Claire Martin - He Never Mentioned Love - Mojo

The late Shirley Horn was one of Miles Davis's favourite singers. It's said that he once refused to play the Village Vanguard unless she was also involved. Claire Martin, arguably Britain's finest jazz singer, has therefore chosen a near impossible act to follow. Horn was all about keeping things intimate, the whisper-in-the-ear approach, never playing to the grandstand. And Martin, with the aid of her regular pianist Gareth Williams and some hand-picked guests that include guitarist Jim Mullen and trumpet-star Gerard Presencer, has adhered to that candle-lit cafe approach on a selection of material spanning such standards as Trav'lling Light, You're Nearer and Leon Russell's A Song For You, along with a brace of originals, including bassist Laurence Cottle's Slowly But Shirley, which, despite its title, provides the singer with one of the album's rare opportunities to move uptempo.