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Heidi Skjerve Quintet

Title: Coming Home

Label: Curling Legs Prod.

Cat No:CLPCD96
Format:CD

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Discovery Records
specialist music - mail order

Female jazz singers have been in increasingly plentiful supply in recent years - but this debut album, “Coming Home”, by young Norwegian jazz singer Heidi Skjerve, deserves to be compared to the best of them. The music & arrangements on all eleven tracks are by her, as are the lyrics on all but four songs - where she adapts poems by Shelley, Apollinaire, Christina Rossetti & Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Her quintet are a gathering of exceptional young musicians who have already made a mark on the Norwegian and international jazz scene : Espen Reinertsen: bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, Erlend Slettevoll: piano, Lars Ekman: bass, and Truls Rønning: drums. There’s a lilting, languid atmosphere throughout much of the album - somehow cool & reflective, yet still warm & intimate - with strong melodies, unusual lyrics and great diversity of tempo, rhythm and expression. Skjerve’s stated inspirations include evergreen standards, modal jazz and singer songwriters such as Joni Mitchell & Nick Drake.

Skjerve refreshingly prefers not to oversell her songs, letting subtle nuance and revealing understatement have their effect. Hard on the heels of successful Curling Legs label-mate, Solveig Slettahjell, Heidi & her group have also managed to create a very individual jazz sound - and one that could easily find a similarly appreciative audience far beyond it’s primary genre.

Track Listing for Coming Home
1. Have You Forgotten
2. Travel
3. Coming Home
4. The Gypsy
5. Sunny side
6. Legend
7. Hush Now
8. Subway Song
9. Solitude
10. Love’s Philosophy
11. Spring

Reviews

Jazz Review - Chris Parker

Thoughtfulness, tinged with melancholy but brightened by hope. A light, breathy, occasional somewhat girlish voice imbued at its best with languorous sensuousness. There is much to enjoy. All in all, this is a generally pleasing album.

Discovery catalogue available for
Heidi Skjerve Quintet

Coming Home