Claire Martin on 'A Modern Art'

Claire Martin was a guest on BBC Radio 4's ‘Woman's Hour' on the 5th October. Jane Garvey interviewed the jazz singer and talked about her new album, ‘A Modern Art', which has recently been released to great acclaim. The audience was also treated to a fantastic live track when bassist Laurence Cottle joined Claire for a delightful rendition of ‘Nirvana'.

Claire and Jenny discussed the concept of the album: jazz as a modern art form. Talking about the worrying trend of the obsession with celebrity, or "celebrity-itis", and people looking for a "quick fix" to become famous Claire spoke of her fears that everyone's "dumbing down" music to allow this. "People don't realise music's a lifelong job and being a musician you dedicate your life to music".

"However, audiences are more intelligent than they're given credit for...People could embrace jazz and really like it if they knew about it, but they struggle to find jazz in the media - only a small amount is played on the radio". Claire also spoke of her mission to encourage people to try jazz - go to a gig, download a track, "don't have a misconception of what a jazz gig could be - it's thrilling, wonderful, artful".

Listen to the full interview here.

For more information on Claire's new album or to download a track click here.