SOLVEIG SLETTAHJELL | musicaextraordinaria

SOLVEIG SLETTAHJELL SINGER

NORWAY

1/3

Possessed of a warm, crystal clear instrument and more than a decade of acclaimed work, Solveig Slettahjell is recognized as one of Europe's leading vocalists. From the release of the 2001 debut album Slow Motion Orchestra, her unique approach was evident, allowing time for music to unfold, to show its shape and nuance, to reveal the full depth of a song's meaning. Singing in impeccable English, her repertoire began with jazz standards, widened to include the work of singer-songwriters such as America's John Hiatt and Norway's Peder Kjellsby, and then grew further to include compositions of her own. The church music of her youth is both an undercurrent and a subject of performance, with two of her nine albums devoted to hymns including the newly released Arven.

PRESS QUOTES

“Norwegian jazz vocalist Solveig Slettahjell is a musical thinker who in tandem with her group, the Slow Motion Quintet, has developed a highly personal approach to her art. Not only does she open up a song and explore it from within, she is able to invest it with a meaning and gravitas that even the songwriters themselves probably never knew existed. It's a precious gift that only the great singers possess. Certainly this girl can make time stand still - just play 'You Won't Forget Me' or 'Take it With Me' for evidence of her inimitable talent. Riveting.”

STUART NICHOLSON, THE OBSERVER (UK) (REVIEW OF "SILVER")

“Slettahjell is the jazz singer for those who are troubled by jazz singing. If, for you, jazz singing in the 21st century is a mannered anachronism, which refers, in substance as well as in style, to a world chiefly inhabited by finger-clickers in shiny shoes and, wistfully, by Michael Parkinson, then Solveig may be the jazz singer for you. For a start, she is that very rare thing since 1959 and the death of Billie Holiday, a jazz singer with soul. But she is also a jazz singer for whom jazz is only the beginning of what she does. It is by no means the end." NICK COLEMAN, THE INDEPENDENT (UK)

“She sings with beautiful intonation, in the faultlessly enunciated English that Nordic divas have made their own, yet there's nothing chilly or mannered in her vocals. You sense that she has listened to all the great singers, but rather than copying stylistic tricks, has taken their core values to heart.”

JOHN WALTERS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) (REVIEW OF "GOOD RAIN")

“While the scribes debate what is and is not jazz, the musicians just carry on making new and exciting music. And deeply beautiful music, too, in the case of this Norwegian singer and her band. It's Slettahjell's singing that grabs the attention, though: precise intonation, a gorgeous tone, and striking a miraculous balance between light and shade, always serious though never po-faced and self-conscious, always just right for the lyrics, but never placing those above the music.”

PETER BACON, THE BIRMINGHAM POST (UK) (REVIEW OF "GOOD RAIN")