
Face The Music (Stunt Records)
Sinne Eeg
Released April 7, 2014
Prix du Jazz Vocal de l’Académie du Jazz 2014
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kkiRyAgt8E2hSWOdoxfqB5SzUU0iFvxq0
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3APFi2pjBX6ZAf01p3W66r?si=VsyqP5C_Rb2h30Gj37HWkg
About:
Whenever Denmark’s leading jazz vocalist, Sinne Eeg, records, she always has a handful of new original songs with her. Sinne Eeg doesn’t write “compositions” — she writes catchy songs that could easily find their way into the more commercial branches of the music business. Listen to “The Best I Ever Had,” which is a truly wonderful song. Natives of Copenhagen not only have the privilege of sharing their city with one of Europe’s finest jazz singers, but also one of its brightest songwriting talents.
Face The Music features songs with finely facetted themes, arranged and performed to perfection by Sinne Eeg and her favorite trio, pianist Jacob Christoffersen, bassist Morten Ramsbøll and drummer Morten Lund. The SACD also contains a few carefully selected standards, including the first track — a swinging cha-cha-cha version of “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” and a perfect match for Sinne Eeg’s voice.
Track Listing:
1. What A Little Monolight Can Do (5:20)
2. Crowded Heart (5:20)
3. The Best I Ever Had (4:34)
4. High Up In The Sky (4:23)
5. Somewhere (4:40)
6. Let’s Face The Music And Dance (5:11)
7. Taking It Slow (4:43)
8. New Horizons (4:00)
9. I Draw A Circle (4:22)
10. What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life (3:38)
11. Caravan (3:48)
Personnel:
Sinne Eeg: vocals
Jacob Christoffersen: piano
Morten Lund: drums
Morten Ramsbøl: bass
Thomas Fonnesbaek: bass (7, 11)
Jesper Riis: trumpet (1), flugelhorn (9)
Michael Bladt: tenor saxophone (1), flute (9)
Rune Olesen: guiro (1)
Recorded January and February 2014, at Millfactory, Copenhagen, Denmark, by Boe Larsen
Mixed and Mastered by Lars Nilsson
Photos: Stephen Freiheit
Produced by Sinne Eeg
Executive Producers: Peter Littauer and Soren Friis
Review:
A singer, a real one. She is a cappella enthusiast, masters scat perfectly, has a very good voice and composes excellent songs. Famous in Denmark, she has recorded six albums there, the last two with the same trio, Jacob Christoffersen on piano, Morten Ramsbøl on double bass and Moorten Lund on drums, musicians joined here by some guests. Recorded over three days in Copenhagen, “Face the Music”, her seventh, is as successful as “Don’t Be So Blue”, her previous one, the first record of her that I have listened to. Concerts in June and October 2011 at Sunset and Sunside convinced me of his talent. Besides his own tracks, Sinne Eeg sings standards and offers us here sumptuous versions, like the weightless one of What are You Doing the Rest of your Life by Michel Legrand. Alan & Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics. “Face the Music” opens with What a Little Moonlight Can Do which the singer introduces in scat, the drums alone setting the rhythm. It reveals the great sensitivity of his pianist who seduces by his harmonic choices, the colors he puts on the music. Arranged by Jesper Riis, the piece hosts his trumpet and a tenor saxophone, the two instruments providing the riffs in unison. In Taking it Slow, a composition byThomas Fonnesback , the latter’s double bass, is the only one to serve the singer. We always find them in duo in an astonishing version of Caravan which concludes the album. Because the pieces of bravery are not lacking, the voice phrasing and sounding like an instrument. As at home in ballads as on fast tempo, Sinne Eeg excels at it. With power in Somewhere, tenderness in Crowded Heart which also benefits from its scat, rhythm in I Draw a Circle whose arrangement reserves a bugle chorus. And then there is this joy that she manages to transmit, a joy that this solar opus diffuses from start to finish.