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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 & Richard Rodney Bennett - My One And Only.mp3
02 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - I Was A Little Too Lonely.mp3
03 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - My Mood Is You.mp3
04 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - World Weary.mp3
05 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - When Lights Are Low.mp3
06 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - Fools Fall In Love.mp3
07 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - I Got A Right To Sing The Blues.mp3
08 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - Baby Plays Around.mp3
09 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - The Very Thought Of You.mp3
10 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - What I Was Warned About.mp3
11 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - Baby, Don't You Quit Now.mp3
12 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - No Love, No Nothing.mp3
13 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - Not Exactly Paris.mp3
14 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home.mp3
15 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - I Keep Going Back To Joe's.mp3
16 - Claire Martin & Richard Rodney Bennett - We'll Be Together Again.mp3