Claire Martin - A Modern Art - Mojo

A no-brainer really. Wimbledon's Martin is our best resident jazz singer, and backed by a band that includes the likes of pianist Gareth Williams, bassist Laurence Cottle, guitarist Phil Robson and alto-sax man Nigel Hitchcock, there's no way she could come up with anything less than quality, But A Modern Art is something more than, and it's die to the material Martin has selected to shape and size. There are a couple of stock standards, such as Rodgers & Hart's Everything I Got Belongs To You and Cy Coleman's Everybody Today Is Turning On, alongside here-and-now goodies penned by Steely Dan and Michael Franks, all of which rub shoulders with such lesser knowns as the slinky observation of modern life that is Colin Lazzerini's Totally, plus a couple of Martin and Cottle originals that include Edgeways, a lyrically-enlightened bossa. I repeat, a no brainer.