Singer, broadcaster, songwriter and incurable lover of a good tune, Clare Teal has spent more than three decades making music, telling stories and sharing the songs she loves.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Clare grew up in Yorkshire in a house full of music. Her dad’s small collection of 78s opened the door to another world: Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. The records stuck — and so did a fascination with the singers, players, arrangers and songs behind them.
That early obsession became a lifelong one. Clare is not only a performer but a passionate student of the music, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of jazz, swing and the big-band tradition. Whether she is making a record, putting together a concert or sitting behind a radio microphone, curiosity has always been at the heart of what she does.
THE MUSIC
Clare signed to Candid Records in 2001, with her breakthrough coming when broadcasting legend Sir Michael Parkinson discovered her music soon afterwards. A deal with Sony followed, including the Top 20 album Don’t Talk. After two Sony albums and a spell with a Universal imprint, Clare and her partner Mud founded their own independent label, Mud Records, in 2009 — her recording home ever since.
Across 22 albums, Clare has moved happily between standards, original songs and less obvious corners of the repertoire. Her independent releases include the Great British Songbook celebration Hey Ho, At Your request, They Say It’s Swing, and the Fireside and Vault Sessions.
Clare has always enjoyed making records in very different ways. At one extreme is Twelve O’Clock Tales, an ambitious independent production that brought 97 musicians together in the same room, playing at the same time — quite a feat for a small independent label. With every available microphone pressed into service for the ensemble, there wasn’t one left for Clare, so the vocals were recorded later at home, with Alan the dog asleep at her feet.
At the other end of the scale are records built around intimacy and spontaneity. And So It Goes was recorded live in the room with pianist Grant Windsor. For In Good Company, Clare was joined by Pee Wee Ellis and Grant Windsor with nothing mapped out beforehand: they talked between songs and simply followed the conversation to wherever it suggested they should go next. That willingness to leave room for the unexpected has remained an important part of Clare’s approach to making music.
Clare’s live ensembles are similarly flexible. From the Clare Teal 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, with an ever-changing cast of special guests, the line-up can grow or shrink to fit the room, the music and the occasion. Over the years there have also been a Big Band, Big Mini Big Band and Hollywood Orchestra, with Clare always looking for new combinations and fresh ways into the music. At the heart of it all is collaboration: working with many of the country’s finest musicians, renewing long-standing musical partnerships and welcoming new faces — particularly championing exciting emerging talent whenever the opportunity arises.
The list of people she has made music with is similarly wide-ranging. Clare has sung with the likes of Van Morrison, Pee Wee Ellis, Gregory Porter, Jamie Cullum, Curtis Stigers and Kurt Elling, and in 2024 joined Sam Smith at the Royal Albert Hall for their BBC Prom. Longstanding musical relationships have been important too, not least with trumpeter, composer and arranger Guy Barker.
Her voice has also been heard with ensembles including the BBC Concert Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, John Wilson Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Sinfonia of London, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Big Band, RAF Squadronaires and the Royal Marines.
BEHIND THE MICROPHONE
Radio became another major strand of Clare’s career. Over more than 20 years she has broadcast across BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and Jazz FM, both in the studio and live in front of an audience, combining the enthusiasm of a lifelong music fan with the knowledge of someone who has spent her working life in the industry.
She has also produced three BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast across BBC radio and television, and today can be heard every Sunday from 4–6pm on Boom Light, digging into swing, big bands, brilliant singers, familiar favourites and records that deserve another spin.
For Clare, broadcasting and performing have never really been separate worlds. Both are about the same thing: finding music worth hearing and passing it on.
ALONG THE WAY
There have been performances at some extraordinary places along the way, from Glastonbury and Love Supreme to Cadogan Hall, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, The Stables, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead and the Royal Albert Hall.
Plus a few things to put on the mantelpiece too. Clare is a four-time British Jazz Singer of the Year, has also won BBC Jazz Singer of the Year and Boisdale Jazz Singer of the Year, and twice received Arts & Entertainment Personality of the Year at the Yorkshire Awards. In 2011 she received the BASCA Gold Badge for her contribution to British music, and in 2015 the University of Wolverhampton awarded her an honorary Doctor of Music.
But the awards and grand stages are only part of the story. Clare has always been happiest when a good song, a good idea and the right musicians collide — whether that’s in front of thousands of people or with a handful of players in a room.
AND NOW…
Clare continues to tour throughout the UK, from intimate performances to her Big Mini Big Band and special concert projects, but an increasingly important part of the story is what happens between those concerts.
New recordings, collaborations and sessions are continually taking shape. Recent projects have brought Clare together with singer-songwriter Ben Cipolla, guitarist Dave Archer, clarinettist Adrian Cox with guitarist Honey Boulton, exploring different combinations, repertoire and ways of making music.
Some of those collaborations are deliberately small and immediate; others may grow into something larger. They sit alongside Clare’s archive of unreleased recordings and filmed performances — plenty of music already made, and plenty more still to come.
Add a weekly radio show, touring, writing, recording and the occasional unexpected musical adventure, and there is no great desire to start taking things quietly.
The thrill is still in finding a great song, finding the right people to play it with — and seeing where it leads.