Autumn 12 - Cultural Quarterly

Warming Up Together
CQ speaks to singer Claire Martin, who received an OBE
for her services to jazz music in December, to find out more
about her singing workshop during Chiddingly Festival.
The 34th Chiddingly Festival
will open on September 27
with a peal of bells. Festival
highlights will include
Hardeep Singh Kohli’s Indian
Takeaway and its unique mix
of comedy and cooking, folk
artists Danny Schmidt and
Carrie Elkins, brass quintet
Mardi Brass performing
musical styles spanning six
centuries, and Swedish jazz
artist Cecilia Stalin.
Jazz singer Claire Martin will
also be conducting a singing
workshop on October 7.
She said: “I’ve done two or
three workshops for
Chiddingly Festival now. I’m
back by popular demand!
“Basically, it’s a bunch of
people who have come together
and I teach them a condensed
everything I know in three
hours. I talk about breathing,
supporting the breath, good, safe
warm ups, things to look out for.
I go round each of them and see
where they’re at with singing –
some are just there for the fun of
it, others are perhaps classically
trained and want to know a bit
more about jazz. We get quite a
lot of choir singers coming.
“Absolutely anyone can come
along, I don’t mind as long as
they like a sing. I’ll have a
keyboard there and I’ll probably
hand out lyrics, and then we sing
and whoever’s brave enough
comes up the front and I can look
at their performance objectively
and criticise it or praise it.”
Claire is happy to pass on
her wealth of experience in
singing jazz.
She said: “When you create
something that’s jazzy, when you
stray off the melody that’s
perhaps written, you need to
actually know what you’re doing.
A lot of people just think that you
make it up as you go along – well,
you are making it up as you go
along but it’s within a structure.
But I might show them a way of
18 Cultural Quarterly Autumn 2012
making them sound more
breathy, for instance, or I might
introduce the idea of doing some
sort of blues lick on things.”
Claire says she gets as much
out of the workshops as the
other singers who attend.
She said: “I get to hear people
warming up together – even
though the church was a bit chilly
last time, it’s a lovely acoustic, so I
really enjoy that. I like the fact
that everyone who comes along is
really into it, everyone goes for it.
“It flies by and I like
supporting the festival. I love all
the staff there and I think they’re
doing a sterling job and I’m
happy to put my name to it.”
Chiddingly Festival
Chiddingly, Lewes
September 27–October 7
www.chiddinglyfestival.co.uk
(Above)
Claire Martin will host a
workshop during the
Chiddingly Festival.
(Left)
Claire with the BBC big band.