Friends for 30 years, multi award-winning vocalist Claire Martin OBE and legendary saxophonist and vocalist Ray Gelato have combined their love of all things ‘swing’ and joined forces for their first show together, ‘It’s a Swinging Affair’.
These much celebrated and respected musicians share the stage with a world-class trio led by renowned-pianist Dave Newton to explore the Great American Songbook including classics such as Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, They all Laughed and Can’t We Be Friends.
Claire Martin ranks amongst the four or five finest jazz vocalists on the planet.
The stylish, sharp-suited Gelato brings an unmistakable physical presence to the bandstand. He is a larger-than-life character.
Jazz vocalist Claire Martin grew up in a household full of jazz and great music. By the age of 12 she said she had learnt all Judy Garland’s songs, and Ella Fitzgerald’s Song Books was the catalyst for her to pursue becoming a professional singer. Signed to Linn Records in 1991, she has collaborated with the likes of Martin Taylor, John Martyn, Stephane Grappelli, Mark Nightingale, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Jim Mullen and Nigel Hitchcock.
Claire is a featured soloist with the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, the BBC Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra. She has co-presented BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Line Up since 2000, and in 2011, Claire was awarded an OBE for her Services to Jazz. More recently she has embarked on a new project with The Montpellier Cello Quartet. With new arrangements especially written for her by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Mark Anthony Turnage and Django Bates, this new chamber jazz ensemble have produced an album, ‘Time and Place’ which features singer/pianist Joe Stilgoe.