Karin Krog

Karin Krog, 2015

Karin Krog (born May 15, 1937 in Oslo ) is a Norwegian singer of modern jazz . Already in the mid-1960s she gained international recognition as the original European voice of jazz singing . In the meantime, she also turned to free jazz and avant-garde concert music.

Live and act

Krog's career began at the Penguin Club in Oslo, where she was discovered in 1955 by Kjell Karlsen , who hired her as a singer for his sextet. In the next year, the first radio appearances followed. In 1957 she performed in the Humlen Restaurant in Oslo with the alto saxophonist Mikkel Flagstad and the pianist Einar Iversen .

She has directed her own bands since the early 1960s, and also worked with the quintet by Frode Thingnæs , the trio of pianist Egil Kapstad, and from 1962 to 1968 with her singing teacher Anne Brown (who was Bess in the first production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess ). Their first publication appeared on the compilation LP Metropol Jazz , which appeared in 1963; in the same year she also appeared with Cecil Taylor and Don Ellis . George Russell attested her "a style that really has to do with the expansion of the entire dramatic spectrum of what is called jazz singing." In 1964, she released her first solo album By Myself , the same year she was in Antibes at the jazz festival occurred.

In 1965 Krog was one of the founders of the Norsk Jazzforum , of which she was the first director. She performed with her own quartets and quintets, sang with a group under Egil Kapstad , recorded two singles with the rhythm and blues band Public Enemies and in 1966 released her second LP Jazz Moments with Jan Garbarek , Kenny Drew , Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Jon Christensen out.

After visiting the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw and Prague , she performed in 1967 with Don Ellis and Clare Fischer in the USA; In 1968 she presented herself at the Montreux Jazz Festival , followed by a tour of Europe and Japan. In 1970 she toured Japan with the European All Stars (including Albert Mangelsdorff , Jean-Luc Ponty and John Surman ) and sang at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Jeanne Lee . In 1971 she was back in the USA.

During the 1970s she performed mainly in duo and trio line-ups a. a. with Dexter Gordon , Archie Shepp , John Surman, Red Mitchell , Warne Marsh , Bengt Hallberg and Nils Lindberg . She toured Norway and Great Britain with Richard Rodney Bennet on the Synthesis concert program . In 1975 and in the following years she also performed at jazz festivals around the world.

Since she has also been active as a producer of television series in Norway after completing a relevant training, she has been live a little less often, mostly with Surman, but also with Nils Lindberg, Roger Kellaway , Palle Mikkelborg , Arild Andersen , the Vienna Art Orchestra (1981, Donaueschinger Musiktage ), Gary Foster (1981 San Francisco) and Lothar Krist (1986 Hamburg). She can also be heard on productions with Georgie Fame ("Dedications"), Per Borthen ("Swing Arrival", 1980) and Bengt Hallberg ( Two of a Kind , 1981). In 1987 Krog founded his own record company Meantime Records .

In the 1990s she caused a stir with performances with John Surman at church concerts, in 1996 in Salisbury Cathedral and in 1998 at the Oslo Jazz Festival in the Domkerken and her album Freestyle with Odin . In addition, she took u. a. Music for modern dance performances by Carolyn Carlson and Lario Ekson on.

For her thirty-year anniversary as a solo singer, the double CD Jubilee was released in 1994 , the Karin's Voyage collection was released in 2001, the compilation Raindrops, Raindrops in 2002 (one of them, Meaning of Love , was also released as a remix by Mathew Herbert). In the same year she recorded the CD Where Flamingos Fly with guitarist Jacob Young , followed in 2003 by Where You At? with the Steve Kuhn Trio.

Prizes and awards

As early as 1959, Krog was voted jazz singer of the year in a poll by Verdensrevyen magazine ; In 1965 she received the Buddy Prize . In 1967 she led the critics poll in Down Beat magazine as a singer who deserved more attention. In 1981 Krog was awarded the Norwegian Council Artists Award. In 1975 she was named Jazz Singer of the Year by the European Jazz Federation . In 1999 she received the Radka Toneff Minnepris . In 2005 she honored King Harald V with the Order of Saint Olav, First Class. At the Oslo Jazz Festival 2008 she was awarded the Ella Prize . In 2014 she received the Norwegian Gammleng Prize for her lifetime achievement as a musician.

Karin Krog (2014)

Choice discography

• Karin Krog: By Myself (1964)
• Karin Krog: Joy (Philips / Meantime Records MR15, 1968, with Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen and others)
• Dexter Gordon & Karin Krog: Some Other Spring (Meantime CD MR10, 1970)
• Karin Krog: Gershwin with Karin Krog - Songs by George & Ira Gershwin (Polydor Norway / Meantime, MR4 1973/74)
• Karin Krog: You Must Believe In Spring - Songs by Michel Legrand (Polydor Norway 2382 044, 1974)
• Karin Krog: We Could Be Flying (Polydor Norway 2382 051, 1974)
• Archie Shepp & Karin Krog: Hi Fly (P-Vine Records / Meantime, MR3, 1976)
• Karin Krog / John Surman: Cloud Line Blue (Meantime Records, MR11, 1978)
• Karin Krog: Freestyle (Odin / Meantime Records, MR18, 1985/86)
• Karin Krog: Where You at (Enja 2002, with Steve Kuhn, David Finck, Bill Drummond)
• Karin Krog / Steve Kuhn: Together Again (Grappa GRCD 4247, 2006)
• Karin Krog / John Surman: Songs About This and That (Meantime Records, MR20, 2013)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 , p. 707.
2. ↑ Stine Ljungquist Knudsen: Radka Toneff Minnepris. In: Laagendalsposten. November 27, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (Norwegian). 
3. ↑ Meeting (Nordic Music)
4. ↑ Meeting (Nordic Music)

Web links

Commons : Karin Krog  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Portrait Krog ( jazz newspaper )
• Portrait at All about Jazz
• Karin Krog's homepage
• Karin Krog at Discogs (English)