Hannah Svensson - Each Little Moment (2014)

The shade of her idol, the tragic Eva Cassidy hovers in judgement as Svensson performs 10 numbers from the Great American Songbook and one Louis Jordan knockabout. Cassidy made every song she sang her own. Svensson, perhaps in awe of the material, runs through it dutifully and extremely competently. But the numbers stay "on the page," refuse to come alive.

Most likely a question of personality and inability to express it, what Danish novelist Aksel Sandemose called The Law of Jante, an inbuilt psychological inhibition that prevents individual Scandinavians from rocking the collective boat by getting too up close and personal. Even the powerful presence of her father, guitarist Ewan Svensson, in her backing band can't break the spell cast by The Law of Jante. Until, in the penultimate number, "It's Easy To Remember," by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, she manages somehow to climb from her shell and— perhaps inadvertently—lends meaning to the simple but great lyrics of the chorus. Buoyed up by this, Hannah attacks the Gershwin brothers' "I've Got Rhythm" with something approaching oomph. Sadly, by this time, it's too late. There's just a glimpse of what might have been.