Solveig Slettahjell

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Solveig Slettahjell (Oslo Jazz Festival 2018). Image: Tore Sætre

Solveig Slettahjell (born April 2, 1971 in Bærum ) is a Norwegian jazz singer.

biography

Solveig Slettahjell was born on April 2nd, 1971 in Bærum near Oslo , but spent her childhood in Orkanger , a small town near Trondheim . As the daughter of a pastor, she came into contact with music at an early age and started singing in a choir at the age of seven. She received a further basic musical education a little later as a student at a music-oriented high school in Trondheim, where she received piano and singing lessons. At the age of 13 she accompanied various youth and gospel choirs on the piano. After finishing school, Slettahjell began studying jazz at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1992 . Between 1993 and 2000 she studied there with the well-known Norwegian jazz singer Sidsel Endresen and completed her exam with a thesis on rhythmic aspects of vocal phrasing. During her studies Solveig Slettahjell met the pianist Håkon Hartberg, with whom she performed as a duo. In this experimental phase, she touched the most diverse genres, from country , folk and jazz standards to modern pop music by Prince and Tom Waits . In 1995 she became a member of the band Squid , with whom she played her own compositions in the field of soul and funk and made her first CD recording ( Super ) in 1998 , before the band broke up in 1999. Already parallel to the band project, Solveig Slettahjell joined the experimental Norwegian vocal quartet Kvitretten in 1997 with the singers Eldbjørg Raknes , Kristin Asbjørnsen and Tone Åse . With their own compositions and contemporary pieces by Norwegian jazz musicians, they performed in many concerts in Scandinavia and Germany until 2002. During this time, the two albums Everything turns (1999) and Kloden er en snurrebass som snurrer oss (2002) were created together with the Norwegian poet Torgeir Rebbolledo Pedersen. Solveig Slettahjell also sang in the vocal ensembles Trondheim Voices and vonDrei . She was invited by her former teacher Sidsel Endresen for the singing project Living Rooms , which was performed in 2002 as part of the Norwegian jazz festival Nattjazz . In December 2005 she took over a vocal part of a four-part composition by Endresen for the Norwegian Voices concert in London .

A new musical phase began in 2000 with the founding of their own band, Slow Motion Quintet , which includes bassist Mats Eilertsen , trumpeter Sjur Miljeteig , drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and pianist and arranger Morten Qvenild . Using sparse-looking arrangements and very slow tempos, they give well-known standards, especially ballads , their very own touch. With her first album, released in 2001, which she recorded live with her band and other Norwegian guest musicians at the Blaa jazz club in Oslo , the international scene became aware of the singer who is already well-known in Norway. Solveig Slettahjell and her men celebrated their breakthrough in Germany in 2004 with their critically acclaimed appearance at the Jazz Baltica in Salzau and their CD Silver , released in the same year . The quintet then received a contract with the ACT label, which focuses on vocal jazz when selecting artists. The CD Pixiedust was released here in 2005, as well as Good Rain in 2006 and the reissued, previously successful CD Silver . The three most recently released albums reveal two tendencies: Firstly, the sound is becoming more modern, as pianist and keyboardist Morten Qvenild and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen in particular always subtly, but increasingly, add electronic, sometimes noisy, timbres to the music. Second, the band members are increasingly turning to their own compositions. While American classics and cover versions still dominate on Silver , two of the singer's own songs are already recorded on Pixiedust to the contemporary compositions of Norwegian drummer Peder Kjellsby. Eight of the eleven compositions on the Good Rain CD were written by Solveig Slettahjell, Morten Qvenild and Sjur Miljeteig. The concept of recording the very intimate album Domestic Songs with Slettahjell at the piano at home emerged from duo performances together with Sjur Miljeteig . Mats Eilertsen left her band and was replaced by Jo Berger Myhre. The CD, on which Peder Kjellsby had also contributed, was released in 2007 on ACT .

In 2007 Solveig Slettahjell performed for the first time at a concert in Arendal with the well-known Norwegian jazz pianist Tord Gustavsen . With him and Sjur Miljeteig she took in 2008 in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas carols on the CD Natt I Bethlehem were published in Norway. In 2015 she recorded the CD Trail of souls together with the guitarist Knut Reiersrud and In The Country , the band of her longtime companion Morten Qvenild .

Awards

The second release Silver by Solveig Slettahjell together with the Slow Motion Quintet received the 2004 award for the best Norwegian jazz album of the year. In 2005 she was awarded the Vital Prize and the Radka Toneff Minnepris in Norway at the jazz festivals in Kongsberg and Molde . The latter award is particularly close to her heart, as Radka Toneff is one of her role models and has had a great musical influence on her. In 2011 Slettahjell received the Norwegian Gammleng Prize in the Jazz category.

Discography

solo

  • 2011 - Antology

With the slow motion quintet

  • 2001 - Slow Motion Orchestra
  • 2004 - Silver
  • 2005 - Pixiedust
  • 2006 - Good Rain
  • 2007 - Domestic Songs
  • 2010 - Tarpan Seasons
  • 2020 - Come in from the Rain

With Squid

  • 1998 - great

With display cases

  • 1999 - Everything turns
  • 2002 - Kloden er en snurrebass som snurrer oss

With Tord Gustavsen and Sjur Miljeteig

  • 2008 - Natt I Bethlehem

With Knut Reiersrud and In The Country

  • 2015 - Trail of souls

As a guest musician

  • 2001 - Synchronize Your Watches - Rob Waring Trio
  • 2003 - Burglar Ballads - Friko
  • 2004 - Sound and smoke - Ophelia Orchestra
  • 2005 - Batagraf - Jon Balke
  • 2006 - The journey to Mandoola - Friko

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arild Rønsen: Radka-prisen til Slettahjell. In: puls.no. July 21, 2005. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (Norwegian).
personal data
SURNAME Slettahjell, Solveig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 2nd 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Bærum