Customer Reviews

Make This City Ours

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
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Just how many good albums do you have to cut before you get the success you deserve. Pick this one up as its the best in a long line before her crossover mainstream album ( the somewhat disappointing Take My Heart just released here in the UK). The backing band is excellent and the choice of material is imaginative once again. Check her out live and buy this album. Its as good if not better than any of Diana Krall's albums - and as a bonus you will still be awake tapping your feet at the end of it rather than asleep on the sofa.

We often hear of people comparing new singers to Ella, there will never be another Ella but Claire Martin gets closer than any other singer. She is comfortable with ballads as well as uptempo numbers and she scats. The best song on the CD is "Empty Bed." I first heard it on KEWU radio and it was one of those songs that sticks in your head. The band is solid and innovative especially Gareth Willimas on piano. Definitely give this a listen.

This was the last jazz album that Claire recorded before she included pop and rock influences in her music, though she has since returned to her jazz roots. This particular album was recorded in New York and features an excellent selection of covers and originals.

The set begins with the excellent title track, which was previously recorded by Sarah Vaughan on her Brazilian romance album. Another excellent song, Bye bye country boy, was written by Blossom Dearie and has also been covered by Susannah McCorkle and Karrin Allison among others. No moon at all and How deep is the ocean are classic songs from the golden age of the Great American songbook. All those covers are superbly performed by Claire and her musicians and stand comparison with any other versions of these songs that I've heard, but perhaps the best of the lot here is Empty bed, one of the original songs and the only song that Claire co-wrote - it is also the longest track, playing for nearly eight minutes.

While this is not my favorite Claire Martin album - that accolade goes to her 2002 release, Too darn hot, which is one of my all-time favorite albums of any genre - it is a brilliant album full of the quality songs and performances that I've come to expect from Claire.

This is an excellent and well balanced album which was produced in the year of 1997 when Claire won the British Jazz Awards as Best Vocalist yet again.