Caecilie Norby

Caecilie Norby - My Corner Of The Sky - 1996 - Blue Note

Although she is not a household name, the 44 year old Danish vocalist, Caecilie Norby was elected one of the ten most popular Jazzsingers throughout the world in 1996. She can do it all: Fusion, Rock and Jazz. She has a lovely elegant voice with a great lyrical touch, and her natural improvisational ability is wonderful. She already has a stupendous career, and she has contributed to breaking down the sometimes rigid jazz structure into genres. She has also attracted notice by awakening an interest in Jazz in the young, traditionally rock oriented audience. This may not be her strongest album, but it's very good, and covers some songs rarely sung by jazz vocalists. Bowie's "Life on Mars" and Sting's "Set Them Free" are done really well. If you would like to hear more of this very talented lady, buy her excellent 1995 self titled album "Caecilie Norby." with contributions by Randy Brecker, Chick Corea, Don Grolnick, Rick Margitza, Billy Hart and Lars Jansson.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1. Look of Love, The - B.Bacharach/H.David
2. Right to Love, The - L.SchriffrinG./Lees
3. Set Them Free - Sting
4. Suppertime - Berling
5. African Fairytale - W.Shorter/C.Norby
6. Life on Mars - D.Bowie
7. Spinning Wheel - D.C.Thomas
8. What Do You See in Her - Weldon/H.David
9. Just One of Those Things - C.Porter
10. Snow - F.Bak/C.Norby
11. Song For You, A - L.Russell
12. Calling You - B.Telson

MUSICIANS

Caecilie Norby (vocals)
Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone)
Randy Brecker (flugelhorn)
Dave Kikoski (keyboards)
Terri Lyne Carrington (drums)

SHORT BIO

Caecilie Norby is a singer with an unusual repertoire that not only includes some jazz standards, but a few pop tunes of the past 30 years (including "Spinning Wheel" and "The Look of Love"). She has a strong voice and a style that shows potential. Born in Denmark to parents active in the classical music world, Norby's background is actually in rock, recording with Frontline in 1985 and spending 1986-1993 as half of the rock group One Two. However, she also sang occasionally with a small jazz group in clubs, and pianist Niels Lan Doky was impressed enough to offer to produce her first jazz record. Caecilie Norby, whose greatest musical influence is early Nancy Wilson, recorded two sets released domestically by Blue Note. © Scott Yanow, All Music Guide



MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

She can do it all: fusion, rock and jazz. At the tender age of 32 she already has a stupendous carrier, and she has contributed to breaking down the rigid division into genres; in addition she has attracted notice by awakening an interest in jazz in the young, traditionally rock-oriented audience.Cæcilie Norby was born on 9 September 1964 in Fredriksberg, Denmark, into a musical family: her father, Erik Norby, is a renowned score composer, and her mother, Solveig Lumholt, an opera singer. The family's only record with rhythmic music was one with the singer Nancy Wilson, and together with the Beatles tapes it became well worn. She went to the singing school of Sankt Annæ Gymnasium, and then followed a year at a folk high school with theatre as her main subject. In the summer of 1982, when she participated at a jazz festival at Brandbjerg, she was one of the founders of Street Beat, and she was the vocalist in this group for the next 18 months. From 1983 she was part of the jazz/funk group Frontline, which was awarded the Ben Webster Prize in 1985 and in the same year recorded the album Frontline. In the former Danish music magazine MM, a readers' poll bestowed prizes on the orchestra for "Jazz Act of the Year", "Live Act of the Year", "Most Promising Act", "Album of the Year" and Cæcilie elected "Soloist of the Year". She has also toured with various groups and has performed several times with the Danish Radio Big Band. In 1985, she launched on a long co-operation with the singer Nina Forsberg in the highly popular rock group One-Two. The group existed right up to 1993 and recorded three albums. 1986 saw Cæcilie representing Denmark in an international jazz orchestra at the Knokke Festival in Belgium. Moreover, Cæcilie Norby has performed as vocal soloist with numerous Danish jazz musicians and orchestras: pianist Jørgen Emborg, Klüvers Big Band, drummer Niels Ratzer, pianist Thomas Clausen and many more. In 1990, Cæcilie's father wrote the work "Concerto for Two Sopranos" for Zealand Symphonic Orchestra. The two sopranos were Cæcilie herself and her mother, and the work contains both classical, rhythmic and improvising elements. Cæcilie has also performed with her mother and Thomas Clausen with a mixture of opera, musical and jazz titled "Ballads, Blues & Lieder". During the 1990s, Cæcilie Norby has really cultivated her popular version of the standard repertoire of jazz music. She has been on frequent tours with her own quartet comprising pianist Ben Besiakov, bassist Lennart Ginman and Søren Christensen or Alex Riel playing the drums, and she has toured Europe with local quartets and big bands. In addition, she has been external examiner at the Academy of Rhythmic Music in Copenhagen, and moreover she has arranged and sung at various studio productions. In the spring of 1995 her album Cæcilie Norby was released on Blue Note, the legendary jazz label, with contributions by a number of trend-setting international composers and soloists, including saxophonists Randy Brecker and Rick Margitza, drummer Billy Hart, pianist Lars Jansson, and composers Chick Corea, Don Grolnick and Randy Brecker. The CD was mixed and partly recorded in the USA. The Jazz Special magazine elected Cæcilie Norby one of the year's five best records featuring a Danish jazz musician, and the five-digit sales figures achieved so far both in Denmark and Japan are exceptional for a jazz album. Cæcilie certainly never expected to do that well. Her initial target was a mere 5,000 records sold, which would be something for a jazz album. But then Cæcilie calls her music jazz pop; it is by no means hard-core jazz. Following the release of Cæcilie first CD on Blue Note she has been on tour most of the time, with some of the musicians on the CD Cæcilie Norby as well as others. This success is now being followed up by another Blue Note release: My Corner of the Sky, and the contributors include drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, bassist Lars Danielsson and the Brecker brothers on tenor sax and flugelhorn. As on her first album, Niels Lan Doky is co-producer and co-arranger. Cæcilie Norby has scored a tremendous success with her numerous projects, and she has been through the entire rock circus without becoming capricious. Although she is a popular favourite at festivals, she is drawn to smaller, more intimate venues, to the standard repertoire of jazz and to the talent of jazz musicians for improvising and going on stage without having spent six months in training camp and without the backing of a huge machinery. What has been referred to as a flirt with jazz must now be called a firm commitment. Cæcilie Norby's voice is lyrical and supple. She colours her vowels to taste. Improvisations and scats are done with elegance. Her phrasing can be both down-to-earth and romantic. She can radiate anything from the sweet and vulnerable to the crude and powerful. Some critics have compared Cæcilie Norby to Swedish Monica Zetterlund and to the American singers Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin. [EMI-Medley, Denmark, Europe Jazz Network , © www.ejn.it/mus/norby.htm