IN THEIR first appearance for some time, the BBC Big Band with featured singer Claire Martin “celebrated the big band divas”.

They opened with four instrumental numbers with a straightforward arrangement of Love for Sale, followed by Count Basie’s One O’clock Jump, taken at a loping tempo with a light rhythmic feel Basie would surely have approved.

A rather mundane Louis Bellson piece, Blow Your Horn, featured Martin Shaw’s flugelhorn before a swinging Sweet Georgia Brown with vibes player Anthony Kerr.

Martin, who was in good form, then came on to perform a wide range of songs associated with an even wider range of singers though these were very much her own interpretations.

Peggy Lee’s Fever and Goin’ to Kansas City, Sarah Vaughan’s The Very Thought of You and I’ve Got the World on a String were followed by Billie Holiday’s (and Alison Moyet’s) Old Devil Called Love and Lena Horne’s Out of my Continental Mind.

Here, and later, there were several fine solos, particularly by tenor saxophonist Robert Fowler.

The second set opened similarly with big band versions of Flying Home and Begin the Beguine before the singer returned with Come Back to Me and a fine version of Ain’t Got Nothing But the Blues.

Then, in a nice touch for this concert, the band played two arrangements by the late Steve Gray who came from Middlesbrough: There is no Greater Love, which had one of the best solos of the night on valve trombone by Andy Wood, and Mood Indigo.

More vocals followed with an outstanding version of The Man That Got away and three songs associated with Ella Fitzgerald including a swinging Come Fly with Me.

Peter Bevan