(Vocal Jazz) Tone Franck with Nikolaj Bentzon Trio - The Good Life: Celebrating Blossom Dearie (2011) - 2016, MP3, 320 kbps

Norway has - and has long had - a fantastic jazz vocal tradition. Karin Krog, Radka Toneff, Magni Wentzel, Laila Dahlseth, Silje Nergaard, Solveig Slettahjell and Sidsel Endresen are, by mutual arrangement, some of the biggest names. Now a new girl has emerged from the cousin of the codfish and flatbread: Tone Franck. However, she has abandoned her country of birth and settled in Copenhagen. To further improve Scandinavianism, she married a Swedish bassist, working on the other side of Sundet, Daniel Franck, brother of the not-unhealthy tenor saxophonist Tomas.
On her debut CD, Tone, a real future lover, has chosen to pay tribute to one of her great personal favorites, Blossom Dearie (1924-2009), whose mother was in fact Norwegian and was called Margareta. Accordingly, all ten songs on "The Good Life" are derived from Dearie's repertoire. Kavalkaden begins with Bob Hayme's exquisite "Now At Last", a song such as Blossom made an immortal recording of 1956 together with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jo Jones - herself, she played the piano and sang.
Tone makes Blossom Dearie all possible justice. Not by trying to imitate Blossom's sophisticated, somewhat smoky and sensual ways of expressing himself, but by interpreting the songs in their own way. But she has the same rhythmic excitement and the same unsettled attitude as Dearie. In addition, she sings well, has a liberating nature and intimates impeccably. If I had chosen songs from The Blossom Dearie Songbook, I might have exchanged one and another number. "The Good Life", the title song, I had easily done without. And why not pick up one of Blossom's own items when you're going to make a tribute plate? For example, "Sweet Georgie Fame", "Hey John" or "Blossom's Blues"