Karin Krog - Don't Just Sing / An Anthology: 1963-1999

2015 collection from the cult Jazz artist. This collection includes performances by Dexter Gordon and John Surman. Booklet contains rare archive photos and liner notes Q&A with Krog. The work of Karin Krog may be unfamiliar to much of the world, but in her native Norway and Scandinavia at large, she's practically a household name. This says much about the local enthusiasm for post bop Jazz but also about the tyranny of distribution: until 1994, Krog's albums weren't available in the USA or UK, meaning three decades of recordings were waiting to be discovered. With this anthology of her best recordings from 1963 to 1999, curated with Krog's own input we hope to set the record straight. To listen to opening track "As A Wife Has A Cow" is to jump into the deep end. Its 54 seconds of words, voice, and technology, a looped, echoing reading of a Gertrude Stein poem. The effect is disquieting and alien but deeply rhythmic, too-and that's Krog's USP. Don't Just Sing takes in these spoken experiments along with free Jazz, improvisation, standards, contemporary covers, and electronic manipulation. It features some of the best regarded Jazz players in Europe, not least her partner, John Surman, the English saxophonist/multi- instrumentalist and composer. Krog remains fiercely productive, recording, performing, and running Meantime records from her and John's villa near Oslo. Now 77, she's showing no signs of slowing down. "Everybody has to retire at some point, but I believe that once a musician, you're always a musician," she says. "If I can't stand up and sing on stage anymore, I can always do it sitting down!"