Claire Martin, backed by her regular trio and supported by guests, brought jazz to St Mary’s.

Claire Martin brings an evening of jazz to the piano festival

An Evening of Jazz, St Mary in the Castle, Thursday 5 March 2020: The newly launched Hastings International Piano Festival aims to cover all aspects of the piano, and so brought a jazz evening to St Mary’s, led by Claire Martin, as HOT’s music correspondent Brian Hick reports. Photos by Peter Mould.

The acclaimed international jazz vocalist was joined by her regular partners Martin Sjöstedt, piano, Niklas Fernqvist, double bass, and Daniel Fredriksson, percussion, along with special guests Alex Garnett and Liane Carroll.

If the piano was not quite at the heart of the evening, then it certainly played a respectable part with some fine breaks from Martin Sjöstedt in the first half and the more familiar presence of Liane Carroll in the second.

Claire duetting with local jazz star Liane Carroll.

Claire Martin has an eclectic style, drawing on numbers by Tony Bennett, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald as well as more recent songs. She also ranges vocally from clearly articulated items like the laid-back approach to A rainy night in Tokyo or the scat vocals of Believe in it.

It was a pity that she seemed to assume her audience would be familiar with much of her music, as her introductions did not carry well within the acoustic at St Mary’s, so we missed much of what passed between the items.

Saxophonist Alex Garnett is a recent visitor to Hastings, bringing an evening of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz to the White Rock Theatre, but here he played duets with Claire as well as adding a number of scintillating breaks alongside the trio.

In the second half Claire was joined by Lianne Carroll who is well-known to us for her many years of enthusiastic music-making in Hastings. She has collaborated with Claire Martin in he past and this shone through as the evening progressed.

Claire Martin and her Swedish trio – Martin Sjöstedt, piano, Niklas Fernqvist, double bass, and Daniel Fredriksson, percussion.

Also in: Music & Sound