| Christine Tobin | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Born | Ireland |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupations | Singer, Promoter, Club Manager |
| Instruments | Singer |
| Years active | 1995– |
| Labels | Babel Label |
| Associated acts | Lammas |
Christine Tobin is an Irish born jazz singer from Dublin who has been part of the London jazz 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, Leonard Cohen, and poets WB Yeats, Paul Muldoon and Eva Salzman. She has established a reputation as a unique presence on the jazz scene with original songs, style and interpretative or original lyrics.[1]
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Tobin began singing seriously in her early 20s. She discovered jazz through hearing the Joni Mitchell album Mingus, which led her to purchase the Charles Mingus album Mingus Ah Um and then other jazz albums.[2] She moved to London in 1987 and sang in a band with Jean Toussaint, Jason Rebello, Alec Dankworth and Mark Taylor before studying jazz at the Guildhall School of Music in 1988 and 1989.[3] While at Guildhall, she formed a band with pianist/professor 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 at Goldsmiths College for two years.[3]
Tobin was a singer with the band Lammas for 10 years, led by saxophonist Tim Garland and guitarist/poet Don Paterson. In 1993 she formed a new band with pianist Huw Warren, bassist Steve Watts and drummer Roy Dodds, recording the first two albums, Aliliu and Yell of the Gazelle, of seven on the Babel Label with them.[3] She then met guitarist Phil Robson with whom she has formed a strong musical relationship.[3] Her album sleeves are usually designed by Gee Vaucher and she has also worked with other members of Last Amendment 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.[1] She later won the Best Vocalist Award at the BBC Jazz Awards 2008.[4]
In 2010 Tobin released a CD Tapestry Unravelled, a duo with pianist Liam Noble. This is mostly the songs from Carole Kings 1971 Tapestry album with one Tobin original, Closing time.
She is also a promoter, running for just over a year in 2005 a club at the Progress Bar in Tufnell Park and as a director of the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston.