Saxophonist Clare Hirst and pianist/ vocalist Hilary Cameron have a long history of working together. Primarily jazz musicians they first met as members of the salsa band Candela, then moved on to form the house band for the multi-media performance art club “Civilisation”. This band became the foundation for the Clare Hirst Quartet, who have a CD of original compositions out on 33 records, “Tough and Tender”. This new CD demonstrates their love of jazz and latin music and all the many grooves that lie between.
Originally from Cumbria, Clare has worked with many well-known musicians from the pop world including, David Bowie, The Communards and Mica Paris.
Since then she has played alongside many of the country’s finest jazz musicians such as David Newton, Alan Barnes, Clare Teal, Mark Nightingale, Don Weller, Art Themen, Phil Lee and Dick Pearce. She has toured extensively in USA, Japan, Europe including many TV appearences. Her performance with David Bowie on Live-aid can be seen on the soon to be released Live-aid DVD.
Hilary Cameron has just returned from spending two years studying at The Manhattan School of music in New York. Well known for her work with Just East of Jazz she has not only proved herself to be a great piano player, but she also has a wonderful voice to match.
The fact that Clare and Hilary have played together a lot is evidenced on this album by their rare ability to interact beautifully, each adding to what the other has played to weave a wonderful fabric of sound. The rhythm section of Tom Herbert on Bass and Dave Smith on drums excel at handling the many different grooves on this album.
This new CD features two original tunes, Three Little fish by Clare Hirst and the title track “Summer Song” by Hilary Cameron, plus some standards, “East of the Sun” and “My one and only Love” along with some more unusual covers e.g. “500 miles High” by Chick Corea and an impassioned version of “Heard it through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye. |
