Claire Martin - Review Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Jazz singers are like buses. You wait ages for one to appear then a whole line arrives. Well that's how it has seemed to me in the recent past, with any number of brilliantly talented young man and woman vying for our attention with their CDs, radio, television, and live performances. Among the women, where competition is particularly fierce, Claire Martin has gathered a considerable number of admires among respected critics and an ever-growing band of faithful followers.

It is perhaps wrong to suggest that Claire has only recently arrived on the scene. She has been quietly working her way to the very peak of her profession since her late teens, gaining experience with small groups and big bands before embarking on a solo career. She won three major British jazz awards during her career (Rising Star 1994, Best Jazz Singer 1995, Best Vocalist 1997) and presents BBC Radio3's "Jazz Line-up". On stage she has real presence and a great jazz voice, which has been compared to Ella Fitzgerald and the divine Sarah Vaughan. Claire has appeared at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, where she sang the Ella Fitzgerald Songbook, accompanied by the Halle Orchestra. However; on Saturday July 2 she and her musicians will be in the altogether more intimate surroundings of The Met, Market Street, Bury, which is ideal for their kind of beautifully relaxed, yet swinging stage show.