Secret Love - The Herald

On his long-running Monday night jazz show on Radio 2 recently, Humphrey Lyttelton observed that "in these hyperbolic times" the regular hailing of a new queen of jazz singing was becoming reminiscent of the household of Henry VIII. While all around are losing any sense of taste and judgement, you can be sure Claire Martin will be keeping her head. She already has a terrific trio in Gareth Williams, Clark Tracey, and Laurence Cottle, but her guests here include Bobby Wellins, Jim Mullen and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and her taste in tunes runs from Irving Berlin's Cheek To Cheek to Bacharach and Costello's God Give Me Strength, taking in Harold Arlen and Jimmy Van Heusen along the way. A superb collection.