Karin Krog (Oslo, 1937) is one of the greatest European jazz singers. Her career began in Norway in the mid-fifties: from an early age she was known in the Oslo clubs for her ability to improvise and for her versatility in jam sessions. She grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, but she immediately sought her own style: for her singing is above all a question of rhythm and phrasing and as a soloist she always seeks harmony with her musicians; it is not one star but an instrumentalist among other instrumentalists. And in the course of her long career she has worked with the best: among the best known, Dexter Gordon, Don Ellis, Archie Shepp and John Surman, of which she is the partner.
Krog, as a good Scandinavian, has always been attracted to the song form. Despite being a jazz player very interested in avant-garde and experimentation, she always tries not to betray the song, not to fragment it, not to manipulate it. Scandinavian musicians (from classical to pop, from Edvard Grieg to Abba) have always shown respect for melody and attachment to their folk tradition. Karin Krog, despite being an international musician, is no exception: Scandinavian composer, violinist and folk expert Anders Heyerdahl (1832-1918) was her great-grandfather and she grew up in full awareness of the traditional roots of her country’s music. .
This love for melody and song accompanies her throughout her career: “I like to remove more than add when I sing,” he said, “but I always try to stick with the song.” And Krog, even in his most spirited and experimental moments, always remains faithful to the music, even when it is not necessarily a proper song.
The whole album We could be flying, recorded in 1974, is a demonstration of how Krog can be a free, fickle and unpredictable singer while always remaining, as she puts it, “with the song”.
The early 1970s were a time of intense experimentation for Krog. Like many other musicians of that time, she felt that jazz proper was being contaminated and changing shape: it hybridized with funk, with South American music, with rock and psychedelia and with her, an intelligent, cultured and curious musician. , it seemed an immense prairie to explore. For We could be flying, entirely recorded in the summer of 1974 at Rosenborg studios in Oslo, Karin Krog puts together an exceptional trio, especially from a rhythmic point of view: on bass Steve Swallow (companion of another great jazz player, Carla Bley), on drums and percussion Jon Christensen and the trusty Steve Kuhn at the piano.
At the heart of the album is the material composed by Kuhn, four original pieces that seem lovingly designed to bring out his vocality. And then songs chosen to maximize the color palette of this work halfway between jazz, pop and experimentation. Sometime ago is a standard of the Argentine composer Sergio Mihanovich and the title track of the album, We could be flying, is a composition by Michel Colombier and Paul Williams, both visionary authors of film music. The beautiful Sing me softly of the blues instead it is a song written by Krog herself with Carla Bley.
Hold out your hand ventures into a somewhat fusion territory, similar to that explored by the Brazilian jazz singer Flora Purim, while All I want is a cover, perhaps a little too respectful, of the classic by Joni Mitchell. We could be flying in short, it is a playful, visionary and very groovy album that embodies the ideals of freedom, exoticism and experimentation of the first half of the seventies. It is one of those albums that the cover also talks about: the bizarre illustration of the French artist Christian Lepère, full of strange flying creatures, halfway between baroque engraving and surrealism, is the perfect introduction to a memorable work in which whim and rigor coexist , tradition and experimentation.
Karin Krog
We could be flying
Polydor, 1974
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