By Chris Slawecki

Jazzin' Around The World: Denmark

Caelicilie Norby / Mads Vinding Trio

The nation of Denmark might not automatically pop up when jazz intellectuals (and snobs) begin conversations about centers of jazz excellence around the world. However, several recent releases by artists from that small Scandinavian nation seem to be finding broad audiences around the globe, and may perhaps even herald its renaissance as a player in the musical world of jazz.

For starters, consider Danish singer / lyricist Caecilie Norby, who has recently released her second album for Blue Note, My Corner Of The Sky. A delightfully curious mixture of eclectic cover versions - David Bowie ("Life On Mars"), Blood Sweat & Tears ("Spinning Wheel") and Sting ("Set Them Free") - jazz and pop standards (including Cole Porter's "Just One Of Those Things," Burt Bacharach & Hal David's "The Look of Love," and Leon Russell's gorgeous "A Song For You"), and a verbalized version of Wayne Shorter's "Footprints," rechristened "African Fairytale," My Corner of the Sky has topped jazz charts in both Japan and Scandanavia, and recently brought Norby to America for a series of nine dates in the Los Angeles area (her first U.S. engagements) from the end of May into the middle of June.

The thirty-two year old vocalist is most often compared to a young Nancy Wilson, for whom Norby readily professes her admiration: "I'll always be a big fan of Nancy's. And when I was about twenty, I discovered the gospel tradition and started listening to Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Al Jarreau and Ella Fitzgerald." My Corner is a true international affair, with its instrumental participants including Randy and Michael Brecker, pianists Joey Calderazzo, Dave Kikoski and Lars Jansson, Lennart Ginman and Lars Danielsson on bass, and drummers Alex Reil and Terri Lynn Carrington.

(Norby is also far from the only thing happening in Danish jazz at present, if other new original releases such as The Kingdom by The Mats Vinding Trio are further indication of the collective jazz skill level in Denmark. On The Kingdom, The Trio - Vinding on bass, pianist Enrico Pieranunzi and drummer Alex Riel - stretch eleven tracks out over nearly sixty minutes of intricate, emotionally compelling music that quite often stretches the boundaries of such descriptives as "exquisite" and "beautiful." Look for Jim Santella's review of The Kingdom on All About Jazz soon.)

During her stay for her first performances in the U.S., Norby spoke with All About Jazz. Upon learning the ultimate destination for this interview, she exclaimed, "Oh, that's great, because I'm on the Internet!"

How easy is it to be in a country for maybe two weeks, do a series of about ten shows, and then leave? That's got to be pretty hectic, personally as well as professionally.

"It is, but it's very exciting for me, being here. The people whom I'm playing with, if you know Eric Reed, who's playing in Wynton Marsalis' group, and the bass player Andy Simpkins has played bass behind Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. And Sherman Ferguson, the drummer, has been playing with everybody…so it's a pretty…tough…trio. So it's so exciting for me musically to be working with them, every night."

How does this new release differ, if at all, from your first release?

"Not very different, I would say, because I made them almost within one and one-half years, both of them, and between them I got a lot of work. So I never got the chance to stop and take a break, so they're very connected, those two albums. So what I'm going to do now, after I finish my European tour, which is going to the first of September, then I'm going to take a break and do something slightly different. Still jazz, but something slightly different."

"The concept on both albums is kind of a mix of tunes, in the pop genre and the jazz genre, then some of the tunes were originally instrumental tunes which I've written lyrics to, the Wayne Shorter tune "Footprints" which I call in my version "African Fairytale."

Do you think that you approach someone else's music differently, as a lyricist, than you would your own?

"I listen to the music, first of all…on my first album, there were four instrumental tunes for which I wrote lyrics, a Randy Brecker tune, a Don Grolnick tune, a Chick Corea tune, which had never been released before, and a Billy Hart tune. So what I do is, I listen to the music, and if I find the melody good to sing, and it inspires me to come up with some lyrics, I'll do that. I don't think immediately that this should be on a record, it's something that I'll decide later. But in the case of the Wayne Shorter tune, when I heard it, I was thinking of a jungle, you know. For some reason. I didn't want to ask myself why, to be too rational about it, just try to get into it and write the lyrics."

"The fun thing is that, just one week or two ago, when I first came over here into New York, we went to a luncheon at the Danish consulate, and there was a journalist from Downbeat there who told me that Wayne Shorter actually WAS thinking about Africa when he wrote the tune. So, isn't that strange? Or it's just a coincidence, I don't know, because he liked the lyrics a lot."

When you hear tapes of yourself in playback in the studio, or in rehearsal, are there any instrumentalists that keep popping into your mind as you hear yourself sing? Or when people tell you what they think of your music, are there names that seem to be mentioned most often?

"Yes, definitely. Singers are being related to each other all the time. Many people mention Nancy Wilson, which is a big compliment to me because I'm one of her biggest fans. Her early stuff. And I hear Dinah Washington a lot; I haven't been listening to Dinah Washington a lot, but that's what people are saying. Somebody said Janis Joplin last night, because I was singing the blues. So I hear a lot of different things. Some people say Ella sometimes, the live side of things."

Have you found American audiences to be at all different from performing in Europe?

"No, not really, to be honest. I mean, they're pretty much the same, except that nobody knows me over here, you know? The L.A. area in general, I think, it's pretty hard to drag people out, to get them out, to a live performance. And the very funny thing is, even though we are playing ten places in the same area, people in one area wouldn't know where the nine other places were. It's so weird. It's…so…weird."

"People are so nice out here; I don't know about the rest of the states, but people are really enthusiastic and they're very curious about who we are, and so positive. I am really surprised, because I know this country is so tough. I mean, I was expecting EVERYTHING! People are so, so nice."

Do you have a favorite David Bowie album? How about a favorite Police album?

"The Ziggy Stardust album I like very much. "Life On Mars," I've been singing SO MANY TIMES. I've been analyzing the lyrics, really getting deep down into the lyrics; you should do that sometime, it's so exciting. It's weird. It's so inspiring. And the tune "Starman," I'm crazy about that tune, too. "

Here's a quote attributed to you in the Blue Note press kit: "I think timing is one of the most important qualities in a great vocalist." I would love to hear you explain how the timing of Aretha Franklin is different from the timing of Ella Fitzgerald.

"They're just slightly different…(laughs)…as I hear it, Aretha's more loose on the beat, she plays around with the rhythm a lot more. Yet both of them have what is beyond excellent timing, they just…have…the…time, both of them."

"But they also… time has a lot to do with music styles, and the way that Aretha is using the time is more than, when she sings, she sings like she talks, I would presume; I mean, in sentences. So it's not that every word comes on the right beats in comparison with the melody, you know what I mean? But she's kind of shouting the lines out, or talking the lines out, or whispering the lines out, as you would say it if you were in a conversation. Whereas Ella was strictly on…the…beat."

What would you like to discuss to conclude this interview?

"I am very glad that you asked about the lyrics, because I love to talk about the lyrics. And I would just say that right now, what is really much in my head, is that I've got the chance to gain a lot of experience playing with these fine musicians, because all of them are so great and they're all so experienced, and we all get along really well, and I learn so much from them, I can really feel that. It's a big challenge for me. Everything happened so fast, you know?"

"I really think that I am living my life most intensely right now, on the stage, on the gigs together with these guys. And that's really something -- I am experiencing something these days in my life that I will never forget. That's really funny, when you KNOW that, you know that feeling."