String Swing

At the 2005 Copenhagen Jazz Festival the group String Swing was for me a nice surprise too. I remember it was a very hot evening at the Huset Plan B. Teatersdalen, an old building and the concert at the fourth flour was packed. The group String Swing is very popular in Denmark.

The singer of the group is Josefine Cronholm, a Swedish vocalist living in Denmark. Born in 1971 in Småland (Sweden) she lived in Brazil for a few years and became a student at the Conservatory in Copenhagen. Her first CD was Wild Garden and she performed with Django Bates and the New Djungle Orchestra. Søren Siegumfeldt's String Swing is also one of her popular groups. They made two CDs up to now: Red Shoes ( it won prices in 2003 being the best Danish jazz record) and Blue Hat.

She says to be inspired by Joni Mitchel and Billie Holiday.

The music they play is a mix of jazz, swing ( Jacob Fischer plays in an extremely swinging style on his acoustic guitar), Brazilian elements, bossa nova's and gypsy music. In fact, they don't feel to be limited by any music style and that makes the music fresh and full of surprises. The leader Søren Siegumfeldt plays his saxophone in a brilliant way as does Jacob Gurevitch on guitar.

The name of the group Swing String must have been inspired by its 1940s precursor Swing String. Don't mix up the name of the band with Cynthia Sayer's String Swing - she's an American banjoist who makes beautiful music on her instrument. I must have some music of her somewhere.