The Waiting Game

Claire Martin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 21, 1996)
• Original Release Date: June 4, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Linn Records
• ASIN: B00000399H
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,646 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You Hit the Spot

2. Be Cool

3. This Funny World

4. Better Than Anything

5. If You Could See Me Now

6. Some Cats Know

7. The Waiting Game

8. It's Always Four A.M.

9. The People That You Never Get to Love

10. Tight

11. Everything Happens to Me

12. The Key to Your Ferrari

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A throw-back to the good old days!, April 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Waiting Game (Audio CD)

This is first-class singing of standards and new material that takes you back to the best. She may not be Ella or Carmen, but she's her own woman and a great singer.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't need that Ferrari to enjoy Claire's music, November 17, 2002

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Waiting Game (Audio CD)

This was the debut album of Britain's 90's jazz queen. Like all subsequent albums, the songs are drawn from a variety of sources, demonstrating that Claire has learned to enjoy many different types of music.

This particular album begins with You hit the spot (from 1936) and continues with Be cool (a Joni Mitchell song - Claire also included a Joni Mitchell cover on her 2002 album, Too darn hot, so obviously loves Joni's songs).

My favorite here is The key to your Ferrari. I think this song is meant as a joke - taken that way, it is quite amusing, although I'm sure Claire would be worth the price. The title track was co-written by Claire with her pianist, Jonathan Gee. Elsewhere on this wonderful album, there are excellent versions of Some cats (a Leiber/Stoller song best known via Peggy Lee's recording), This funny world (by Rodgers and Hart) and The people that you never get to love (also recorded by the late great Susannah McCorkle).

Claire's smoky, alto voice is the main attraction of this album for me, but she is backed by musicians of the highest quality who are allowed to show their brilliance via plenty of instrumental breaks between Claire's singing.

This was the first of many sensational albums by Claire (there were eight plus a best of at the time of this review). It has also been re-issued as part of the Linn box with her second and third albums - so you might consider buying the box instead of the three separate albums.

Anybody who enjoys modern jazz will just LOVE Claire's music.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence from Britain's best, May 10, 2010

By 

Mr G (Lisbon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waiting Game (Audio CD)

Claire Martin is for my money Britain's finest, classiest jazzbird, and this 1992 album finds everything about her style in place. She chooses excellent, unhackneyed songs: she really makes a wonderful job of Joni Mitchell's wry "Be Cool", and nobody else that I can think of has ever recorded "It's Always Four A.M.".

Other great jazz songs like "If You Could See Me Now" and "Some Cats Know" are also ripe for rediscovery, and Claire's interpretations are knowing, subtle and deeply musical. She strikes an excellent balance between musicianship and reading a lyric, making this album an essential listen for fans of great singing and great songs.

The vagaries of the music business continue to amaze me, when a very fine, hardworking singer like Claire Martin can remain relatively unknown while other singers of less merit rise to superstardom. 'Twas ever thus!