Glastonbury Festival - Earthy Charm - Jazz Singer Clare Teal talks about playing at Glastonbury

Earthy Charm - Jazz Singer Clare Teal talks about playing at Glastonbury

16 Jun 2003

In the last couple of years Yorkshire born jazz singer Clare Teal has emerged as one of the freshest new vocal talents in the UK, with an ever increasing army of supporters from the across the media and her sometimes fanatical fans, Teal’s earthy charms and natural talent are irresistible. With two superb albums to her name so far, That’s The Way It Is and Orsino’s Songs both on Candid Records, her mix of classic jazz standards and her own, authentic-sounding originals Teal and her band combine nonchalant virtuosity with a good time feel that in essence focuses squarely on the sheer pleasure this music can evoke. As part of her mammoth tour schedule she will be making a very special appearance at this year’s Glastonbury Festival – editor Mike Flynn spoke to her about this and her new album, plus helping to get jazz wunderkind Jamie Cullum signed, and a whole lot more…

MF You’ve just been touring recently?

CT Yeah, we’ve been all over the place, in the last couple of weeks we’ve done almost 3000 miles, we’ve been up to Edinburgh across to Guernsey, I’ve been working with the BBC Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra, which has been great fun. Then I’ll be going back to work with the John Dankworth big band with Cleo Laine as well, on July 5th, which will be fab. They’re gorgeous, fabulous people, I did the Live From the Stables thing in January, funnily enough with Craig David and Mica Paris which was, funny (laughs), and they were fab, they literally worked a 12 hour day, they’re both 75 and they are both just great.

MF What attracted you to being a jazz singer as opposed to any other kind of singer? As you seem to be enjoying yourself immensely…

CT Well it’s not the money! (Laughs) I’ve always loved that kind of music from being a kid, it was the first music that got under my skin and just moved me. I did a lot of session work when I first started out, singing BV’s and stuff, and then I just kind of thought jazz is where it is for me and I’m just lucky to be doing what I love doing.

MF Your passion and dedication to this wasn’t a premeditated thing in anticipating this recent resurgence in jazz singers, but why do you think this has happened?

CT I think there’s a couple of reasons for this, I used to sell advertising before I did this and I think the advertising world has a lot to do with it, the way they use the music on the adverts to associate with different age groups etc. I guess my target audience are very much “grey pound” but it’s a very strong currency, and these are the people that have disposable income, they have time and they kind of remember bits and bobs of jazz, but they weren’t really the ones that were around when it was happening, but they really enjoy it. But the younger market are getting involved in this as well because they hear it all the time and also through the 80s and 90s there was a hell of a lot of computer music and electronic music. Then it was refreshing because we had the Brit Pop stuff, which was getting back to kind of acoustic stuff, and I think people are now wanting more and more acoustic music but of a higher skill level on the instrumental side and it’s always been a very accessible form of music.

MF In that sense then what’s your take on the whole Jamie Cullum signing for a £1million recently and all the comparisons between David Beckham and Robbie Williams?

CT Well I know, do you know the story of Jamie and me? Well he’s from Bath and he was obviously going along with his musical endeavours and things and a mate of ours brought round his demo CD. I had just been signed to Candid records for about a year, and I was blown away by it so myself and my manager got Jamie’s CD and sent it to Candid and wrote to them every day, saying come on Alan listen to it, If you don’t get him somebody else will. So I feel very proud that I played a little part in getting him on the first stepping-stone and now he’s been picked up by Universal Jazz from Candid. It’s going to be fabulous for him if it goes well, he’s under a tremendous amount of pressure but I’m with him all the way.

MF Who will be playing with you at Glastonbury?

CT I will have a quartet behind me actually at Glastonbury and we’ll be doing stuff mostly from the first two albums and some from my new one which is out in September.

MF What’s the plan for the new album?

CT Well we have to get it mastered first, but I’m really excited about it as I think our writing is better than it’s ever been before and Jamie (Cullum) is doing a duet with us as well. It’ll be standards and originals, some lesser known standards and some well known standards and I try and shake up the styles as well, so there’s everything from early 1930s style mainstream jazz, to one of the songs we wrote is kind of Blue Note bebop-ie kind of jazz waltz. I’m a bit of a Patsy Cline fan, I love the kitsch (Laughs), and so we’ve written a song which I guess is a bit like early 50s easy listening country, mixed with late 40 easy listening jazz, hopefully that will be well received.

MF Do you have any tactics for dealing with a large festival crowd?

CT Well I’m quite unashamedly northern, northerners don’t stand for nonsense really, so I just really like people to enjoy themselves. Our whole ethic is it’s got to be fun, people have to have a laugh, so it’s not just about the music it’s the bits in between you know just making sure people are having a really good time.

MF You’ve been nominated again for a couple of BBC Radio 3 Jazz Awards how do you feel about that?

CT I’m up for two awards, I’m up against Jamie for Best Newcomer and up against Claire Martin and Stacey Kent for Best Vocalist, so I reckon I’ll just go to the party! (Laughs)

MF But would it mean anything for you to win though?

CT It’s recognition isn’t it? It’s respect, I’ve never really gone after the fame thing, but it’s always respect I’ve wanted from the industry really, recognition for what I do. But then I was telling the guys in the band about the nominations, and the bass player went “What do want a meddle? How can you choose the best?” (Laughs) I do sometimes think they should have a separate award ceremony for the PR people and the managers, as they are the ones, especially at awards ceremonies that push you out in front, because there are so many singers, great singers that you come across every day, that if they had the same kind of backing we do they’d give us a run for our money, so I know that we’re very lucky.

MF You have some incredibly loyal fans, what’s this down to?

CT (Laughs) My nutty fans! Well, everybody is welcome to come and have a chat at the end of the gig, even during sometimes – I happily encourage it. I’ve got some absolutely fab people who are 110% behind me, and some absolute nutters (Laughs) who just really want to see me make it. Which is just wonderful, they’re all ace!

Clare will be playing on Saturday morning at 11.30 on the One World Stage – don’t miss this brilliant singer and her great band.

Morcheeba Looking Forward to Festival Appearance

Earthy Charm - Jazz Singer Clare Teal talks about playing at Glastonbury

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