Right on key : Claire Martin and her 'European Quartet'* at The Stables

Right on key : Claire Martin and her 'European Quartet'* at The Stables

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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1 May

Right on key : Claire Martin and her 'European Quartet'* at The Stables on Wednesday 1 May 2019 at 8.00 p.m.

Absolutely, but also a fascinating and tight piano trio to back Claire - I call this her European Quartet - and a choice of repertoire that doesn't stick to 'standards', but gives us newly commissioned patter-songs, and many ways in which we regret love or not staying in love !

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 31, 2019

From listening at @StablesMK on 1 May, and since to the new album, #UCFF safely and warmly concurs (though it has gravitated towards being a dilettante-style reviewer, i.e. too many enthusiasms, but unfortunately lacking stamina for the hard graft that gets the writing done) :

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 14, 2019

Claire is nothing but brilliant, wholly giving herself to music that she loves - whether evoking saké and love-making in rainy Tokyo, giving us a fresh take on 'I'm Not in Love' that brings out the pathos and irony, or the tenderness in 'Broken Wings', or in fiendish patter-songs

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 14, 2019

End-notes :

* Thinking, of course, of Keith J.


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Claire Martin and trio at Cambridge Arts Theatre

Claire Martin at The Arts Theatre, Cambridge,

with Dave Newton, Jeremy Brown, Steve Brown

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2014 (28 August to 7 September)
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17 January

This is a largely complete review of Claire Martin's gig at The Arts Theatre, Cambridge - with trio Dave Newton, Jeremy Brown, and Steve Brown

Linn (@linnproducts) recording artist and OBE-holder Claire Martin (@CMartinjazz) gave Cambridge, with its wintry feel outside The Arts Theatre (@camartstheatre), a breath of her infectiously enthusiastic and sympathetic approach to singing, which thawed out - even if partly with, and through, the blues - some affected by it (them ?) :

At @camartstheatre earlier, we did not so much welcome @linnproducts' @CMartinjazz to Cambridge as she did us to the world of her super trio
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 18, 2015

Listen to Claire* on Radio 3's (@BBCRadio3blog's) Jazz Line-Up, or see her on stage, and there is no doubting that she is The Real Thing, with a passion for jazz and what she does, whether presenting what speaks to her, or, at a gig, doing the same through the medium of her voice. Amongst, in other places, the mark of her quality is the instrumentalists that she brings with her :

With Dave Newton on tireless form, and Jeremy Brown / Steve Brown effortlessly on bass and drums, respectively, @CMartinjazz sang with style
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 18, 2015

Gareth Williams is a usual pianist for Claire, but his piano, though lovely, is somewhat introspective and even moodful, whereas Dave Newton, as he is at his best, was inspired, being both fantastically inventive and creatively exploratory. An excellent mix of trio, bass, drums and piano, and a real tribute to Claire that she knows the strength of these players and that the trio worked to a tee with her first time, a rich mix of four musicians who can swing it, cool it, give it soul or rhythm, and leave you joyful and carefree.

Speaking as one who loves Claire’s presentational work on Radio 3 (@BBCradio3blog), one cannot but wish that there had been the tiniest bit more of her warm personality to share with those knew to her and to her art : nothing much, as one can over-elaborate introductions and setting out the connections (it has been heard done in this very venue, but the second set was different), but maybe just a little phrase here or there, because, when Claire talks about music during broadcasts, there is no doubting that it is her own reactions and evaluations that one is hearing (even if, inevitably, filtered through the ears and views of her producer) :

If one thing was missing from @CMartinjazz at @camartstheatre, it was just nothing musical or interpretative, just a tad more chattiness ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 18, 2015

Unlike other jazz-singers one could name, @CMartinjazz's always approachable in her take on music, and on the stage : no slickness, no side.
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 18, 2015

Detailed observations to come (via the set-list)…



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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Report from Cheltenham Jazz Festival - Claire Martin

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2012
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9 May




I never tire of Claire Martin's (@CMartinJazz's) gigs : the quality is consistently very high, the energy and love of jazz evident (along with appreciation of her fellow musicians, applause for whose solos she always encourages), and Claire is a very worthy holder of an OBE for services to this music, not least as a regular broadcaster on Radio 3's (@BBCRadio3's) Jazz Line-Up.

I was going to say that Gareth Williams is her unfailing pianist, forgetting for a moment that she did some duo performances with the much-loved and recently departed Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, one of which I caught at Concerts at King's in Cambridge. Gareth was, however, in her quartet, along with another regular, Laurence Cottle (on electric bass), and Mark Skelton (until now, I hadn't managed to find his surname, or identify him via Google®).

A great set from @clairemartinjazz at #cheltjazzfest - a songful, joyful, heartfelt, playful show all with Messrs Williams, Cottle & Skelton
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 5, 2013

Perversely, when there is something that I love, I can be a bit D. H. Lawrence and find myself looking and hearing with an unconverted companion's eyes and ears, but there was absolutely nothing to disappoint, and, unlike what I felt about a jazz Clare whose gig I left after the first set, nothing stagey or false in Claire Martin. When she referred to Sir Richard, I could sense that she was welling up, and it was poignant to be reminded that he had died on Christmas Eve, and to learn how strange it felt that the CD of Irving Berlin that they had recorded was just about to come out.

It must be a good few years ago that I was joshing around with Claire and Gareth after they played at Anglia Ruskin University's Mumford Theatre (something about my being the only person with a pen when others, too, wanted a signed CD, and I also wanted to get Gareth to buy the CD of his that I had bought), and I know that how she is on stage is how she is - as some would say, no front.

So this was a lovely set from Claire, and no matter that I knew much of the content as the repertoire from her long list of CDs on the Linn label - not utterly in the same way that I can listen without tiring to Bach's great Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) or the great Handel arias, but it did not hurt to have heard Claire sing 'Love is a necessary evil' or 'Cheek to cheek' (her tribute to Sir Richard) before, or to learn that a song or two was by James Van Heusen*.

With someone who loves the songs that she sings in the way that one knows that Claire does (one feels it tangibly), and who can swing them this way or that as fits the occasion, a gig is a chance to meet old friends, be it the amazing finger-quickness of Gareth or of her other unfailing choices of collaborators, or the songs themselves, which, as she picks them as well, are full of goodness and freshness.

I see that Claire is doing a tour with a quartet of cellos, the Montpellier Quartet from Brighton, and I am just sad that I cannot be back in time to catch that particular date near me...


End-notes

* I recall now that, not for the first time, Claire mentioned the singing of Julie London - must have a look at the content of the link that I've just put there...


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An inquest into the mysterious death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams opens today (according to Yahoo!)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2012
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23 April

I suspect that fans of the jazz pianist of the same name, who may have been alarmed by the caption, can safely assume that this was a different bearer of the illustrious title.

So Claire Martin will be relieved about the gig in Colchester on Saturday...


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