Cæcilie Norby

Cæcilie Norby - London/Paris - 2004 - Copenhagen Records

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 © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll

Cæcilie Norby was born on September 9th 1964 in Frederiksberg (Denmark). In 1982 she was one of the founders of the band Street Beat and from 1983 she was part of the Jazz/Funk group Frontline, which released the albums "Frontline" and "Frontlife". From 1985 to 1993 she was part of the group One Two. In 1995 she released the album "Cæcilie Norby" on the Blue Note label. In 1996 she released "My Corner Of The Sky". Her third album "Queen Of Bad Excuses" was released in 1999, followed by "First Conversation" in 2002. In 2005 she released her great "Slow Fruit" album. "London/Paris" was recorded during a European tour at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London and the Sunside Jazz Club, Rue de Lombards, Paris in 2003. "The album gives a dusty atmospheric sound with Ulf Wakenius (Sweden) on guitar and Xavier Desandre Navarre (France) on percussion. "London/Paris" is a bouquet of the best jazz standards and pop classics transformed to new versions in experimental and playful ways" A good album from a great jazz vocalist, very reminiscent of Nancy Wilson. "African Fairytale" with original lyrics by Cæcilie is a brilliant interpretation of Wayne Shorter’s classic, and is arguably the outstanding track on the album. Listen to her "Slow Fruit", and "My Corner of the Sky" albums

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Face It Girl, It's Over - Badale , Stanton
2 How Deep Is Your Love - Gibb
3 But Not For Me - G.& I.Gerschwin
4 Both Sides Now - J.Mitchell
5 Cuban Cigars - C.Norby, L.Danielsson
6 In A Sentimental Mood - D.Ellington
7 Rules Of The Road - Leigh, Coleman
8 The Good Life - Reardon, Distel
9 You Don't Know What Love Is - Raye, DePaul
10 Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word - E. John, B. Taupin
11 African Fairytale - C.Norby, W.Shorter

MUSICIANS

Vocals - Cæcilie Norby
Guitar - Ulf Wakenius
Bass, Cello - Lars Danielsson
Piano [Grand] - Carsten Dahl
Piano [Grand], Synthesizer - Jesper Nordenström
Drums - Morten Lund
Percussion - Xavier Desandre Navarre

BIO

Cæcilie Norby has been celebrated by fans, critics and many of the world's greatest musicians. In Europe she was one of the very first who contributed to bridge the gap between Jazz and the young traditionally rock oriented audiences. She has released 4 of her 7 solo albums on the prestigious BLUE NOTE Records, recieved awards and selling thousands of albums in Europe, US, Japan and South Africa. In 1982 she was one of the founders of the band Street Beat, where she was a vocalist for the next 2 years. From 1983 she was part of the Jazz/Funk group Frontline, which released 2 very successful albums "Frontline" and "Frontlife", and was awarded the prestigious Ben Webster prize. 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 was elected "Soloist of the year". In 1985 she launched on a long cooperation with the singer Nina Forsberg in the highly popular Pop/Rock group One Two. The group existed right up to 1993 and recorded 3 albums; "One Two", "Hvide Løgne" and "Getting Better" which sold approx. 250,000 copies in Denmark alone. The year of 1986 saw Cæcilie representing Denmark in an international Jazz orchestra at the Knokke Festival in Belgium. 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 contained both classical and 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 and Lieder". Cæcilie begun performing as a soloist which, both early on and throughout her career, has seen her collaborating with numerous renowned European and American musicians, bands and orchestras - such as: Musicians Dianne Reeves, Curtis Stigers, John Scofield, Mike Stern, Randy and Michael Brecker. Bassplayers: Ray Brown, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Lars Danielsson, Heyn van der Geyn, Mads Vinding. Drummers: Billy Hart, Al Foster, Terri Lyne Carrington and Alex Riel. Pianists: Bobo Steenson, Lars Jansson, Carsten Dahl, Joey Calderazzo, Dave Kikoski and many many more. Big Bands & Orchestras: Tolvan BigBand, The Danish Radio Big Band, Klüvers BB, Bohuslen BB and The Umo Big Band. In the spring of 1995 the album "Cæcilie Norby" was released on Blue Note, the legendary Jazz label, with contributions by a number of composers and soloists such as: Randy Brecker, Chick Corea, Don Grolnick, Rick Margitza, Billy Hart and Lars Jansson. The CD was mixed and partly recorded in New York. The Jazzspecial magazine elected "Cæcilie Norby" one of the five best records, and the five digit sales figures achieved so far both in Japan and Denmark are exceptional for a Jazz album. (sales: approx. 60,000 copies) Her second Blue Note release "My Corner Of The Sky" includes drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, bassist Lars Danielsson and the Brecker Brothers. After achieving the sales figure of of 70,000 copies Cæcilie was elected one of the ten most popular jazzsingers throughout the world in 1996. Cæcilie toured for 3 weeks in Japan with her Scandinavian Quartet in December 1996, 3 weeks in USA and 4 months all over Europe during the summer of 1997. Her third album "Queen Of Bad Excuses" was released September 1999. This time she wrote 95% of the music and the lyrics herself; a "selfbiographical fiction" as she calls it. All arrangements, programming and producing were done in cooperation with Lars Danielsson. The album was released in Europe, Australia, Japan and South Africa. It received overwhelming good reviews both from hardcore jazzreviewers to the broad pop-jazz audience. And once again the sales figures exceeded 50,000 copies. Cæcilie's 4th Blue Note album "First Conversation" was a fast selling record. It was created in cooperation with producer Lars Danielsson - who wrote special arrangements for the orchestra, tailored for the improvised sessions recorded in the famous ECM Rainbow Studio in Oslo, Norway. The album features legendary drummer Jon Christensen and pianist Carsten Dahl to mention a few. To date, "First Conversation" has exceeded 40,000 copies sold in Denmark alone and collected a tremendous amount of fine reviews. The Live album "London/Paris" came to life during the Europe Tour in 2003. Two intimate Jazz Clubs became the backdrop for a successful documentation of the hectic touring life of Cæcilie Norby and band. The album gives a dusty atmospheric sound with Ulf Wakenius (Sweden) on guitar and Xavier Desandre Navarre (France) on percussion. "London/Paris" is a bouquet of the best jazz standards and pop classics transformed to new versions in experimental and playful ways. A month after "London/Paris" was released, the American jazz diva, Dianne Reeves, invited Cæcilie Norby to guest appear on 5 songs at a TV concert recorded at the Baltica Jazz Festival in Germany. The duet collaboration was repeated at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival the same summer. "London/Paris" has also received a gold award for 25,000 copies sold in Denmark. The next studio album from Cæcilie was "Slow Fruit" which was released in September 2005. All material on the album is solely written and composed by Cæcilie Norby herself. Lars Danielsson has co-composed 3 of the songs and appeared as both primary pianist and bassist. A significant note about the album is the high degree of intensity derived from collaborations set in a home environment. Prominent musicians, who have influenced Cæcilie's sound both live and on recordings throughout the years, add to the personal and warm atmosphere heard on this album. "Slow Fruit" also introduced a new collaboration opportunity by the American saxophone player and singer Curtis Stigers, who join Cæcilie in duet on the track "Big Time". "Slow Fruit" has truly been a well received album and collected highly appraised reviews. "I Had A Ball" is Cæcilie Norby's latest album. It was released on Copenhagen Records and recorded Live with Klüvers Big Band, featuring her greatest songs and more. The album also include the track "Comes Love" where Cæcilie and the American vocal star Kurt Elling join in a duet. Cæcilie's performances has included work with the Eremitage Sct. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra; concerts in Moscow and at the Warsaw Jazz Festivals with her own group; a sold-out tour in Germany with her own band; working with the Wroclaw Symphony Orchestra (Poland); the Danish Radio Big Band (Denmark) and Malmö Symphony Orchestra (Sweden) among others. Cæcilie joined forces with leading Jazzsinger in Norway; Silje Nergaard and Sweden's Rigmor Gustafsson in an album-recorded project with the Danish Radio Big Band called "Jazz Divas of Scandinavia" released on EMI Records. Touring aside, Cæcilie Norby is working on a project based on the repertoire of music legend Johnny Cash collaborating with renowned Scandinavian musicians. caecilienorby.com copyright © 2010 all rights reserved http://www.caecilienorby.com/bio.php