Jeanette Lindstrom Quintet - I Saw You (1997)

While parts of Jeanette Lindstrom's previous album, Another Country, illustrated her strengths as an interpreter of well-known lyrics, her sophomore effort, I Saw You, excluded standards in favor of mostly songs the singer herself wrote or co-wrote. Considering that she had grown up in Sweden, it was hard not be impressed by how Black-sounding she could be (especially when hitting the high notes). But Lindstrom's style doesn't bring to mind the "rock 'em, sock 'em" side of jazz and R&B so much as their more impressionistic side. If you took the most impressionistic and introspective post-bop that Abbey Lincoln, Dianne Reeves or Akua Dixon Turre had done and added overtones of R&B, the results might sound something like "The Color," "Stockholm" or "Couldn't You Try." Everything on I Saw You sounds quite personal, and it was obvious that Quincy Jones' praise of Lindstrom was more than justified. This Swedish release's overall excellence made one hope that Lindstrom, an artist with tremendous potential, would become as well known in the U.S. as she was in Scandinavia. by Alex Henderson