Cæcilie Norby - Silent Ways (2013)

From a classical upbringing, to pop, jazz funk and jazz, Norby listens solely to her heart and evaluates the musical quality of melodies fully free of genre restrictions. It is a path between worlds that her ACT debut 'Arabesque' (9723-2) defined two years ago: She wrote her own lyrics to classical works, from Rimski-Korsakov and Ravel to Michel Legrand, and transported them to jazz with the aid of her husband Lars Danielsson and their band. Now, with her second ACT album 'Silent Ways' she goes back in the other direction to some extent. She selected a dozen of her favourite singer/songwriter melodies including 'Hymnen' by herself and her husband, and charged them up with classical and jazz influences. A powerful, thrilling, convincing mix, on the classics like Bob Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone', John Fogerty's 'Have You Ever Seen The Rain' and Paul Simon's 'Hearts And Bones', on the earthly tracks like Barrett Strong's 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', the originally bulky works like Tom Waits' "Diamonds And Gold", the Indie-rock anthem "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails genius Trent Reznor or on the loungey title track 'Silent Ways' composed by Wolfgang Haffner, to which Norby contributes her wonderful lyrics. It is 'the sound of the new, European jazz' that vocalist Caecilie Norby stands for like no other, the way she best defines it.