My review of Norwegian Woods - Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic II (Wesseltoft/Slettahjell/Reiersrud/In the Country) @All About Jazz.

One night, six Norwegian artists—three of them together in a group for a decade. Such ideas can look great on paper, but turn out less than inspiring in reality. Fortunately, beyond the individual talents involved, there's been enough interconnectivity between singer Solveig Slettahjell, keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft, guitarist Knut Reiersrud and the members of In The Country—keyboardist Morten Qvenild, bassist Roger Arntzen and drummer Paal Hausken—that Norwegian Woods-Jazz at the Berlin Philharmonic II doesn't just work...it soars.

Slettahjell—bringing a very personal vision to both her own music and her many interpretations of songwriters ranging from Cole Porter to Tom Waits by using super slow tempos—has collaborated with Qvenild for more than ten years, both in the Slow Motion Orchestra last heard on 2010's Tarpan Seasons (Universal Norway) and in the intimate duo setting of Antologie (Universal Norway, 2011). Wesseltoft has, in addition to his own work interpreting the jazz canon in a similarly slow fashion on Songs (2012), both produced and played on Reiersrud's understated (and overlooked) 2010 gem Gitar—like Songs, on the keyboardist's Jazzland label—while In the Country has honed a most specific voice and chemistry on five recordings including Losing Stones, Collecting Bones (Rune Grammofon, 2007), from which the plaintive, quietly majestic and wordless vocal-driven "Can I Come Home Now" was culled for this very special, one-time concert at Berlin's Philharmonic Hall on March 13, 2014.

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