Surround Claire Martin - He Never Mentioned Love (2007) SACD-R multichannel music

Artist: Claire Martin | Album: He Never Mentioned Love | Released: 2007 | Quality: SACD-R ( DST 5.1, DST 2.0 Bitrate: 1 Bit/2.8MHz ) | Label: Linn Records | Catalog #: AKD 295 | Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening

recorded 2nd-4th December 2006 at Jeremy Stacey Studios, London
produced by Laurence Cottle
mixed by Calum Malcolm, Laurence Cottle and Claire Martin

Claire Martin returns with this stylish tribute to the late and legendary American songstress Shirley Horn. "He never mentioned love" sees the UK's finest jazz singer investigate songs memorably performed by her greatest influence.

A perfect match...

I heard Shirley Horn's first album, "Embers and Ashes", on a visit to New York City in 1964. I shall never forget the moment when I put the needle down on the disc and heard Shirley singing and playing He Never Mentioned Love, which I had chosen because it was unfamiliar and intriguing. I had never heard of the song, nor of Miss Horn.

Here was a lovely, confiding, gentle voice, telling a touching story of youthful heartbreak; the piano played four beautiful, steady chords in every single bar right through to the end of the song; there was only one simple chorus, no vocal arabesques, no pianistic arabesques, no melodrama and no display, yet the track is perfection.

This was the album which Miles Davis heard, and which made him refuse to play at the Village Vanguard unless this unknown singer-pianist was booked to play opposite him.

I probably heard every note that Shirley recorded from then on. I saw her perform many times. We became good friends, and she even used sometimes to cook dinner for me at her house in Washington, D.C., when I was in the neighbourhood, refusing to sit down at the table and eat with her husband Shep and me. She used to have a little drink and make sure we had enough of her excellent cooking. But I never got over the fact that I was in the presence of a great musician.

Everything that could reasonably have been said about Shirley's work was written by the late Joel E. Siegel, who managed her for a while, and who was largely responsible for her re-emergence from quiet domesticity in the 1980s. He was a close and important friend, not only of Shirley's, but of Claire Martin's and of mine. Joel was possibly the most perceptive, knowledgeable and articulate of any writer who ever discussed the art of the jazz singer. He wrote the liner notes for seven of Shirley's albums.