Josefine Cronholm & Ibis - Hotel Paradise (2003)

Some singers become famous overnight with a hit song. Others have to fight a long and hard battle for recognition - that may never come. And then there are singers who, without being pushy, work on music that interests them or which they are invited to join, and they are instantly noticed, they are talked about on the grapevine, one musician tells another, and audiences spread the word about the indisputable talent. Long before their record debuts, such singers as Cæcilie Norby and Randi Laubek were known among musicians, and the same goes for singer Josefine Cronholm.

Josefine was born on 13 May 1971 in Domsten, Sweden, and in 1995 she was admitted to the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. And soon this versatile super talent was in great demand. She has since been heard with Fredrik Lundin, Frans Bak, Django Bates, the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, Marilyn Mazur, New Jungle Orchestra, and numerous others. Josefine Cronholm’s voice has a large range, she has brilliant technique and a wonderful audacity in terms of music. She has a rare gift for capturing an audience the very moment she enters the scene, and with her intense, unaffected stage presence she is the quintessence of a “natural” woman.

But for long Josefine Cronholm was a secret - to her fellow-countrymen in Sweden. Actually she was not hiding, she had just chosen to live in Denmark, where she is probably the most sought-after singer at the moment. Through her remarkable recordings with Frans Bak (“Natsange”), with String Swing (“Red Shoes” - the one with the marvellous cover by Arnoldi), and her first recording with her own band, Ibis (“Wild Garden”), her cd sales have been steadily increasing, and she has had lots of outstanding reviews in Denmark and in such countries as Germany and France, where e.g. the leading French jazz magazine Jazzman gave both “Red Shoes” and “Wild Garden” its highest praise, the term “Choc”.

In Denmark String Swing won a Danish Grammy Award, and Josefine herself has been awarded the prestigious Palæ Bar Prize, and now they have also spotted her in Sweden. And to such a degree that she has been given one of the highest distinctions available to a Swedish jazz artist: She was chosen as “Jazz in Sweden Artist” 2003, which inter alia led to a long tour in Sweden and to this cd recording.

Josefine Cronholm and Ibis say thank you with this beautiful and evocative cd, “Hotel Paradise”. Not a jazz recording as such - rather a record with a lot of jazz feeling in Josefine’s poetic and astonishing musical universe. When asked about her music, Josefine says that she “creates simple music; songs that are not built on a lot of complicated chords, but which grow from a core of equal parts of air and tones”. That’s how Josefine Cronholm and Ibis conjure up seductive moods and lovely melodies on “Hotel Paradise” and create room for reflection and a broad spectrum of feelings, contemplation, warmth and humour. A beautiful record.