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Christine Tobin

Irish-born singer/songwriter Christine Tobin has been living in London since 1987. Her work is firmly rooted in a tradition that emphasizes storytelling on a musical bedrock that creatively blends blues, folk and jazz; a territory that is occupied by such luminaries as Joni Mitchell, Cassandra Wilson and Nina Simone. Her innovative and expressive style has led The Guardian to call her the "Bjork of Euro jazz." She has recorded six albums for Babel, one of the UK 's most dynamic and creative indie labels. Her music has been described as authentic, streetwise, radical and romantic. John L. Walters of The Guardian says she possesses a "24-carat voice" and Jazzwise hails her as "probably the most adventurous jazz singer of her generation in this country, with the ideas and willingness to push back the boundaries and explore new territory with each new album."

Christine works regularly on the UK jazz scene, appearing at Ronnie Scott's, The Pizza Express Soho Jazz Club, Jazz Café and many reputed international festivals. Her earlier work includes stints in Django Bates' Delightful Precipice, Tim Garland's Lammas, and she has worked in bands with Julian Arguelles, Kenny Wheeler, Joe Locke, Clark Tracey, Gary Husband and Billy Childs amongst many others.

Christine's back catalogue is infused with the rich, dark layers of her probingly intense original songs, as well as her unique, sharp-edged interpretive powers on a diverse field of standards from Leonard Cohen through to Cole Porter. Christine's debut album on Babel, Aililiu was released in 1995; Yell Of The Gazelle in 1996; House Of Women in 1998 and Deep Song in April 2000. The first three albums focused on Tobin's original material while the fourth, recorded in New York, is a tribute to the great American song tradition and concentrates on interpretation and creative arrangements. It also features the legendary American drummer Billy Hart, Austrian double-bassist Peter Herbert, guitarist Phil Robson and the highly acclaimed U.S. saxophonist Mark Turner. You Draw The Line, recorded in 2003, saw a return to a majority of originals as well as imaginative covers of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen; it was no. 4 in The Guardian's "101 things to do, buy and see at Xmas."

2004 saw Christine nominated for Best Vocalist at the BBC Jazz Awards, and her vivid interpretations of Bessie Smith were featured in film director Mike Figgis' Red White and Blues documentary in the Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues series.

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Radio & Podcasts

Christine Tobin & Phil Robson - Partners in Time

Read "Christine Tobin & Phil Robson - Partners in Time" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


As one of the leading European vocalists, Christine Tobin has shown a versatility and depth that few other singers have. After moving to New York City in 2015 she has been involved in countless projects confirming her versatility and originality. She has found in long-time collaborator guitarist Phil Robson the perfect partner in time. This mixtape features highlights from their discographies, with a special focus on Christine Tobin's take on the poetry of William Butler Yeats and Paul Muldoon, new ...

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Album Review

Christine Tobin: A Thousand Kisses Deep

Read "A Thousand Kisses Deep" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


A Thousand Kisses Deep brings together Christine Tobin's voice, Leonard Cohen's songs, a bunch of Premier League musicians and superb arrangements. What's not to like? Nothing. There's absolutely nothing not to like. Tobin is blessed with a distinctive, expressive, voice. She's also an artist who pursues her own vision with an admirable determination--and who isn't afraid to risk comparison with some of the finest writers of the modern era. That vision has seen her re-imagining Carole King's classic ...

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Album Review

Christine Tobin: Sailing To Byzantium

Read "Sailing To Byzantium" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


On Sailing To Byzantium singer/songwriter Christine Tobin adds music to the poems of Ireland's much-loved William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Get this wrong, and an entire nation might well demand answers: get it right and a richly imaginative and beautiful recording is promised. Tobin gets it right.Tobin's love of Yeats goes back to her teens in Dublin, when her first boyfriend would read her two of the poems: the beautiful “When You Are Old" and the mysterious “The Song ...

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Interview

Christine Tobin and Liam Noble: Unraveling Tapestry

Read "Christine Tobin and Liam Noble: Unraveling Tapestry" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Christine Tobin is an uncompromising singer whose distinctive voice has graced the British jazz scene since the mid-1990s. Whether singing her own songs or interpreting the work of others, Tobin brings a unique sensibility to each number; creating atmospheric and, at times, emotionally intense performances. Liam Noble, one of the UK's most original jazz pianists, has worked with Tobin for some years as part of her regular band, as well as leading his own projects. Both performers can be expected ...

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Album Review

Christine Tobin and Liam Noble: Tapestry Unravelled

Read "Tapestry Unravelled" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


For many jazz singers, the Great American Songbook is the body of work that must be delved into and reinterpreted. In more recent years, the work of writers such as Tom Waits and Nick Cave is emerging as the source for some fine jazz-based interpretations. The singer/songwriters of the '70s, perhaps surprisingly, have yet to become such a central part of the jazz vocal canon, but singer Christine Tobin and pianist Liam Noble may be set to change things with ...

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Album Review

Christine Tobin / Liam Noble: Tapestry Unravelled

Read "Tapestry Unravelled" reviewed by Chris May


After seven, mostly self-penned albums on the Babel label, Tapesty Unravelled is something of a departure for the Irish-born, UK-based singer Christine Tobin: all but one of the tunes are covers, and, for the first time, the setting is stripped down to a duo. But as on the earlier albums, Tobin weaves her signature mix of jazz and folk influences, while pianist Liam Noble ensures a high degree of “pure" jazz content.

As some will already have surmised, ...

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Profile

Christine Tobin: Slotting into Place

Read "Christine Tobin: Slotting into Place" reviewed by Marcus O'Dair


She may have won this year's BBC Jazz Award for best vocalist, yet Christine Tobin was not, ostensibly at least, the main attraction in Radioplay, which just completed its October, 2008 run at London's Lyric theatre following an earlier incarnation at the Vortex last year. Rather, with guitarist Phil Robson and bassist Dave Whitford, her job was to provide a live soundtrack to a frequently surreal one-man show from a gentleman named Ed Gaughan.

“It's a ...

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Festival

Christine Tobin Trio For Limerick Jazz Festival 2013

Christine Tobin Trio For Limerick Jazz Festival 2013

Source: All About Jazz

Jazz retakes the city of Limerick for four days as the Limerick Jazz Festival returns for its second edition from the 26th – 29th September at various venues around town. Legendary Irish jazz guitarist Louis Stewart kicks off the festival on Thursday, in an intimate duo performance with pianist Jim Doherty. Winner of the special jury prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968, Stewart is described by Cormac Larkin of The Irish Times as “one of the finest, most ...

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Interview

Singer Christine Tobin and Pianist Liam Noble Discuss "Tapestry Unravelled" at AAJ

Singer Christine Tobin and Pianist Liam Noble Discuss "Tapestry Unravelled" at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Christine Tobin is an uncompromising singer whose distinctive voice has graced the British jazz scene since the mid-1990s. Whether singing her own songs or interpreting the work of others, Tobin brings a unique sensibility to each number; creating atmospheric and, at times, emotionally intense performances. Liam Noble, one of the UK's most original jazz pianists, has worked with Tobin for some years as part of her regular band, as well as leading his own projects. Both performers can be expected ...

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Music Industry

Meet a Singer Who's Right on Song: Christine Tobin

Meet a Singer Who's Right on Song: Christine Tobin

Source: All About Jazz

Christine Tobin stops mid-sentence and tells herself to put her shovel away and stop digging. The Dublin-born singer has just been waxing lyrical about the power of sad songs to make both singer and listener feel better when she realises she might be setting herself up for inclusion in the miserable-git school of performer. She's far from miserable. It's true that, with arguably the most distinctively alluring voice on the British jazz scene, Tobin can sound like the roof's just ...

"She should be on a global stage rubbing shoulders with fellow troubadours like Cave, Mitchell and Cohen...It's a tribute to the quality of Tobin's writing that there are no weak spots in this excellent collection"
John L Walters The Guardian ****

"Sexy, gutsy, bluesy and beautiful."
Lionel Shriver, author of We Need To Talk About Kevin on Secret Life of a Girl

"This girl's life can't stay secret much longer."
Rob Adams, Scottish Herald album of the week

"She has clearly assimilated into her own style the music from apparently disparate fields

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