Oslo's Karin Krog studied singing under Anne Brown, an American expat for whom George Gershwin wrote the music of Bess in Porgy and Bess. In 1964 she released her debut By Myself, which is the first female Norwegian vocal jazz record. Krog's singing is lounge in presentation, but she has a masterful control of voice. When she really opens up two-and-a-half minutes into We Could Be Flying, you start to get a feel for her strength. And this is immediately followed by an instrumental vamp which speaks to the collaborative effort of this album.
Steve Kuhn, the American pianist who appeared on Pete La Roca's classic Blue Note album Basra (1965), was living in Sweden at the time of this recording. He joins Krog here along with bassist Steve Swallow (also featured on Basra) and drummer Jon Christensen, who frequently recorded for the ECM label. Christensen really shines on "The Meaning of Love", an early standout. This track has all the right kinds of space to it. Once again, Krog takes some pauses between her lines and the rest of the band stretches out.
The band does justice to Joni Mitchell's "All I Want", Krog's delivery with more of a sly grin than Joni's cracking despair. "Sing Me Softly of the Blues" (co-written by Carla Bley) has that old rainy Sunday in NYC vibe, mellow and jazzy - just the way I like it! The album closes with two Kuhn originals, the bass-driven "Hold Out Your Hand" and "Time to Go".
Also, in 2017, a library in Oslo played the album on audiophile equipment and Krog and Christensen were present to take audience questions. I wonder how that went! See the program flyer below - you may note that Knutsen & Ludvigsen's Juba Juba (1983) was presented in this format 2 weeks later.
Listen to We Could Be Flying here.
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