Photo: www.israbox.com
First published Tuesday 2 December 2014 in Music news and reviews
WHAT is it that the great jazz vocalists have in common? Think of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Cassandra Wilson. The fact they all sound so incredibly unique makes them stand out above the rest.
There is a common style of jazz singing in Britain that takes more influence from musical theatre than from jazz.
Rather than being a jazz singer, Claire Martin falls into the category of a strong vocalist who performs songs from the jazz repertoire.
In fact, to see this as a jazz performance at all, there was one vital ingredient missing: improvisation.
Stop expecting to hear jazz in this concert, and it could be enjoyed and appreciated more from a different perspective.
Four cellos may not have the textural range of a traditional string quartet but the Montpellier Quartet still produced a rich sound, enhanced by some excellent arrangements.
read more: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/11638930.Review__Claire_Martin_and_the_Montpellier_Cello_Quartet__National_Centre_for_Early_Music__York/?ref=rss
First published Thursday 27 November 2014 in Music news and reviews
Last updated 12:11 Thursday 27 November 2014
by Charles Hutchinson
THE roots of Claire Martin's chamber-jazz adventure – "chazz" for short – can be traced to her daughter, Amelia.
"She was having cello lessons," recalls the York-bound jazz singer. " I say 'was' because she's given it up to be an international basketball player, and she's now playing for Sussex county basketball team.
"But at the time, she was showing real promise, so she had to choose. Sport? Money, honey! Music? Anguish! Anyway, everybody loves cello and so I went to see the Montpellier Cello Quartet in a local church and I was mesmerised. Four cellos! It was like four pints of Guinness in a line – and I thought to myself, 'my voice would go well with them'."
Amelia's cello teacher, Joe Giddey, happened to be one of the members of the Brighton quartet, so Claire struck while the iron was steaming. "I said, 'I'd love to sing with your four cellos' and Joe said 'yes. as we both thought it would be unusual to have a jazz singer performing with chamber musicians. 'Chazz', as I call it."
Set in motion in 2012, the project combines Claire's love of the Great American Songbook and popular classics with new arrangements especially commissioned from such composers as Mark Anthony Turnage, Geoffrey Keezer and the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, who arranged Kurt Weill's My Ship.
read more: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/11630849.Claire_Martin_and_the_Montpellier_Cello_Quartet__National_Centre_for_Early_Music__York___November_30/?ref=rss
