Claire Martin interview: “People think that it’s the Americans that swing hardest – I think us Europeans give them a fair run for their money”

By whichever yardstick you care to use, the past decade has been a remarkable one for Claire Martin. Musically speaking, her facility for subtly reinventing herself is evidenced by albums that include the ultra-refined Too Much In Love to Care, dedicated to the Great American Songbook and recorded with Kenny Barron, and Martin’s best-selling recording to date; the magnificent final chapter documenting her musical partnership with her much missed friend, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Say It Isn’t So; the beautiful collaboration with the Montpellier Cello Quartet on Time and Place; plus the rollicking joie de vivre of We’ve Got a World That Swings recorded with her great friend Ray Gelato.

Factor in an OBE for Services to Jazz in 2011 and a BASCA Gold Badge Award for her contribution to jazz in 2018; her eighth British Jazz Award (for Best Vocalist, also received last year), as well as directing four editions of the South Coast Jazz Festival, and it becomes clear why the epithet tour de force has attached itself to the singer.

Martin’s latest musical venture, which sees her hooking up with an all-Swedish trio, taps directly into a musical scene that has long been a source of fascination for her. “We’ve all got those Stan Getz albums, the Stockholm stuff, and I’ve been lucky enough to be exposed to Swedish musicians over the years,” Martin tells me. “I always knew they were bloody good, but never really had the chance to get immersed in it until I went on the road with Lynne Arriale and Grace Kelly. It was then I toured the length and breadth of Sweden and really got an idea of, first of all the way they treat musicians and the way they value musicians, secondly how bloomin’ good they are, and thirdly how many places there are to play in Sweden that are really supported – and in Denmark as well – where they pay a higher rate of tax and get a beautiful arts centre with a fantastic Steinway.

“It’s been in the last dozen years when I’ve done so much more work in Denmark and Sweden that my eyes have been opened to it. It is a fascination, but it’s also an appreciation. It’s that whole thing about people thinking that it’s the Americans that really swing hardest – I think us Europeans give them a fair run for their money.”

It was on the Arriale/Kelly tour four years ago (“a three-girl front thing, sort of a Charlie's Angels thing,” Martin explains) that she first met and performed with two-thirds of what was to become her new trio, namely Martin Sjöstedt (piano and arrangements) and Daniel Fredriksson (drums). Sjöstedt was on the tour as a bass player, though after Martin heard him playing ‘Skylark’ during a soundcheck at Ronnie Scott’s on her own gig, Sjöstedt subsequently moved to the piano chair. The later addition of bassist Niklas Fernqvist, at 30 the youngest player in the band, completed the trio.

“It was January, it was cold, it was snowing,” Martin recalls of the Sweden tour, “and I just loved them on the road. I thought they were great, supportive players and great people. I’ve been quite fascinated with these three players, they’re quite something.

“They bring a different kind of playing to the table – we sit and discuss dynamics, which I’ve never done with any band. It’s very important to them and I’ve deeply appreciated that. I think it’s helped me sing differently and, dare I say it, better because there’s a tenderness about their playing – I can explore different colours in my voice. They’re really concerned whether a key change works. There’s so much thought, they really care. When I go out, and I can have the choice of trio, these are the guys I want, because they’re stretching me. I feel like it’s a reinvention that’s good for me.”

In my previous conversation with Kurt Elling (‘Questioning Times’, Jazzwise #228), he noted that one of the characteristics of the great vocalists as they mature was a deepened relationship with the pulse (“the sense of overall timing becomes more subtle and nuanced and seasoned,” as he put it). On her forthcoming album Believin’ It – her first with the new trio and her 20th release on Linn Records, which features handpicked material by Martin with “connections to people I love” – there are two songs which embody this elevated, keen-edged rhythmic approach.

The first is the title-track, which appends a new lyric by Martin’s friend, Brighton-based vocalist Imogen Ryall, to an Andy Bey scat solo, one of the standout moments on Bey’s fine 1998 album Shades of Bey.

“I rang Andy,” Martin notes. “I got his number through a bit of detective work and asked him what the lyrics were on ‘Believin’ It’. And, bless him, he said ‘hang on a minute’ – and I hear him shuffle across the floor and open a drawer, then a bit of rustling, and he comes back and goes ‘OK, ready?’ and then he dictates it all to me. And I’m in heaven because he’s just such a gorgeous man.

“The scat’s got a lovely shape,” Martin says. “What I like is the title of the song: it’s basically what we’re all doing with this music, which is you’ve got to believe in it, haven’t you? I’ve kept believing in it for nearly 33 years. I hope it’s a positive message for the album.”

While Martin has always been blessed by dazzling technique and a drop-dead gorgeous timbre, it’s the incredibly fleet rhythmic dexterity here that takes the breath away, the singer seemingly floating over the bar lines to make them all but disappear.

The second song which highlights Martin’s time-bending rhythmic approach is her own reworking of Pat Metheny’s ‘Timeline’, for which she has penned new lyrics, in which her control of the melodic line is never less than spectacular.

“I’m not a very frequent lyricist,” Martin says, “but I just love the [Michael] Brecker version of that tune on Time Is of the Essence. After I’d written it, I did it for a few years and then I put it to bed. But then I thought, no, I should record that. So I got Gwilym [Simcock, pianist in Metheny’s band] to show him the lyric and he agreed to it, so I’m thrilled about that.”

Someone who knows Martin’s voice better than anyone, who has worked with the singer on every Linn album she’s recorded, is the producer and engineer Calum Malcolm. When I ask him what are the qualities he most admires about Martin, it’s telling that he also remarks on her infallible relationship with the pulse.

“For me, vocal rhythm is very important, and it’s here that Claire really delivers. Her ballads always sound beautifully balanced and easy, but she makes complex songs sound equally effortless. I also love the fact that when we record, there is almost nothing to fix later. Claire’s vocal is always the live take. Maybe we occasionally redo a wrong lyric or cracked note, but 99 per cent is live. On this latest album, for example, all she did was add a couple of harmonies. Drinks are usually around six o’clock.”

It’s a theme which the trio’s pianist and arranger Martin Sjöstedt also picks up on. “What struck me first when we started playing – which really makes her unique – is her rhythm. No matter what style or tempo we’re playing, Claire is always swinging hard but with a totally unforced and relaxed feel. In other words, the feeling of jazz. Claire is such a versatile singer that she has no fear reacting to whatever is happening around her, but she can also strongly lead the band in a new direction. From my point of view, this band creates the ideal platform for a conversation in music.”

With further tributes to John Surman and Karin Krog (‘Cherry Tree Song’), Duncan Lamont (‘I Told You So’), Joni Mitchell (‘You Dream Flat Tires’), Michael Franks (‘Tokyo’), Bobby Hutcherson (via Joe Locke’s ‘A Little More Each Day’) and more, Claire says of the album, “I want this one to fly, I really want this one to go, because I’d like to stay with these guys for a bit and explore different material with them. Maybe add a horn or another player.”

Martin’s singularly protean qualities will continue to be honed this year, with a forthcoming recording with her great friend Jim Mullen, paying homage to Grammy winning guitar legend Wes Montgomery, plus a new project with the pianist and composer Nikki Iles, as she explains. “We’re going to celebrate the 90th birthday of Bill Evans. I’ve never really sat and worked properly at a show with Nikki – so it’s exciting for me, it’s exciting for her, there’s a theme to it, there’s a reason for it.”

Having spent the past 30-plus years fine-tuning her craft as a jazz artist, when asked how she maintains her focus and dedication to her art, Martin replies:

“I don’t think you can just keep turning up at the same gigs doing the same thing. You’ve got to bring fresh stuff, sing different material and keep it interesting – for me, let alone anyone else. The UK jazz scene is where I live. I play with Liane Carroll, Ian Shaw, Dave Newton, Jim Mullen. I really only work with people I absolutely adore and love to bits. And now with these Swedish boys, who I can’t help feeling a bit mother hen to. I surround myself with people that knock me out every single time. They keep me interested.”

This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of Jazzwise. Never miss an issue – subscribe today!