 rhythm with a west-African echo, which then changed into a swing-bluesy mood.
Rob Barron by Rikki Borkum
Then Claire sang a beautiful and melancholic song “I wish I’d met you” by Johnny Mandel. Here, the double bass solo stole the scene, melodic and intense. Claire’s scatting of the voice was very engaging and inventive, changing into an intimate and soulful voice at the end. “Bye-bye Country Boy”, a song by Blossom Dearie, showed Claire’s great ability in the scatting with an energy of the voice that worked well together with the beautiful accompaniment of the band. “My ship”, a jazz ballad written by Kurt Weill and with the lyrics by Ira Gershwin, started with an arrangement reminiscent of “My prince will come”. The vocals were smooth, with a more dynamic and rhythmic parenthesis during the scat-singing. In the latin version of the jazz standard “The man I love” (Gershwin), Claire showed a confident, captivating interplay with the band and the arrangement and the bass solo were nothing short of amazing. Towards the end of the gig, the Quartet played the jazz standard “Lover come back to me” (Romberg-Hammerstein), a very upbeat song with a particularly fast-paced singing part. Claire’s double time scatting was remarkable, exhibiting a gymnastic control of the voice with phrasing inspired by Ella Fizgerald. There were also beautiful exchanges between the voice and drums.
Mark Taylor by Rikki Borkum
The confidence in the language and communication of the voice during the scatting was akin to that of an instrumentalist when trading fours with the drummer. There was also a remarkable and imaginative solo by the drummer made with the style and authority of the Big Band in the 50’s. The Vernard Duck’s song “Autumn in New York” was played towards the end of the concert as a dreamy ballad. Claire used a storytelling voice in this song, matching the drums’ warmer and calmer accompaniment with brushes. The last song saw the audience going crazy: it was the upbeat song “Come back to me”(Lerner-Lane). Here the scatting of the voice was very technical and through all the range, followed by a fantastic piano solo.
Photo by Rikki Borkum
The concert was very intense and energetic and the audience was guided through different styles of jazz, but with a smooth transition between each song. The musicians were excellent and Claire’s voice and impeccable stage presence made the whole experience very enjoyable.
Brighton Jazz Festival website
Main headline image by Lisa Wormsley
Last modified: October 23, 2024
