Silje Nergaard Silje Nergaard

Zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum ihrer Karriere veröffentlicht die mehrfach ausgezeichnete norwegische Jazzsängerin Silje Nergaard ein einzigartiges Doppelalbum mit neuen Songs sowie noch nie gehörten Akustikversionen ihrer größten Hits!
Album 1: Japanese Blue: präsentiert Siljes größte Hits in einer neuen, intimen Umgebung: Nur von einem Klavier begleitet, kann man ihre einzigartige Stimme genießen wie nie zuvor. Dieser Teil des Doppelalbums, der auch einige neue Songs und zwei exklusive Coversongs enthält, heißt „Japanese Blue“.Album 2: Hamar Railway Station: enthält acht neu geschriebene Songs für Band (Klavier, Gitarre, Bass, Schlagzeug) und Gesang. Dieser Teil heißt „Hamar Railway Station“ und handelt von der Geschichte der jungen Silje, welche die Welt erkunden wollte.

Silje Nergaard (born June 19, 1966 in Steinkjer, Norway) is a Norwegian pop and jazz vocalist based in Oslo. While her music early in her career (e.g. Si det, si det from 1985) may have had a distinct pop feel, she has since moved on, and virtually all of her later releases consist of jazz-oriented tunes.
Nergaard’s musical journey began early. At age 16, she stepped on stage joining a jam session at Moldejazz, Norway’s international jazz festival, with a band comprising ex-Jaco Pastorious musicians. The country’s jazz journalists applauded the young talent. Since that day, she has steadily developed as a composer and become popular for her unique voice and talent for songwriting.
Since her 1990 inaugural jazz album, Tell Me Where You’re Going, produced by jazz guitar maestro Pat Metheny, Nergaard has become one among very few Norwegian artists to have had commercial releases in major music markets around the globe - including Brazil, Germany, the U.S., and the United Kingdom - and doing so with great success.
Her later albums, Port of Call (2000), At First Light (2001), and Nightwatch (2003), have all proved resounding commercial successes and received rapturous critical praise. With Nightwatch she also made history: no other jazz artist before her had shot straight into the Norwegian sales charts twice to reach #1 within the first week of release. In 2004 she received a Norwegian music award for Musician of the Year.

At First Light is the second-best-selling jazz album of all time in Silje Nergaard's native Norway..…….

Silje Nergaard is an award-winning Norwegian jazz-pop singer/songwriter who peaked in popularity after the turn of the century with the chart-topping albums At First Light (2001) and Nightwatch (2003). Born on June 19, 1966, in Steinkjer, Norway, she cites influences that include Al Jarreau and Joni Mitchell. As a teenager she became something of a national sensation when she joined an impromptu jam session at the 1983 Molde Internasjonal Jazz Festival.

Singer Silje Nergaard is something of a national icon in her native Norway and Scandinavian countries, selling staggering amounts of records and winning just about every music prize that exists and it's no surprise when you hear her sing.
Possessing an angelic vocal ability that is tempered by a husky, honeyed tone, Nergaard returns with a new excellent album, which is to repeat the success of her well received 2004 album Nightwatch.
A sophisticated song writer who has embraced much of the cool contemporary sounds of the much feted Norwegian nu-jazz scene, hers is a very contemporary take on the jazz vocal tradition, yet far from a detached performer, her music is life affirming and joyful as Ella or Nina sounded in their prime.
As internationally acclaimed as she is, the successful, she has recorded this sublime album "Darkness Out of Blue", with a new approach and a new band, this is her first new album in three years. Showcasing her writing and arranging on a complete set of orginal songs Silje says of the album; "This has been a very inspiring project. It feels extremely important, and I sense it is the beginning of something new."
It's a more pop-oriented album but the terrific, candy-voiced Norwegian singer is at her best.
She has also used the legendary composer/arranger Vince Mendoza to arrange two of her songs; "Paperboats" and "Let Me Be Troubled", the first and the last song on the album.
"Darkness Out Of Blue" shows her wide range of influences better than any of her previous discs; but as Silje says, this is a reflection of herself.
"Everything I have done, is done out of my own world. My roots are many different places. I am not ruled by genres and their regulations, and I believe my strength is that I create something which is totally mine."
Thus she draws from the classic and the modern from iconic female singers Ella Fitzgerald and Emmy-Lou Harris, to the melodic sound of Bill Evans to the deep dance ambiance of Zero 7, all combining to make something unique, new and entrancing.
Silje's band still includes long time friends guitarist Bjørn Charles Dreyer and the drummer Jarle Vespestad, while new collaborators include Helge Lien and Finn Guttormsen on piano and bass represent the new contribution; both extremely talented musicians with diverse backgrounds, but with jazz as their first love.
As she says, in her "It was time for change and renewing", and what incredible results that has brought. I am loving it! You will love it!

Silje Nergaard is without question Norway’s all-time best selling Jazz artist worldwide with 15 albums released over a career that spans 20 years. From the first moment she entered the music scene at the age of 16, Silje established herself as one of Norway’s strongest songwriters.

Silje Nergaard is without question Norway’s all-time best selling Jazz artist worldwide with 15 albums released over a career that spans 20 years. From the first moment she entered the music scene at the age of 16, Silje established herself as one of Norway’s strongest songwriters.

Apart from an almost unrecognisably languid arrangement of David Bowie and Pat Metheny's This Is Not America, Nergaard composed all the music herself, but while the music fits her beguiling, wide-eyed intonation perfectly, collaborator Tim McGurk's English lyrics are less successful.
Although there are occasional glimpses of brilliance, in general the barren phrases and overwrought verses show nowhere near the same level of precision or flair as the music.
This deficiency, combined with the quiet intensity and tidy lyrics of the Nergaard-penned closer (sans McGurk), On And On, may induce you to seek out Nergaard's more experimental (and self-produced) Norwegian language releases. Nergaard may be regarded as being at the forefront of the contemporary European jazz scene but on Nightwatch, she seems just as comfortable lounging around with more conventional pieces like In A Sentence.
It's the innovative blend of exuberant jazz plus a liberal pinch of this and that which really sets the mood of Nightwatch.

Multi-award-winning Norwegian jazz singer Silje Nergaard is a well-established artist with the world as her playground. She has released 16 albums since her debut in 1990. Her musical career got off to a flying start when she, at only 16, got up on stage in an impromptu jam session with Jaco Pastorius Band at Molde International Jazz Festival. The legendary jazz music critic Randi Hultin was in the audience – and the result was next-day newspaper reviews announcing Norway’s new big jazz discovery. In 2020, Silje Nergaard will be celebrating her 30-year anniversary as an artist by releasing two new albums, which will be followed up by international touring.