Rebekka Bakken

by Jason Ankeny
Nordic folk-jazz chanteuse Rebekka Bakken was the most successful exponent of a new generation of Scandinavian jazz singers that also included Silje Nergaard, Sidsel Endresen, and Solveig Slettahjell. Born in Oslo in 1970, Bakken studied violin and piano as a child, and in 1995 relocated to New York City to pursue a professional music career. There she paired with Austrian-born guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and together they toured the local nightclub circuit as a duo. In time Bakken also befriended German pianist Julia Hülsmann, with whom she recorded the 2003 album Scattering Poems, a collection of jazz performances inspired by the poes of e.e. cummings. Upon completing the project Bakken returned to Europe, settling in Vienna and signing a solo deal with the Universum label. Her debut LP, The Art of How to Fall, followed by year's end, and in 2005 she resurfaced with her commercial breakthrough, Is That You? I Keep My Cool followed a year later.