Staying in Touch / Sinne Eeg & Thomas Fonnesbæk (Vinyle LP)

Description

Spring Waltz - Too Close for Comfort - Orphans - Take Five - The Streets of Berlin - The Long and Winding Road - How Deep is the Ocean ? - Just One of Those Things - Round Midnight - Those Who Were - The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines Few recordings in jazz history feature a voice/double bass instrumentation. Some may be familiar with Sheila Jordan's collaborations with bassists Steve Swallow, Harvie Swartz, and Cameron Brown, as well as Jordan's work with Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen on SHEILA in 1978. When Sinne Eeg and Thomas Fonnesbæk joined this short list with their first album in 2015, critics from Denmark and around the world scoured their dictionaries for fitting superlatives, and EEG-FONNESBÆK ended up winning the Danish Music Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album that year. In direct lineage from that album comes STAYING IN TOUCH. To the delight of listeners, the two Danes have continued to collaborate over the years since 2015, and their musical understanding has only grown stronger. With a stripped-down approach to the repertoire, their subtle and sonically balanced playing brings out the best in them. The structural limitation set by this format is a challenge that allows the duo particular musical freedom. While both have enough presence to do justice to the pieces, the addition of a string quartet on three tracks pleasantly contrasts the experience. Sinne says she has always enjoyed singing duets with bassists. "I've actually been doing it since my first CD in 2003, and I still do it at my concerts. It's just a sound I really love. Over the years, Thomas and I have worked together intermittently. He's simply an incredible musician, and he and I really communicate well together, musically. I love the sound of the bass and voice, and it's so stimulating that I get better every time I sing with him." Eeg is a jazz singer who loves challenges. Playing an entire evening or filling an album with "only" a bassist is, undeniably, one of them. Their fused understanding frees them from relying on a drummer to act as a metronome or a pianist to explain harmonies, and the lack is never felt.