Claire Martin - Witchcraft - The Irish Times

This tribute to Broadway songwriter Cy Coleman reunites Claire Martin, one of the best jazz singers around, and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, by now a British national treasure. With an occasional partnership forged over two decades, they delight in the kind of sophisticated fluff Coleman gets from his lyricists here. Chief among them is Carolyn Leigh, who contributed "The Best Is Yet to Come", "On Second Thought", "When in Rome" and "Witchcraft", among others, and the delightfully vinegary Dorothy Fields, represented -- alas -- only by "Nobody Does It Like Me". Amid plenty of wit and wordplay for the duo to savour, Martin is impeccable, Bennett's rare vocals like canny recitatives and his piano the epitome of good taste. This summer sees them do three weeks at New York's Algonquin Hotel, mecca of the great and good; the rave reviews are a foregone conclusion.