CLAIRE MARTIN
“The most gifted jazz singer this country has produced in twenty years” Clive Davis – The Sunday Times
Linn recording artist and BBC Radio 3 presenter Claire Martin has spent the last 25 years honing the craft of jazz singing. To worldwide critical acclaim she has established herself as a tour de force on the UK jazz scene, gaining many awards- including winning the British Jazz Awards six times- along the way.
Thanks to her jazz loving parents, Claire grew up in a household full of great music. She became a professional singer at 19, and three years later she realised her dream of singing at Ronnie Scott’s legendary jazz club in Soho. Signed to Linn Records in 1984 Claire has since released 16 cds with the label, collaborating with musical luminaries including Martin Taylor, John Martyn, Stephane Grappelli, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Geoffrey Keezer and Nigel Hitchcock on many of these recordings.
Claire has performed all over Europe and Asia with her trio and she also performs regularly with Richard Rodney Bennett in an intimate duo setting both in England and in America where they play to sell out crowds at venues including the prestigious Algonquin Hotel in New York…
Read MoreCLAIRE MARTIN
“The most gifted jazz singer this country has produced in twenty years” Clive Davis – The Sunday Times
Linn recording artist and BBC Radio 3 presenter Claire Martin has spent the last 25 years honing the craft of jazz singing. To worldwide critical acclaim she has established herself as a tour de force on the UK jazz scene, gaining many awards- including winning the British Jazz Awards six times- along the way.
Thanks to her jazz loving parents, Claire grew up in a household full of great music. She became a professional singer at 19, and three years later she realised her dream of singing at Ronnie Scott’s legendary jazz club in Soho. Signed to Linn Records in 1984 Claire has since released 16 cds with the label, collaborating with musical luminaries including Martin Taylor, John Martyn, Stephane Grappelli, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Geoffrey Keezer and Nigel Hitchcock on many of these recordings.
Claire has performed all over Europe and Asia with her trio and she also performs regularly with Richard Rodney Bennett in an intimate duo setting both in England and in America where they play to sell out crowds at venues including the prestigious Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Claire is also a regular featured soloist with the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the BBC Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
The BBC Radio 3 programme Jazz Line Up, which she co-presents with Julian Joseph, is now in its 13th year and Claire has interviewed many of her musical heroes such as Pat Metheny, the late Michael Brecker, Brad Mehldau and Roy Hargrove.
Her 2009 CD ‘A Modern Art’ prompted Jazz Times USA to claim: “She ranks among the four or five finest female jazz vocalists on the planet”.
Claire was thrilled to win both the 2009 and 2010 ‘Best Vocalist’ category at the British Jazz Awards and toured extensively throughout the UK, Scandinavia, Russia and China, appearing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and her world-class trio. 2011 proved to be an extraordinary year for Claire who made her debut at the Lincoln Center with pianist Bill Charlap and went on to perform for the third time at the Algonquin Hotel for a three week residency with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Their CD ‘Witchcraft’ gained much critical acclaim and was “unequivocally recommended” by Jazzwise magazine.
At the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2011, Claire was awarded an OBE for her Services to Jazz.
In August 2011 Claire recorded with legendary jazz pianist Kenny Barron and an all-star American line up for her sixteenth album for Linn records. Released in May 2012 the CD ‘Too Much In Love To Care’ has been receiving 5 star reviews and prompted the Jazz Journal to state that she is “one of the finest jazz singers in the world today”. The rest of 2012 was spent touring the new material in the UK and Europe and embarking on a new show “Two of Us’ with conductor John Wilson and actor Mark McGann, celebrating the music of Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
At the end of 2012 Claire embarked on a new and exciting musical adventure with Brighton based cellists the Montpellier Cello Quartet. With new arrangements for voice and cello quartet by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Mark Anthony Turnage and Djano Bates this new chamber jazz ensemble will be touring throughout 2013 and recording later in the year.
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