Lisa Linn - On Such A Wonderful Summer Night (1998)

Although the liner notes describe an outdoor concert on a football green with thousands seated on the grass and Lisa Linn singing from atop a lorry, Summer Night is actually a studio date recorded in March/April ’98 at Radio Sweden. So much for truth in advertising. As for the music, it’s pleasantly loose and swinging, but Linn may have fared better on the football green, as she’s not especially well recorded in the studio, whose cavernous ambiance enwraps her in a hazy veil. Linn’s voice is a smoky contralto, and while I don’t know anything about her background, traces of a Swedish accent surface only infrequently, and are never intrusive. She takes the occasional liberties with a lyric, most notably on “That Old Black Magic,” and seems more comfortable at slower tempos (most of her ten vocals are taken at a relatively unhurried pace including four ballads and the normally fleet footed “Bill Bailey,” which strolls nonchalantly into fiery choruses by Lundgren and Wickman). Speaking of Wickman, he is present on only five of the 14 tracks including three with Linn (his clarinet is featured with the rhythm section on “I Concentrate on You” and “Everything I Love”). There are two trio numbers, with Lundgren out front on “I Should Care” (a lovely reading) and Sylvén on “Alone Together.”

Lundgren, one of the finest young pianists on the scene, takes several other first class solos as does Sylvén and he and the rhythm section are in admirable form in their supporting role. A well–framed session that is somewhere short of outstanding but well above the norm. ~ Jack Bowers

Personnel: Lisa Linn, vocals; Putte Wickman, clarinet; Jan Lundgren, Piano; Patrik Albin, Lars Andersson, Bo Sylvén