Jazz Diary: Getting vocal with new idea
Nov 4 2010 By Peter Bacon
Birmingham Jazz tries something a little different on Friday as part of its CBSO Centre programme.
Claire Martin has developed into one of the most interesting jazz singers around, not only for her interpretive abilities with melody and lyrics, but for the breadth of her experience and her ability to transcend the conventional pigeon-holing that is inflicted upon jazz singers.
So, for example, Claire can do that supper club thing, that glitzy New York hotel malarkey, that showbiz shtick; but she can also do the serious jazz.
She can reminisce with her Richard Rodney Bennett over golden oldies from the Great American Songbook; and she can explore her own interpretations of Esbjorn Svensson or Joshua Redman songs with her small group.
She can provide a completely fresh interpretation of a song you have heard a thousand times; and she can convince you that a song she has just written is good enough to stand alongside those jazz standards.
She’ll be doing all those latter things, certainly, at the CBSO Centre on Friday, with a classy band that usually includes Gareth Williams on piano and Laurence Cottle as bassist and musical director.
