Time and Place perfectly sums up Claire Martin’s jazz roots beginnings and the inventive, forward-thinking repertoire choices that have framed her enviable career. Together Claire and The Montpellier Cello Quartet create a magical sound fusion of jazz-chamber music that encompasses new arrangements from an eclectic group of songwriters including Lennon & McCartney, George Gershwin, David Bowie and Thelonius Monk. With the connections borne of 30 years in the business Claire commissioned imaginative new arrangements, including Joni Mitchell’s ‘Two Grey Rooms’ by renowned composer Mark Anthony Turnage. Pianist Joe Stilgoe guests on his own track ‘Lost For Words’ and delivers a distinctive arrangement of Lennon & McCartney’s ‘She’s Leaving Home’. There are also echoes of The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ on a new arrangement of David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’. Claire’s long-time partnership with Richard Rodney Bennett is acknowledged with both song-writing and arranging credits; ‘Early To Bed’ is quintessential Bennett and Claire gives a heartfelt performance. From album opener via Claire’s own hugely catchy arrangement of ‘Catch Me If You Can’ to the album closer, ‘Goodbye For Now’, Time and Place sees Martin return with renewed vigour to pop-crossover territory, a trend she championed long before Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux made this style an accepted genre.
