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Lisa Ekdahl Sings Salvadore Poe Lisa Ekdahl RCA, 2001 Tracks
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Reviewed by Monica Stark
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It's impossible not to grab for comparables when it comes to Lisa Ekdahl. With this singer, everyone does. Always. Blossom Dearie is one of the names repeatedly dredged up, as though Dearie's high octaved but sultry and sophisticated sound could be compared side-by-side with Ekdahl's childish tremor. Diana Krall is another name evoked beside Ekdahl's, though this comparison is nothing short of silly. Sure: both are sinuous blondes who look devastating in slinky gowns and both have had more than a flirt with jazz, but Ekdahl sounds as much like Krall as she does Chet Baker. That is to say: not at all. If we must find similar and comparable voices, think Astrud Gilberto with a Macy Gray/early Björk edge. Astrud Gilberto was the accidental singer who rose to fame when she sang a single unscheduled English chorus on an album her husband, Brazilian jazz master João Gilberto, and Stan Getz were recording in 1963. She trilled the heavily accented English words to "Girl From Ipanema" on the album Getz/Gilberto, receiving not even a credit for her trouble. The song was an unexpected hit the following year and, with it, Astrud became something of a star: that girl from Ipanema. Ekdahl brings precisely the same charming ESL jazz sensibility to Lisa Ekdahl Sings Salvadore Poe, an album comprised entirely of songs written by her husband. Though this is not the Swedish singer's first foray into jazz, she is best known in Sweden as a pop artist and her first hit, "Vim Vet" ("Who Knows" in English) was one of the top Scandinavian pop songs of 1994. Despite the fact that Ekdahl cut her musical teeth playing the Stockholm jazz scene with the respected Peter Nordahl Trio (though her presence actually made it a quartet), in Scandinavia she is an extreme pop princess whose three Swedish language albums -- Lisa Ekdahl (1994), Med Kroppen Mot Jorden (1996) and Bortom Det Bla (1997) have been huge sellers for her at home. Ekdahl's first jazz album, When Did You Leave Heaven (1995), was also her first effort in the English language. Though the album did very well in Europe, Ekdahl's odd little voice had a tough time finding a place with North American jazz fans and 1999's Back to Earth didn't fare much better. The problem was perhaps not so much with Ekdahl, as with the expectations of North American listeners and the material she was then choosing for herself. For instance, on When Did You Leave Heaven, the then-24-year-old Ekdahl had the temerity to include a patently awful version of the Billy Strayhorn jazz standard, "Lush Life," a song that's been brilliantly covered by the toughest jazz voices in the business. The fact that Ekdahl did it -- and, truth to tell, not very well -- was taken as an affront by several reviewers and the repeated thumbs down kept potential album buyers away en masse. This was a shame, because parts of the album were luminous, including the title track. Though Lisa Ekdahl Sings Salvadore Poe is also jazz, it's an entirely new approach to what is really a very similar subject. This time, however, Ekdahl uses her charming accent to good effect on an album whose jazz is largely Latin influenced. In fact, several of the tracks make you want to look around for Astrud, including the delicately happy "Daybreak." However, where part of Astrud Gilberto's charm came from that deer-caught-in-the-headlights sound, Ekdahl seems always very much in command of her quavering vocal instrument. If it sounds as though the material on this latest album was made for Lisa Ekdahl, it might be because it was. Salvadore Poe, who met Ekdahl while the two were on sabbatical in India in the late 1990s, is best known for his work in film (The Basketball Diaries) and for VH1. A career-long passion for jazz, combined with a new passion for the woman who would become his wife, led him to compose the 15 songs on Lisa Ekdahl Sings Salvadore Poe, an album that consists of material entirely written with Ekdahl's weird little voice in mind and co-produced by Ekdahl, Poe and Magnus Lindgren. And it works. It works beautifully. This
is classic Latin-jazz a lá João Gilberto or
Antonio Carlos Jobim. It doesn't require the large
diaphragmed vocals of a Billie Holiday or an Ella
Fitzgerald. It evokes sun-drenched beaches and cool drinks
just as almost anything sung by Astrud Gilberto ever did.
The keyword here is charm. These are charming songs that
Ekdahl sings charmingly. There is an artless childishness to
Ekdahl's voice, it's true. And, with the wrong material, it
is occasionally a grating voice. Here, however, everything
works. Is it her best album? Perhaps. But it is certainly
one that fans of the Gilbertos will enjoy as will anyone who
likes their classic jazz with a shot of South America. Even
if, in this case, that shot comes via Sweden. | January
2002 |
Despite the fact that Ekdahl cut her musical teeth playing the Stockholm jazz scene with the respected Peter Nordahl Trio, in Scandinavia she is an extreme pop princess whose three Swedish language albums -- Lisa Ekdahl (1994), Med Kroppen Mot Jorden (1996) and Bortom Det Bla (1997) have been huge sellers for her at home. |
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