Another Country

Jeanette Lindstrom's promising debut album was titled Another Country because instead of being recorded in her native Sweden, it was done in Copenhagen with Danish players. But most of the time, this risk-taking CD sounds like it could have been recorded in New York or Chicago. Though slight traces of a Scandinavian accent come through on occasion, Lindstrom often sounds like she could be African-American. The jazz singers she brings to mind include Abbey Lincoln and Dianne Reeves, and Lindstrom's phrasing also gives the impression she has much spent time listening to a lot of 1970s and 1980s R&B. But while comparisons are well and good, Lindstrom never sounds like she's actually emulating anyone. Whether the impressionistic post-bop singer is interpreting the lyrics to "Speak Low," "Never Will I Marry" and "Wives and Loves" or scatting on her wordless "Competition," Another Country is clearly the work of someone who had developed a recognizable style of her own. ~ Alex Henderson|