CD of the week Lisa Ekdahl:Lisa Ekdahl Sings Salvadore Poe
Matthew Krouse
Lisa Ekdahl has to be the cutest chipmunk in jazz. And Salvadore Poe, her chipmunk buddy, has written a whole lot of bossa nova for the two of them that will knock your socks off.
Ekdahl is something of a mega pop star in her native Sweden where, in 1994, she scored with a hit called Vem Vet (Who Knows). But over the past five years she’s graduated from being a bouncy Britney-type to being a serious jazz diva. Poe, her life mate, is an American movie soundtrack composer who penned the music for Basketball Diaries (his recent work is more memorable, I assure you).
Having discovered their love for each other, they discovered a mutual love for the sweeping sounds of Latin jazz. Their album, Lisa Ekdahl Sings Salvadore Poe (BMG), literally zings, effervescent with old clichs. Ekdahl and Poe live in a cartoon world where ”nice” just has to rhyme with ”paradise”. It’s a world of ”deep caressing rivers of love”, where, even if you’re suicidal, you’re basically ”blue”.
It’s undisputable and unforgivable their wet dream is to be Astrid and Joao. Poe even comes in every now and then under Ekdahl’s vocals with the same dull croon that Joao Gilberto did when wife Astrid sang on the legendary Girl from Ipanema album of 1963.
But all these points of reference are part of the fun. Listening to the album could be turned into a drawing-room game called ”Where did they steal that?”. And if you don’t feel like sourcing their inspiration, the album will make a perfect backdrop while you page through that Scandinavian furniture spread in Wallpaper magazine.