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to Claire Martin
B.H.
Hopper Management
Elvirastrasse 25
D-80636 München
Tel. +49 (0)89-122497-0
Fax. +49 (0)89-122497-79
http://hopper-management.com
email:
Burkhard Hopper (President)
hopper@hopper-management.com
Stefan Knieper
(Bookings Europe, Coordination)
knieper@hopper-management.com
Marie Marsigny
(Bookings France, Tour-Organisation)
marsigny@hopper-management.com
Letizia Porcelli
(Bookings Italia, Promotion)
porcelli@hopper-management.com
CLAIRE MARTIN
news
the following reviews are in English:
Jazzscene, May 1998
Venice Magazine, Los Angeles Arts ... Magazine, April 1998
Vogue USA September 1997
The New York Observer -
August 05, 1996
L.A. Jazz Scene - March 1997
BOZ March 1997
Die folgenden Kritiken sind auf Deutsch:
WOM-JOURNAL - Oktober 1997
George Fendel in Jazzscene May '98:
McRae tribute to Billie sizzles;
Claire Martin the real deal Make This City Ours, Claire Martin vocals. Who is the best
jazz singer to hve arrived on the scene in the 1990s? No contest. It's Claire Martin. This
is the fourth release for the young Londoner, and it continues to convince me that in
Martin we have an exceptional - no, make that a gifted jazz singer. Catch her phrasing and
slight alteration of the melody on a fast tempoed No Moon At All.
Follow the story of glamour turned to routine on a riveting ballad called Another Night.
Listen to Claire caress How Deep Is The Ocean and Estate and then turn around and explain
a "do over" on Collagen Lips. Bye Bye Country Boy traces a small town gig and a
local who made it more enjoyable for the girl singer. Claire also finds a way of Gettin'
High that's not only healthy but recommended. She shuns the screechy, screamy histrionics
over-indulged in by too many would-be jazz singers.
Instead, in a voice sexy and suited for jazz, she just steps up and sings the song. What a
refreshing notion! What a great singer! Honest-Linn, 1997;
Playing TIme: 57:15; ****1/2
Venice Magazine,
Los Angeles’ Arts and Entertainment Magazine, April 1998
Claire Martin - British Bopper
Big Time!
Tighten your fillings, gang, Claire Martin is hitting the jazz scene big time! She’s bold, blonde, beautiful, and British. In a sultry, throaty voice, she bops hot, pure jazz, extending great American traditions through Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, and Shriley Horn, beyond the edge of the current crop of ‘90s goddesses Kevyn Lettau, Kristin Korb, or Diana Krall. Tall, willowy, sexy, this new crop of boppers look more like movie stars than scat singers, maybe the chorus line at Rockefeller Center.
With Claire’s third American release, Make This City Ours (Honest/LINN), already burning the airways, the sound of her luscious voice on the first cut, "Gettin’ High," places her smack in the middle of great American vocal jazz. Yet to speak to her, she’s pure London, almost "Ow blimey." How did this musical metamorphosis happen? "You just listen along while you’re growing up, English doesn’t swing. It’s just not sexy. The Waiting Game is my first album ever. And then I did Devil May Care which isn’t out in America. Then I did Old Boyfriends. They’ve all been issued in the wrong order."
Yet listening to Claire’s album in the wrong order, beginning with Old Boyfriends, the sense of her maturity and defining voice brings you up to date with Make This City Ours. Claire’s perfect pitch, arranging, and intimate lyrical sharing gives each of the carefully selected songs a unique interpretation, from throbbing yearning to raucous fun, with nothing pretentious. "I’ve lived in Wimbledon all my life except for the last few years in Brighton by the Sea. Fresh air. I used to sing around the house all the time because my parents sang jazz around the house all the time. They’re big jazz fans [and] listening to jazz all through my growing up years, they were a big influence on me. It was so accidental. I’m sure if they were playing classical I’d be doing classical. I went to dance and drama school. I was always a very expressive kid. I’m a loudmouth, you know. I started singing on holiday in a camp in Bournemouth. I was the singer in the band. And I went on to do cruise ships. When the QE2 came into New York, I’d search the record stores for new songs."
At 21, Claire made her debut at Ronnie Scott’s Pizza On The Park in London. Since then, the British Jazz Awards named her "Best New Jazz Artist of 1994" and Best Jazz Singer of 1995" and "1997." It won’t be long before she’s hitting American charts.
Like other great jazz vocalists, Claire now 29, finds her personal voice in the songs she sings, from Blossom Dearie’s "Bye-Bye Country Boy" to Johnny Mercer’s "Anyplace I Hang My Hat is Home" or Mark Winkler’s "Another Night." In the same way one thinks of a Sinatra song ("I love Sinatra," Claire whispers), Claire is already claiming her own mood, her own sound. With enormous inner energy, her style is tough, yearning and pure, shifting surprisingly from song to song like a bird on the wing.
"I’m leaving in the morning. I’m going around to Mark Winkler’s tonight to write a song with him and I have to sing on Thursday night. In London. I’ve been here for four days. Whirlwind. Talking, talking, talking."
In Claire Martin’s uncanny musicality,
choosing songs from Irving Berlin to her own "Empty Bed," she answers the
question that Clive Gregson’s song asks, "Could This Be The One?" With her
instinctive choices for her group, which includes pianist Gareth Williams, bassist Peter
Washington, and Antonio Hart on sax, the answer is a rousing yes! Claire is making not
only New York her city, but mostly every city playing her albums. From tenderness to
high-velocity mainstream, Claire Martin is "Gettin’ High" on jazz.
(By Jan Holland)
VOGUE USA SEPTEMBER
1997
PERFECT PITCH
"My friends say I'm 50 percent tart and 50 percent nun," says singer Claire Martin between sold-out shows at Ronnie Scott´s jazz club in London. Whatever the exact percentages, Martin´s blend of the carnal and the ascetic has made the 29-year-old South Londoner the most exciting new English chanteuse in decades. She was recently named Best Vocalist at the 1997 British Jazz Awards and is now setting her sights on America. Her new CD, Make This City Ours (Honest/LINN), showcases her uncanny musical ability to do it all - swing effortlessly through a comic romp like "Collagen Lips", ease into the silky prose-poem elegance of "Summer (Estate)", or caress the tenderness of a ballad like "Could This Be the One?" By turns vulnerable and cheeky (onstage and off), Martin sings with the authority of one who´s done more than a little living. "I'm not as wild as I used to be," she insists, adding she's gronw up a lot since she begann singing professionally as a teenager aboard the QE2. Still, she knows that she´s not nearly approached the peak of her powers. "Singers do get better they get older," she says simply. "They have more experience, more emotion to share." One emotion that Martin is eager to share is her annoyance with a public that prefers hype to artistry. "I hope America knows that there's more coming out of London than the Spice Girls" - John Powers
THE NEW YORK OBSERVER -
AUGUST 05, 1996
WHAT'S SUMMER WITHOUT MUSIC
...In the circle of jazz singers, the most accomplished and swinging new discovery is Claire Martin, a gorgeous English lark who looks like Natasha Richardson and bends her way in and out of tempos with awesome dexterity. Her latest CD, Old Boyfriends, (Honest/LINN Records) is a meticulous blend of brilliant material and flawless craftmanship. From smoky, undulating ballads to driving, pulsating up-tempo riffs, this remarkable stylist shines a butane torch on the darkest corners, until she shakes you with chills of joy and frank awareness...
L.A. JAZZ SCENE - March 1997
BRITISH JAZZ DIVA CONQUERS AMERICA
by Alex Henderson
All too often, jazz singers make the mistake of having a predictable and less than adventurous repertoire. Exclusively embracing the classic standards of such greats as Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Rodgers & Hart...but for some younger jazz singers...composers of more recent decades offer many possibilities. Like those artists, Claire Martin has a knack for placing a variety of material in an improvisatory jazz context. To this smoky British singer - whose influences range from "Cool School" goddesses Julie London, Chris Connor and June Christy to Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush - everything from Mitchell´s "Be Cool" to Thomas Dolby´s "The Key To YOur Ferrare" to Rupert Holmes' "Partners In Crime" is fair game. Those who've heard any of the 29-year-old Martin's four CDs on LINN/Honest...are well aware that her repertoire is anything but predictable...
BOZ March 1997
CATCH A RISING STAR
With her place fixed in the British jazz firmament, singer Claire Martin has her sights set on international stardom. She spared the time to talk to Jonathan Abbott. For a jazz vocalist still in her twenties, Claire Martin seems set on a winning flightpath. The accolades she has already received speak for themselves: success in the 1994 'RISING STAR' category of the British Jazz Awards, in 1995 their 'BEST BRITISH VOCALIST'. Now she is about to release a fifth album, Make This City Ours, recorded in New York.
WOM-JOURNAL - Oktober 1997
COCKNEY-CHARME
Jazz-Porträt: CLaire Martin
Wie die "schlechteste Sekretärin
der Welt" zu einer der gefragtesten Jazz-Sängerinnen des Planeten wurde.
Es gab eine Zeit, in der Claire Martin nicht immer vor Peinlichkeiten gefeit war.
Etwa, als sie wochentags in einer Londoner Bar kellnerte und
dann am Wochenende im selben Etablissement Jazz sang. "Es konnte vorkommen, daß ich
beim Saxophonsolo etwas abseits stand und prompt angeraunzt wurde: 'Ey! Wo bleibt das
Ketchup?'" Heute muß die 29jährige keine übervollen Tabletts mehr durch enge
Lokale schleppen und auch nicht mehr als "schlechteste Sekretärin der Welt"
jobben, um die Miete aufzubringen und den Kühlschrank vollzukriegen. In England ist die
Londonerin mit Wohnsitz in Brighton nämlich auf dem besten Wege zum Star.
Als zwölfjährige intonierte sie bereits frühe Broadway-Songs, mit 18 war sie Profi,
später konnte sie Erfahrungen als "support act" von Tony Bennett und als
Barckground-Sängerin von Wet Wet Wet sammeln. Claire Martins Solo-Karriere nahm 1991
ihren Lauf, als das in Kentucky ansässige Label Linn ihr einen langjährigen Vertrag
anbot, den sie mit bisher fünf Alben noch nicht ganz erfüllt hat. Ihre neueste CD
"Make This City Ours" wurde unter Mithilfe des amerikanischen Sax-Stars Antonio
Hart in New York aufgenommen. Bei Claire Martin, die schon mal übers Kiffen und über
Schönheitsoperationen singt, mischen sich damenhafter Charme und eine Spur erfrischende
Cockney-Raubeinigkeit. Ihre rauchige, wandlungsfähige Stimme phrasiert mit verblüffenden
Schattierungen. Sogar scatten kann die sympathische Frau ausserordentlich gut. Hart, mit
dem sie sich kürzlich die Bühne des Londoner Ronnie Scotts Clubs eine Woche lang teilte,
kündigte seine Kollegin entsprechend überschwenglich an: "Und nun heißen sie bitte
Claire Martin willkommen. Glauben sie mir, meine Damen und Herren, ein Talent wie sie
haben wir in ganz Amerika nicht!"
(S.W.P.)