Claire Martin has continued to earn an enviable reputation through hard work, with many awards rightly confirming the respect with which she is regarded by fellow musicians. Hopefully, Secret Love (Linn AKD 246) will expand the popularity of her appealing smoky-tinged voice, laced with a slightly world-weary demeanour which faintly recalls June Christy and the choice of SOMETHING COOL and GET HAPPY underlines this fact. With contrasting technique and tempo, there is much to commend Claire’s sure-footed and gentle approach to that tasteful ballad WHERE DO YOU START? ideally backed by guitarist Jim Mullen, while Sir Richard Rodney Bennett checks piano keys for the highlight track MY BUDDY. A low-key gospel feel fuels GOD GIVE ME STRENGTH; LOVE IS A BORE reveals Claire’s jazz-styled dexterity and a male chorus-backed JIVE achieves a nicely hip feel. An artfully conceived CHEEK TO CHEEK builds upon the usual concepts, with any damage limitation skilfully manoeuvred by Claire’s talented musician

Secret Love is the 10th album for Linn records from the first lady of British jazz and (as ever) she brings great musicians and formidable but not over-sung material together to craft something that will last a lifetime. Claire Martin always performs with personality, attitude and an attention to sonic detail, and it’s testament to her great technique and vocal power that she’s as astonishingly good live as she sounds on this album.

Johnny Mandel’s Where Do You Start? is a heart-rending, intimate portrayal of a disintegrating relationship, sung in a duo with long-standing collaborator, guitarist Jim Mullen. Claire’s great control of rhythm and pace means that she can make much out of little instrumentation. Jim’s liquid guitar phrases support Claire’s golden-syrup vocal perfectly and give her the space to bend and shape the rhythm to the emotional ups and downs of the song.

In Bacharach and Costello’s God Give Me Strength, Claire calls on her significant vocal range, and moves from breathy whispers to lungfulls of power in just a few bars. She holds her own easily against the three percussionists giving it their all, and wrings passion from every belted-out note.

It’s not just in the slower, more passionate numbers that Claire excels, though. Gareth Williams, one of Claire’s favoured pianists, has created a dizzyingly fast arrangement of Cheek to Cheek, in which Claire paces herself on the intro, before dense piano-work from Gareth gives the song liftoff. Laurence Cottle – the jazz musician’s bass guitarist – unveils a lyrical, vocalised solo at breakneck speed here, and there’s plenty of space for the trio to swing. Again, in the percussion-centric Get Happy, the musicians are given free rein to solo, led by Nigel Hitchcock’s boppish sax, once Claire and Clark Tracey have shared the intro together on voice and drums.

Two more of Claire’s buddies – Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and saxophonist Bobby Wellins – come together with her to celebrate the life of recently departed writer, broadcaster and mutual friend Joel Siegel with the song My Buddy. A wistful and breathy solo from Bobby, velvet vocals from Claire, and Sir Richard’s understated piano create a poignant and delicate tribute.

Claire’s diction and delivery are an extension of her speaking voice and attitude (of which she has plenty!) There’s never a sense that she’s over-acting or over-emphasising – which marks her as a natural.

So, hold on. Why hasn’t Claire got Grammies and platinum discs coming out of her ears? Why is she such an unsung singer? At least this conspiracy means that we haven’t lost her to the impersonal gigs that megastardom brings…yet.

Despite this being her tenth album it is the first one that I’ve heard in its entirety and, on my initial listen, it became clear that I have been missing something special. Her voice is distinctive and displays an impressive range on a variety of material. It is soulful, in a meaningful sense of that word, and is imbued with tones that show she is well schooled in many aspects of jazz and blues.

Her choice of songs suggests that she is comfortable with both standards and contemporary lyrics, though there is a clear inclination to the former here. She tackles the varied tempi with assurance, even the breakneck Cheek To Cheek, though I personally prefer her reading of a mid-tempo tune such as The Meaning Of The Blues where the colours provided by Laurence Cottle’s bass and Gareth Williams’ electric piano complement her interpretation perfectly.

Whilst this is obviously Martin’s album, the musicians she has picked are more than just sidemen. Nigel Hitchcock’s fluid alto on the title track, Jim Mullen’s superb guitar understatements on But Beautiful and the unexpected but inspired choice of Melvin Duffy’s pedal steel guitar on Jive all demonstrate how the judicious use of a certain instrument can add an extra layer or dimension to a song. And Mullen’s guitar also provides a wistfully elegant accompaniment to Martin’s sensitive take on Where Do You Start. Her voice is really at its finest on a track like this where she lingers on the bittersweet, ‘end of the affair’ lyrics and holds those clear notes so effortlessly.

Something similar is in evidence on ‘My Buddy’ where the slightly husky tones of her voice make the spine tingle and the restraint of Clark Tracey’s drums is the ideal partner for Bobby Wellins’ languorous tenor saxophone solo.
This cd has opened my ears to a voice that somehow I have managed to overlook for a long time. I look forward to correcting the oversight.

Whenever I start to first hear Claire Martin sing I know that there is some classy entertainment to follow. Hot on the heels of her CD and Super Audio CD release Too Darn Hot! comes yet another great release from a truly super jazz vocalist. Born in London in 1967 Claire Martin was raised on a diet of rock and contemporary pop music, her early influences being the likes of Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell. Debuting at the famous Ronnie Scott’s in 1988 the then 21 year old has now become England’s top jazz vocalist. Secret Love offers a mix of smooth and gentle jazz tracks along with some that will really get your toes a-tappin’. Of special note is the beautiful jazz song God Give Me Strength written by Burt Bacharach – without doubt the premier track on the entire album. A close second though is the title, and opening track, Secret Love, an ideal song that is perfectly suited to Claire’s finer jazz vocal styles. That said, although the album features several terrific releases, I found that the over use of drum cymbals did tend to become a tad irritating after a while, especially with the track Get Happy. Secret Love is Claire Martin’s tenth album in the Linn Records label and I predict that the sales volume of this release will equal that of her super successful previous release Too Darn Hot!.

Such has been the avalanche of young female jazz singers emerging on the British jazz scene of late that Claire Martin now seems like a venerable veteran, although she is still only in her mid thirties. But Martin is actually a far superior singer to most of the new wave: she is melodically inventive, she is rhythmically supple, she can improvise convincingly and she can communicate a lyric with the utmost subtlety. In short, Martin is a true jazz performer rather than simply being one of the many who can interpret the Great American Songbook attractively.

Her range is impressive as well, for she can perform with equal aplomb material as diverse as Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello’s ‘God Give Me Strength’, on which she sounds like a gospelish soul diva ‘Cheek To Cheek’, which is performed at such breakneck speed that one’s irresistible reaction is to grin delightedly with pure pleasure and Walter Donaldson/Gus Kahn’s ‘My Buddy’, which is restrained and dignified and sung with great tenderness.
Martin is accompanied by outstanding British jazz players including saxophonists Bobby Wellins and Nigel Hitchcock, drummer Clark Tracey and pianist Gareth Williams, all of whom make tellingly creative contributions.

The production qualities are stellar on this disc – take a listen to Where Do You Start, where Claire is accompanied by only electric guitar to stunning effect, or Something Cool, where Richard Rodney Bennett accompanies her lovingly on piano – these tracks are near demonstration quality.

Do you need this disc? Yes, even if you’re only a casual fan, and definitely if you’re a big fan, as I am.

The title track of Claire Martin’s enchanting new jazz album manages to banish all thoughts of its more famous musical incarnation, and achieves the almost impossible: to make it sexy and seductive. Doris Day may have kept our hearts aflutter with closeted yearnings, but here ‘Secret Love’ is transformed into an upbeat, swing number that breaths exciting new life into this classic, that’s been standardised to within an inch of its life.

It’s a trick Martin pulls off throughout Secret Love, her tenth album for Linn Records. Judy Garland’s classic number ‘Get Happy’ becomes almost a duet with the fast rhythms of percussionist Clark Tracey. It knocks the showy overtones away, leaving an improvisational feel as it breaks for solos from piano, bass, and sax.

Perhaps the best known track is ‘Cheek To Cheek’, made famous by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, though they may have difficulty dancing to it at this tempo! However, my personal favourite is her haunting rendition of ‘My Buddy’, which Martin has dedicated to her friend, the late Joel Siegel, and in which Sir Richard Rodney Bennett accompanies her on piano.

Produced by Richard Cottle, Secret Love features the excellent Nigel Hitchcock, Gareth Williams, Laurence Cottle and Clark Tracey. Special guest artists include the much acclaimed guitarist Jim Mullen who features in a duet with Martin on the track ‘Where Do You Start’.

Martin has an exceptional voice: it’s silky smooth and soothes away your troubles, allowing you to melt into the intoxicating rhythms and enjoy her genuine talent for all it’s worth.

But what’s special about Secret Love is that it keeps a spontaneous, live feel, despite being recorded in the studio. This gives the album an intimacy that hits home and makes it perfect as mellow background music or for wallowing in sophisticated glamour.

CLAIRE Martin stands out among the current plethora of identikit interpreters of jazz standards. She succeeds in finding a new twist in her hip-but-sophisticated interpretations of standards with no feeling of being artificial or contrived. That even applies to such familiar fare as the title track or Berlin’s Cheek To Cheek – taken at a rattling tempo. Her core trio – led by pianist Gareth Williams – is a top-drawer attraction in itself. Guests include guitarist Jim Mullen and saxophonist Bobby Wellins.

When you look at a tracklisting that includes the titles But Beautiful and Cheek To Cheek, you might think that Claire Martin’s 10th album in 13 years is just another of those sultry standards jobs by a nice singer with a nice voice. But though this set has just as many credentials for dinner-jazz airplay as material by any of her more high-profile smoothie contemporaries, Martin has always had an instinct for fine timing and an appetite for improvisation that makes her a musician’s musician.

She also displays great taste, both in the songs she picks and in her choices of instrumentation and players. On Secret Love, the sidemen and the instrumental timbres are immense enhancements to the singer’s forthright yet lustrous-toned handling of the material. Jim Mullen’s guitar and Laurence Cottle’s Jaco Pastorius-like electric bass are two of the most prominent, giving this album a special sound of its own – at times they almost steal the show. The title track, transforming the torchy confessionalism of Secret Love into a tricksy glide through the chord changes, turns out to provide some of the few uneasy moments. On the other hand, But Beautiful – with its humming basslines, Jim Mullen’s fragile but bluesy guitar, a distant Hammond organ and Martin’s exquisitely timed phrasing – is a defining account of the song. The Meaning of the Blues is unexpectedly delivered as a Latin swinger with some telling harmonia-playing from Julian Jackson. And Mullen and pianist Gareth Williams add vivacious variations to Michael Francks’s soul-bluesy Jive, which showcases Martin’s faultless control of rhythm.

Ian Shaw joins her for one of the few forays into heart-on-sleeve territory, the Costello/Bacharach song God Give Me Strength, but Martin’s deceptive simplicity strips it of schmaltz. Uptempo swingers like Get Happy and Cheek To Cheek celebrate her uncanny surefootedness as well as the skills of saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and pianist Williams. Very classy indeed – and warmer, deeper and more expressive than some of her earlier recordings.

On his long-running Monday night jazz show on Radio 2 recently, Humphrey Lyttelton observed that “in these hyperbolic times” the regular hailing of a new queen of jazz singing was becoming reminiscent of the household of Henry VIII. While all around are losing any sense of taste and judgement, you can be sure Claire Martin will be keeping her head. She already has a terrific trio in Gareth Williams, Clark Tracey, and Laurence Cottle, but her guests here include Bobby Wellins, Jim Mullen and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and her taste in tunes runs from Irving Berlin’s Cheek To Cheek to Bacharach and Costello’s God Give Me Strength, taking in Harold Arlen and Jimmy Van Heusen along the way. A superb collection.

Claire Martin does much better [than Gwyneth Herbert]. Having abandoned the mature-rock-belter pose of Take My Heart, Secret Love continues the work done on Too Darn Hot to settle her back into a jazz-vocal heartland. Where Herbert is all effort, Martin is breezy, even masterful. She tackles what is quite a difficult range of material, from the dated elegance of the title track to the sass of “Jive” and “Love is a bore”, and sews nearly everything up. It’s a voice and a delivery that sounds experienced and toughened by a lot of work, without losing her bloom of succumbing to world-weariness – which, given that she’s almost a veteran of her scene now, you could be forgiven for expecting. She flies through a chorus of “Cheek To Cheek” with only drums in support, and it calls to mind a boppers virtuosity, even though bopping it isn’t really Claire’s thing. On a softer entry such as “Where Do You Start?”, she’s lovely. And I can forgive her for taking a crack at something which really should be completely untouchable, June Christy’s “Something Cool” – she does a fine job…

The rebellious, different, and therefore entirely familiar, Claire Martin is on show in ‘Love Is A Bore’ and ‘Jive’, but for the most part this disc comprises a sophisticated, mature set of standards, which Claire inhabits with grace and authority. maybe spurred on by the compositional inventiveness of Bennett’s guest spots, Gareth Williams also turns in some simply stunning accompaniments, prodded by Laurence Cottle, using the full range of his bass guitar, and the probing drums of the younger Mr Tracey. Cottle’s introduction to ‘But Beautiful’ strays into Mullen’s range, and Claire’s voice begins in a reflective middle register that lends both guitarists an ethereal presence. There are duet spots here and there, such as her intro ‘Get Happy’ with Tracey’s drums, or ‘Where Do You Start?’ – a mature conversation with Mullen. And, yes, maturity is he key. Old songs, familiar songs, but all inhabited by the sense that they really mean something, and can tell us more about this strange world we all inhabit. One of Claire’s best albums to date, and one which will delight those who have always hoped she’d turn her full attention to the classic songbook.

The hype and megabucks deals afforded some of the current crop of singers have passed Claire Martin by, which is very unfair because she’s better than most of them. This is another peach of an album by a performer whose name is a byword for class, individual style and invention. On standards and well-chosen lesser-known material, Martin gives every song the stamp of personal style and keen musicianship. A starry supporting cast including pianist Richard Rodney Bennett, tenorman Bobby Wellins and guitarist Jim Mullen plays its heart out for Claire, who responds with brilliant performances of Secret Love, But Beautiful, Something Cool and God Give Me Strength. There hasn’t been a better jazz vocal album this year.

Andrew Vine – Yorkshire Post – 5th November 2004

South London-born Claire Martin has travelled a long way in developing her talent as a jazz singer, including a brief spell as a singer on transatlantic liners. At least it gave her the chance to raid the Manhattan music stores. Today, she has developed a reputation as an artist of great musicality and versatility. in this album, Martin applies her voice to classics such as ‘Secret Love’, ‘Get Happy’ and ‘Cheek To Cheek’, as well as to more recent material, and easily makes the transition from cool, bluesy jazz to more upbeat tempi in her distinctive, slightly smoky style. Richard Rodney Bennett turns up as arranger and pianist, but it is to long-time collaborator and producer Joel E Siegel, who died this year, that the album is dedicated.

My introduction to Claire Martin was her Too Darn Hot! SACD, reviewed very positively here some months ago. Hearing Secret Love causes me to pronounce her one of the two or three finest jazz vocalists working today. Martin’s sultry, smoky voice goes where she wants and does what she asks it to do. She chooses her songs with impeccable taste, creating an exciting, engaging blend of new and classic tunes. And she has some of the best backup musicians in the world. She knows how to get inside a lyric, then present it simply with unmistakable meaning. Here she swings through such upbeat songs as “Get Happy” and “Jive” while fully emoting the heaviest blues songs, weepers such as “The Meaning of the Blues” and “God Give Me the Strength.” And, accompanied by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett at the piano, she closes the album with the most intimate version of “Something Cool” that I’ve heard since June Christy’s. The sound is warm and intimate, curiously constrained to the center channel a bit too often, but not nearly as rooted there as was Too Darn Hot!…

Remarkably, given the immense musical riches that have poured forth from across the pond throughout the past century, there has never been a truly great British female jazz singer. Yes, Annie Ross was born in Surrey, but she was just three when she moved to the States and is definitely more a musical product of her California upbringing. Some would argue Cleo Laine fits the bill, but I’ve never found Laine’s highly stylized trilling particularly appealing, or, more to the point, jazz-centric. Lately, though, British jazz canaries have been busily making up for lost time. High atop the impressive heap is seasoned pro Claire Martin. Since Secret Love is intended as the album that will establish Martin stateside, I’m guessing that the title is intentionally tongue-in-cheek. For in her native land, love for Martin is no secret whatsoever. It is, in fact, her ninth hit album. The Sunday Times has dubbed Martin “the Madonna of British Jazz”, a statement that completely misdiagnoses the nature of Martin’s appeal. What makes her unique is that she’s not a great jazz singer, but rather the combination of two great jazz singers and one of the all-time great pop stylists, blending the jazz smarts of Anita O’Day, the warm-cool coziness of Chris Connor and the slow-meltingly, icy hauteur of Jo Stafford into one bracing cocktail. Listen to Martin dazzle her way through a dozen tracks, hurdling everything from the heart-crushing ache of Where Do You Start, the sophisticated ennui of Love Is a Bore and the raw, soul-stirring power of Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello’s God Give Me Strength with elegant ease and you’ll instantly join the growing legion on this side of the Atlantic determined that she remain a secret no longer.