Claire Martin – Believin’ It (2019) [LINN FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Claire Martin is joined by her all-Swedish trio as she celebrates another career milestone: recording her twentieth album for Linn Records. Uppsala-born pianist/arranger Martin Sjöstedt leads the trio comprising bassist Niklas Fernqvist and drummer Daniel Fredriksson. Sjöstedt, one of Sweden’s most gifted and talked about jazz musicians, has created imaginative new arrangements of contemporary material exclusively for Claire. Encompassing a century’s worth of tunes, tracks include ‘Broken Wings’ by Mr. Mister and ‘I’m Not in Love’ by 10cc, as well as favourites by Joe Locke, Joni Mitchell, Ivan Lins and Pat Metheny. Claire remembers legendary singer Lena Horne with her own arrangement of ‘Come Runnin’’ and pays tribute to Norway’s Karin Krog with ‘Cherry Tree Song’.

From the super-fine musicianship to the beautiful recorded sound, Claire Martin’s first album with her new all- Swedish trio is a towering success. Featuring new lyrics by Imogen Ryall to an Andy Bey scat solo, the title-track, ‘Believin’ It’, crystallises all of Martin’s outstanding qualities: infallible pocket, dazzling technique, lustrous timbre and phrasing to die for. If anything, Martin’s reworking of Pat Metheny’s ‘Timeline’, for which she has penned new lyrics, is even more spectacular, with her control of the rapid-fire melodic line a thing of wonder. As well as singularly beautiful versions of the Ivan Lins classic, ‘Love Dance’, vibist Joe Locke’s Bobby Hutcherson tribute `A Little More Each Day’ and the Gordon Jenkins/Johnny Mercer standard, ‘P.S I Love You’, there are deeply swinging takes on Curtis Lewis’s ‘The Great City’ and Roc Hillman’s ‘Come Runnin” (Martin’s own homages to Shirley Horn and Lena Home respectively), there are stellar re-imaginings of Joni Mitchell’s ‘You Dream Flat Tires’, Michael Franks’ ‘Rainy Night in Tokyo’, plus John Surman and Karin Krog’s enchantingly folk-like ‘Cherry Tree Song’. Elsewhere, to hear Martin’s fine re-workings of 1970s and 1980s UK/US pop rock, head straight for ‘I’m Not In Love’ and ‘Broken Wings’, the latter lit up by a coruscating solo from Sjostedt. An album that unfailingly touches the heart and lifts the soul.

Tracklist:
01 – Come Runnin’
02 – Rainy Night in Tokyo
03 – Believin’ it
04 – I’m Not in Love
05 – Broken Wings
06 – Timeline
07 – A Little More Each Day
08 – You Dream Flat Tires
09 – Cherry Tree Song
10 – The Great City
11 – P.S. I Love You
12 – Love Dance
13 – I Told You So

Produced by Phillip Hobbs & Calum Malcolm. Engineered by Calum Malcolm.
Recorded on November 7 & 8, 2018 at Master Chords Studio, London, United Kingdom.

Musicians:
Claire Martin – vocals
Martin Sjöstedt – piano
Niklas Fernqvist – double bass
Daniel Fredriksson – drums

FLAC 24-192

mqs.link_ClaireMartinBelievinIt2019LINN24192.part1.rar
mqs.link_ClaireMartinBelievinIt2019LINN24192.part2.rar
mqs.link_ClaireMartinBelievinIt2019LINN24192.part3.rar
mqs.link_ClaireMartinBelievinIt2019LINN24192.part4.rar

FLAC 24-96

mqs.link_ClaireMartinBelievinIt2019FLAC2496.part1.rar
mqs.link_ClaireMartinBelievinIt2019FLAC2496.part2.rar