Personnel
Claire Martin (vocals), Jim Mullen (guitar), Arnie Somogyi (bass), Clark Tracey (drums, tabla, African drums), Nigel Hitchcock (alto saxophone), Iain Bellamy (tenor and soprano saxophones), Rick Taylor (trombone, percussion)
Rick Taylor, Jonathan Gee, Arnie Somogyi, Clark Tracey, Claire Martin (backing vocals)
Devil May Care is the second studio album from Claire Martin, a jazz singer who found her voice early on in her career. True to form Claire Martin does not turn to the obvious repertoire instead Devil May Care is a blend of original tunes and material by such diverse figures as Noel Coward and sixties hipster Bob Dorough.
The session was produced by Rick Taylor whom Claire had met when working with Wet Wet Wet at the Albert Hall. Mixing pop and jazz idioms, the album helped Claire to success in the ‘Rising Stars’ category of the 1994 British Jazz Awards. One of the tracks ‘On Thin Ice’ – written by Claire herself – was used on the soundtrack of the British feature film, ‘Jack and Sarah’, released in 1995.
Jazz Express commented: ‘She displays a growing maturity and confidence, a wonderful sensuous voice and a fine sense of timing and phrasing.’
One comment on “Devil May Care”
I’ve known The Waiting Game for ages but I’ve only recently been really getting into Devil May Care, a perfect fusion of jazz and pop idioms, immaculately presented!
I love the way Claire sings a song, never insisting on “personality”, eschewing any attempt at exaggeration or mere effect and allowing each song to breathe, whilst at the same time never falling into a trap of impersonality or mere technique – although there’s plenty of that!
A triumph. An album to treasure.
Jules
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