Christine Tobin (born 7 January 1963, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish vocalist and composer from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

who has been part of the London

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and improvising scene since the second half of the 1980s. She has been influenced by a diverse range of singers and writers including Betty Carter,

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock a ...

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

, Olivier Messiaen,

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

and poets

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon (born 20 June 1951) is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University P ...

and

Eva Salzman Eva Salzman (born 1960) is a contemporary American poet. Eva Salzman was born in 1960 in New York City to musicologist/composer Eric Salzman and activist/writer Lorna Salzman. She grew up in Brooklyn, where, from the age of 10 until 22, she was a ...

Career

Tobin began singing in her early 20s. She discovered jazz through hearing the Joni Mitchell album ''

Mingus The name Mingus may refer to: * Charles Mingus (1922–1979), jazz composer and double bass player ** Sue Mingus, wife of the jazz composer ** ''Mingus'' (Charles Mingus album), 1961 album by Charles Mingus ** ''Mingus'' (Joni Mitchell album) ...

'', which led her to purchase the Charles Mingus album ''

Mingus Ah Um ''Mingus Ah Um'' is a studio album by American jazz musician Charles Mingus which was released in October 1959 by Columbia Records. It was his first album recorded for Columbia. The cover features a painting by S. Neil Fujita. The title is a co ...

'' and then other jazz albums. She moved to London in 1987 and sang in a band with

Jean Toussaint Jean Toussaint (born July 27, 1960) is an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist. Life and career Toussaint was born in Aruba, Dutch Antilles, and was raised in Saint Thomas and New York City. He learned to play calypso as a child and att ...

Jason Rebello Jason Matthew Rebello (born 29 March 1969) is a British pianist, songwriter, and record producer. Career Rebello was born in Carshalton, Surrey. His father's family is from India. Rebello was raised a Catholic in Wandsworth, London. He was cl ...

Alec Dankworth Alexander William Tamba Dankworth (born 14 May 1960) is an English jazz bassist and composer. Biography Born in London, the son of John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Alec Dankworth grew up in the villages of Aspley Guise and Wavendon, living at ...

, and Mark Taylor before studying jazz at the Guildhall School of Music in 1988 and 1989. While at Guildhall, she formed a band with pianist Simon Purcell, double bassist Steve Watts, and drummer Phil Allen. Purcell encouraged Tobin to write lyrics for his tunes and set her on the path to writing her own material. She took a break from singing in 1990 to study

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...

for two years. For ten years, she sang with the band Lammas, led by saxophonist

Tim Garland Tim Garland (born 19 October 1966) is a British jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His compositions draw from modern jazz and classical concert music. Career Garland was born in Ilford, Essex and grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He starte ...

and guitarist

Don Paterson Donald Paterson (born 1963) is a Scottish poet, writer and musician. Background Don Paterson was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1963. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1990 and his poem "A Private Bottling" won the Arvon Foundation International ...

. In 1993 she formed a band with pianist

Huw Warren Huw Warren is a Welsh jazz pianist and composer whose work crosses several genres. He is known as co-leader and founder of the jazz quartet Perfect Houseplants. Career Huw Warren was the co-leader and founder of the jazz quartet Perfect Ho ...

, bassist Steve Watts, and drummer Roy Dodds, recording the first two albums, ''Aliliu'' and ''Yell of the Gazelle'', of seven on the

Babel Label Babel Label is a jazz record label founded in 1994 by Oliver Weindling. It released more than 130 recordings in its first 20 years, two of which were nominated for the Mercury Prize. Formation Weindling was a banker in England in the 1980s wh ...

with them. She then met guitarist Phil Robson with whom she has formed a strong musical relationship. Her album sleeves are usually designed by

Gee Vaucher Gee Vaucher (born 1945 in Dagenham, Essex, England) is a visual artist. Biography Vaucher met her long-lasting creative partner Penny Rimbaud in the early 1960s when both were attending the South-East Essex Technical College and School of Ar ...

and she has also worked with other members of

Last Amendment Last Amendment, formerly known as The Crass Collective and Crass Agenda, is the working title of a series of collaborations by ex-members of the anarcho-punk band Crass and others. Although Crass had formally split up in 1984, Penny Rimbaud, G ...

including Penny Rimbaud. During 2008, she toured England performing her album ''Secret Life of a Girl'', her first since ''Romance and Revolution'' in 2004 and the seventh to be released on the Babel Label, with her band of pianist Liam Noble, cellist Kate Shortt, guitarist Phil Robson, bassist Dave Whitford, percussionist Thebe Lipere, and drummer Simon Lea. In 2010 Tobin released the album ''Tapestry Unravelled'', a duet with pianist Liam Noble. This is mostly the songs from Carole King's 1971 ''Tapestry'' album with one Tobin original. In 2012 Tobin, who with her partner Phil Robson is now spending much of her time in New York, won a

BASCA The Ivors Academy (formerly the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors – BASCA) is one of the largest professional associations for music writers in Europe. The academy exists to support, protect, and campaign for the interests ...

British Composer Award for her settings of poems by

WB Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, ''Sailing To Byzantium''. She was also awarded a PRS commission to write new music. ''Pelt'' (2016), an album of her settings of poems and lyrics by contemporary Pulitzer Prize winning poet

, is the completion of that commission.

Awards and honors

* Best Vocalist,

BBC Jazz Awards The BBC Jazz Awards were set up in 2001 and had the status of one of the premier jazz awards in the United Kingdom (among those presenting the awards were Denis Lawson, Sue Mingus, Humphrey Lyttelton, Ian Carr, Clive James, Mike Gibbs, Julian Jo ...

, 2008 * British Composer Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Composition BASCA, 2012 * Herald Angel Award for ''A Thousand Kisses Deep'', 2013 * Jazz Vocalist of the Year, Parliamentary Jazz Awards, 2014

Critical reception

In 2012 Tobin released ''Sailing to Byzantium'', a critically acclaimed album of her settings of the poems of W.B. Yeats. ''

Jazzwise ''Jazzwise'', launched in 1997, is the UK jazz monthly magazine. ''Jazzwise'' has a broad sub-genre coverage, from jazz, improv, hard bop, and jazz-rock to bebop and classic jazz, and also covers jazz crossover, including jazz-funk, jazz hip-h ...

'' magazine reviewed the album and said "Christine Tobin has created an unqualified masterpiece." ''BBC Music'' magazine gave it a five-star review, and in a four-star review ''MOJO'' wrote, "Christine Tobin really transcends glib genre-fication. Her expressive range acknowledges finely acquired folk, jazz and 20th-century classical influences, which already sets her apart. And everything is shot through with an unmistakable refinement, free-spirited earthiness and giddy romanticism". In 2014 Tobin released ''A Thousand Kisses Deep'', an album of

songs. ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' said, "A lesser singer might be over-shadowed by the darkness of Cohen's words. But Tobin invests these songs with their full meaning, and even finds the odd glimmer of hope where none was formerly apparent."

Other endeavours

Tobin is also a promoter. For just over a year in 2005 she ran a club at the Progress Bar in

Tufnell Park Tufnell Park is an area in north London, England, in the London boroughs of Islington and Camden. The neighborhood is served by Tufnell Park tube station on the Northern Line. History Origins and boundary ;Medieval and later manor Tufnel ...

. She is also a director of the

Vortex Jazz Club The Vortex Jazz Club is a music venue in London, England. It was founded by David Mossman in the 1988. Background The Vortex started as a jazz club in 1988 and was located in Stoke Newington Church Street, north London. But after the acquisit ...

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...

. She promotes Jazz at the Westcoast in

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

, Kent.

Discography

As leader/solo

* ''Aililiu'' ( Babel, 1995) * ''Yell of the Gazelle'' (Babel, 1996) * ''House of Women'' (Babel, 1998) * ''Deep Song'' (Babel, 2000) * ''You Draw the Line'' (Babel, 2003) * ''Romance and Revolution'' (Babel, 2004) * ''Secret Life of a Girl'' (Babel, 2008) * ''Tapestry Unravelled'' (Trail Belle, 2010) * ''Sailing to Byzantium'' (Trail Belle, 2012) * ''A Thousand Kisses Deep'' (Trail Belle, 2014) * ''Pelt'' (Trail Belle, 2016)

As guest performer

* ''What am I Here For?'' (Don Rendell, 1993) * '' Winter Truce (and Homes Blaze)'' (

Django Bates Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented music ...

, 1995) * ''Shepherd Wheel'' (Peter Fairclough, 1995) * ''Lovers and Strangers'' (Hans Koller, 2001) * ''Stability'' (Clark Tracey, 2001) * ''Savage Utopia'' – Crass Agenda, 2004 ( Babel/ Exitstencil) * '' Penny Rimbaud's 'How? – Crass Agenda, 2004 (Babel) * ''You're My Thrill'' – Peter Herbert, 2004 (Between the Lines) * ''Remembering Nick Drake'' (Nick Smart's Black Eyed Dog, 2005) * ''Introducing Barry Green'' (Barry Green, 2006) * ''Six Strings & the Beat'' (Phil Robson, 2008) * ''BBC Jazz Awards 2008''

With Lammas

*''Lammas'' (Lammas 1991) *''This Morning'' (1993) *''The Broken Road'' (1995) *''Sourcebook'' (1997) *''Sea Changes'' (1999)

Radio

*''Out With Paganism and all that Jazz'' (2012) an award winning documentary for RTE Lyric FM presented by Tobin.

DVD

* ''Red, White & Blues'' (2003) A film about the 60's UK blues boom directed by

Mike Figgis Michael Figgis (born 28 February 1948) is an English film director, screenwriter, and composer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work in ''Leaving Las Vegas'' (1995). Figgis was the founding patron of the independent filmmakers o ...

. Tobin performs with

Humphrey Lyttelton Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family. Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional ...

. * ''Derby Jazz Week'' – Promo DVD cover mount from ''Jazzwise'' magazine. Contains interview and performance of Brandy and Scars.

References

External links

Official website

Christine Tobin talks to Jamie Cullum
BBC Radio 2 (First Broadcast: 31 July 2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tobin, Christine 1963 births Irish jazz singers Irish women singers Living people Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London