Sinne Eeg - Dreams

The Guardian 80

(Stunt)

The news that Sinne Eeg is a much-admired jazz vocalist in Denmark might not grab many front pages, but the prizewinning 40-year-old is a genuine original and her stock is growing. A singer of laidback improv alertness and coolly lustrous tonality, Eeg balances a mainstream repertoire here (four creatively recoloured Broadway standards) with six thoughtful originals, astutely partnered y pianist Jacob Christoffersen and guitarist Larry Koonse, and the bass/drums pairing of Scott Colley and Joey Baron. Eeg suggests an earthier Diana Krall in the deft timing of her bluesy ballad The Bitter End; glimpses Betty Carter in the surefooted scatting of Head Over High Heels; boldly presents her own title track as a wordless vocal against Colley’s rich pizzicato (followed by Christoffersen’s rolling, Jarrett-like groove), and sensitively avoids mawkishness in a wistful tribute to emotion-numbed orphans in Aleppo. The structures are mostly familiar, but the delivery is anything but.