Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:20
Size: 109,0 MB
Art: Front
(5:53) 1. Be Still My Heart
(5:56) 2. Based on a Thousand True Stories
(4:03) 3. The Waltz
(5:21) 4. I Don't Wanna See You Cry
(5:16) 5. Mercy Street
(5:09) 6. Lullaby to Erle
(4:06) 7. Love of My Life
(6:23) 8. Japanese Blue
(5:11) 9. En Og En
The Norwegian Silje Nergaard is a singer who should be known to everyone who has not heard her sing yet. There is a special occasion for this. The artist is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of her career this year. Of which Japanese Blue is an element - a thing for sensitive listeners. The soothing sounds that fill this album bring hope and light. A plaster for our aching souls in times of plague. She started out performing pop, and in the early 1990s she released several LPs sung in her mother tongue. She made her debut at the age of only 16. Over the past three decades, she has recorded over a dozen phonograms. He has collaborated with such stars of jazz and popular music as Al Jarreau, Pat Metheny, Toots Thielemans, John Scofield, Nils Petter Molvær or Morten Harket from the famous A-ha group. Her first single Tell Me Where You´re Going (recorded with Pat Metheny in 1990) was an international hit. Silje Nergaard has crowds of enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic. She is one of the few Norwegian singers whose albums and concert tours are selling out in Japan, Brazil, Germany, England and even the United States. In the Land of the Rising Sun, where jazz and classical music flow from the loudspeakers even in elevators and supermarkets, one of the types of wine was named in her honor.
The pillars of the bands accompanying her were the masters of Scandinavian jazz: Tord Gustavsen and Jarle Vespestad. The outstanding conductor and arranger Vince Mendoza was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 in the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist (s) category for his work on the title song from the album A Thousand True Stories, which is a recording of a session with the Dutch The Metropole Orkest. I often reach for this album ... It's high time that Silje herself won a Grammy! At the end of February we received the album Japanese Blue from Silje. It is a set of nine Norwegian hits and a few covers in an intimate arrangement for voice and piano. This disc has a special character because it was recorded at home near Oslo. Nergaard plunged into her cavernous catalog to pick out a few gems. The mid-generation pianist Espen Berg is responsible for the acoustic and minimalistic sound (he played, among others, with the trumpeter Per Jørgensen, saxophonist Marius Neset and with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra). He is an equal protagonist of Japanese Blue. Silje Nergaard has an original, subtle, light, girly voice with a high register. I would compare her timbre to the vocals of such singing ladies as Blossom Dearie, Stacey Kent, Kat Edmonson, Lisa Bassenge or Lisa Ekdahl. The uncomplicated arrangement, the simplicity of the message, the minimalist approach to famous songs delight from the first sounds while listening to this ascetic album. In addition, there is a noticeable chemistry between the singer and her accompanist. Without fireworks, pompous solutions or pathos, we smoothly move on to the next ballad.
Japanese Blue opens the poignant version of Be Still My Heart. The song is almost 20 years old and first appeared on At First Light in 2001. We also receive an acoustic version of the song Based On A Thousand True Stories. I Don't Want To See You Cry hasn't grown old, on the contrary, in her new interpretation, Silje has matured. Covers of Mercy Street by Peter Gabriel and Love Of My Life by Queen are also interesting. For the finale, the Nergaard / Espen duo serves us the only song sung in Norwegian, En Og En. Japanese Blue is the first Silje Nergaard album that we receive this year. The coronavirus pandemic has thwarted many artist's plans. The schedule for celebrating the jubilee was different. The album with the original compositions was to come out with the acoustic album at the end of February. Forced isolation left a northern European diva trapped in the house. Silje decided to postpone such a premiere. Hamar Stasjon is expected to be finally released in May. Like hundreds of artists from around the world, during the worldwide quarantine, the artist regularly invites us to her living room on Saturday evenings for a live streaming of an intimate concert from the Living Room Session series. I will definitely "visit" Silje to listen to her subtle voice.~ Piotr Peplinski https://jazzpress.pl/plyty/silje-nergaard-japanese-blue
Personnel: Vocals – Silje Nergaard; Piano – Espen Berg
The pillars of the bands accompanying her were the masters of Scandinavian jazz: Tord Gustavsen and Jarle Vespestad. The outstanding conductor and arranger Vince Mendoza was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 in the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist (s) category for his work on the title song from the album A Thousand True Stories, which is a recording of a session with the Dutch The Metropole Orkest. I often reach for this album ... It's high time that Silje herself won a Grammy! At the end of February we received the album Japanese Blue from Silje. It is a set of nine Norwegian hits and a few covers in an intimate arrangement for voice and piano. This disc has a special character because it was recorded at home near Oslo. Nergaard plunged into her cavernous catalog to pick out a few gems. The mid-generation pianist Espen Berg is responsible for the acoustic and minimalistic sound (he played, among others, with the trumpeter Per Jørgensen, saxophonist Marius Neset and with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra). He is an equal protagonist of Japanese Blue. Silje Nergaard has an original, subtle, light, girly voice with a high register. I would compare her timbre to the vocals of such singing ladies as Blossom Dearie, Stacey Kent, Kat Edmonson, Lisa Bassenge or Lisa Ekdahl. The uncomplicated arrangement, the simplicity of the message, the minimalist approach to famous songs delight from the first sounds while listening to this ascetic album. In addition, there is a noticeable chemistry between the singer and her accompanist. Without fireworks, pompous solutions or pathos, we smoothly move on to the next ballad.
Japanese Blue opens the poignant version of Be Still My Heart. The song is almost 20 years old and first appeared on At First Light in 2001. We also receive an acoustic version of the song Based On A Thousand True Stories. I Don't Want To See You Cry hasn't grown old, on the contrary, in her new interpretation, Silje has matured. Covers of Mercy Street by Peter Gabriel and Love Of My Life by Queen are also interesting. For the finale, the Nergaard / Espen duo serves us the only song sung in Norwegian, En Og En. Japanese Blue is the first Silje Nergaard album that we receive this year. The coronavirus pandemic has thwarted many artist's plans. The schedule for celebrating the jubilee was different. The album with the original compositions was to come out with the acoustic album at the end of February. Forced isolation left a northern European diva trapped in the house. Silje decided to postpone such a premiere. Hamar Stasjon is expected to be finally released in May. Like hundreds of artists from around the world, during the worldwide quarantine, the artist regularly invites us to her living room on Saturday evenings for a live streaming of an intimate concert from the Living Room Session series. I will definitely "visit" Silje to listen to her subtle voice.~ Piotr Peplinski https://jazzpress.pl/plyty/silje-nergaard-japanese-blue
Personnel: Vocals – Silje Nergaard; Piano – Espen Berg
Japanese Blue
