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Claire Martin, OBE (1967) is an English jazz singer.

Martin was born in Wimbledon, London. She grew up in a house "full of music" thanks to jazz loving parents. She cites Ella Fitzgerald´s Song Books as being a major influence which inspired her to major at singing at the Doris Holford Stage School and later to study singing in both New York and London. Her professional career started with her first engagement aged 19 which was singer in a hotel band in Bournemouth. After this she worked aboard the QE2, where she sang in the piano bar for two years.

At the age of 21, Martin formed her own jazz quartet. In 1991, she was signed by the Scottish jazz label Linn Records, and her debut album, The Waiting Game, was released in 1992. The album was well reviewed and was selected by The Times as one of their "Albums of the Year". Later that year, she opened for Tony Bennett at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival.

Martin has since released 17 CDs with the label, collaborating with musical luminaries including Martin Taylor, John Martyn, Stephane Grappelli, Kenny Barron, Richard Rodney Bennett, Jim Mullen and Nigel Hitchcock on many of these recordings.

Martin has performed all over Europe and Asia with her trio and, until his death in 2012, with Richard Rodney Bennett in an intimate cabaret duo setting both in England and in America. Martin has also been a featured soloist with the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the BBC Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra. She has co-presented BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Line Up since 2000 and has interviewed many of her musical heroes such as Pat Metheny, the late Michael Brecker, Brad Mehldau and Andre Previn. Her 2009 CD A Modern Art prompted Jazz Times USA to claim: "She ranks among the four or five finest female jazz vocalists on the planet".

Martin won both the 2009 and 2010 ‘Best Vocalist’ category at the British Jazz Awards and toured extensively throughout the UK, Scandinavia, Russia and China, appearing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and her world-class trio. 

Martin has recently embarked on a series of collaborations with The Montpellier Cello Quartet. The arrangements were especially written for her by Rodney Bennett, Mark Anthony Turnage and Django Bates, and this new chamber jazz ensemble toured throughout 2014 to promote a new album on Linn Records called ‘Time and Place’ which features singer/pianist Joe Stilgoe who became Martin’s new cabaret partner.

In June 2011, Martin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for her Services to Jazz.

01 - Claire Martin - Everything I've Got Belong To You.mp3
02 - Claire Martin - So Twentieth Century.mp3
03 - Claire Martin - Love Is Real.mp3
04 - Claire Martin - Lowercase.mp3
05 - Claire Martin - A Modern Art.mp3
06 - Claire Martin - Edge Ways.mp3
07 - Claire Martin - Love Of Another.mp3
08 - Claire Martin - Totally.mp3
09 - Claire Martin - Everybody Today Is Turning On.mp3
10 - Claire Martin - Sunday Morning Here With You.mp3
11 - Claire Martin - Promises.mp3
12 - Claire Martin - Things I Miss The Most.mp3
13 - Claire Martin - As We Live And Breathe.mp3
14 - Claire Martin - Nirvana.mp3