Come Home Rigmor Gustafsson

• 1 Big Yellow Taxi 03:49
• 2 I Think of You 05:36
• 3 Take a Little Turn 04:36
• 4 The Light Years 04:29
• 5 This Time 05:14
• 6 Wuthering Heights 03:53
• 7 Twist in My Sobriety 04:23
• 8 Lovely 04:44
• 9 Winter Doesn't End 05:15
• 10 Enjoy the Day 04:05
• 11 Come Home 07:34
• Total Runtime 53:38

Info for Come Home

Songs for the soul. Rigmor Gustafsson, one of the most popular Scandinavian vocalists, enchants the listener with a nuanced, atmospheric song-album, consisting of original compositions in collaboration with some of the most respected songwriters of the Swedish pop- and jazz scene and three of Gustafssons all-time favourite songs by Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and Tanita Tikaram

Sometimes it’s wrong to rush things, even when everything might appear to be completely in place: "Straight after I had released my last album 'When You Make Me Smile' in 2014,” says Swedish singer Rigmor Gustafsson, “I knew what I wanted to do next, not least because the inspiration to write new music was coming so rapidly. It's a mystical and magic feeling when you can hear music inside you that you know you have to write down". But Rigmor Gustafsson is not one to rush in headlong. She prefers to let her ideas mature, to bring them to perfection. So before making "Come Home", she took her time.

From the outset it was clear to Gustafsson that she wanted to record this album with her regular trio of several years. Pianist Jonas Östholm, bassist Martin Höper and drummer Chris Montgomery have become "my cornerstones, I simply love to sing with them", she says. And because Gustafsson finds that the music for new songs tends to fall into place before the lyrics, she could not have been happier when Andreas Mattsson, who had already worked for many other Swedish stars, suggested they might collaborate. They worked on three songs together. Even the elegiac "I Think Of You", which revels in some unusual and enticing blues changes, was far from a simple proposition. The same can be said of the longing and touching title track – which is heard last on the album – it became a little masterpiece. For the other original compositions, Gustafsson placed her trust in a circle of old friends, lyricists with whom she has worked together for a long time: Lina Nyberg, Tomas Bäcklund, Anders Lundin and the team of Caroline Cederlöf and Sofia Petterson.

Originally, she had toyed with the idea of featuring just her own songs on "Come Home", but she had the increasingly strong feeling that she wanted to add some of her favourite songs, all by female songwriters. "Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell have always been an enormous inspiration to me," she says. And so the album begins with a wonderful, highly individual interpretation of Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi". Gustafsson has an extraordinary ability to deploy her technically perfect, captivatingly precise and powerful singing voice in a way that is completely natural and always individual, and those attributes can be admired at their fullest in Kate Bush's extremely demanding hit song "Wuthering Heights". Perhaps the most unusual track is Gustafsson's version of Tanita Tikaram's "Twist In My Sobriety", with Lisa Långbacka's accordion taking the original song's oboe melody.

The memories, the feelings in this album are going to be recognizable to every listener. Songs such as "Winter Doesn't End" or "Enjoy The Day" are sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy but invariably captivating and irresistible. The sense that these songs are so true to life is attributable to the way the album evolved. Alongside her busy concert schedule, Gustafsson was determined to ensure that "Come Home" should be given all the time that it needed to reach fruition. She was conscious that she could not be satisfied until she had created something new and completely right from the things that had lain dormant within her. “Until I felt that I had truly come home."

Rigmor Gustafsson, vocals
Jonas Östholm, piano
Martin Höper, bass
Chris Montgomery, drums

Recorded by Otto Wellton at Kingside Studio, Gnesta, Sweden, February 2018
Edited by Martin Höper
Mixed by Pål Svenre at Unit 7, Stockholm, Sweden
Mastered by Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering, Sweden
Co-produced by Martin Höper, Jonas Östholm and Chris Montgomery
Produced by Rigmor Gustafsson

Rigmor Gustafsson
was born and grew up on a small farm in Värmland, in the very heart of Sweden. She picked up the guitar at age nine, and soon discovered her passion for jazz. It soon became clear that she wished to turn this passion into a career. But who was going to let a girl with a guitar play in their band? She had a wonderful voice, so she packed her guitar in its case and became a singer.

After her education at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, she rapidly became known in Sweden as an excellent vocalist. She worked with various big bands, led her own small groups, performed on Swedish television and made numerous recordings for radio. In 1993 she moved to New York, to study at the New School and at Mannes College of Music with Sheila Jordan, Clark Terry, Richie Beirach, Phil Markovitz, Reggie Workman and Joe Chambers. She performed in the New York jazz clubs with Fred Hersch and Ted Rosenthal, recorded with Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer and Dick Oatts, and soon Gustafsson herself was teaching at Mannes College of Music. She founded her first quintet, which toured all over Europe.

In 1996 Rigmor returned to Stockholm, was given a teaching position at the Royal Academy of Music and has since been regarded as a star of the young and lively Swedish jazz scene. In Germany the audience celebrated her performance at the JazzFest Berlin 2001 and she was immediately invited to the JazzBaltica Festival 2002, which presented her to a wider German audience as “a new star singer” (Jazzthetik). The same year she was a guest star on Nils Landgren’s highly successful album Sentimental Journey (ACT 9409-2) and in 2003 she presented her debut on ACT I Will Wait For You (ACT 9418-2), which established her firmly in the tradition of great Swedish jazz singers like Monica Zetterlund, Lill Lindfors, Sylvia Vrethammer or Alice Babs. I Will Wait For You rocketed up to second place in the German jazz charts and No.1 in Sweden, where she took over from Norah Jones, who had held place for 74 weeks. The German Jazz Award and a Gold record in Sweden were tangible rewards for the success of this album produced by Nils Landgren.

The following year Gustafsson and the French-American pianist Jacky Terrasson released a moving and sensual tribute to one of the greatest singers of pop culture, Dionne Warwick: Close To You (ACT 9703-2). Rarely have pop songs looked so good in jazz clothes. The new arrangements fit the soul-classics like a glove. The songs retain their pop identity, yet they have become exciting contemporary jazz. Gustafsson was not only rewarded with the Swedish Jazz Award, she was named “Best singer of the year” by Werner Burkhardt in the end-of the-year review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

On her next album On My Way to You (ACT 9710-2), released in February 2006, Gustafsson interpreted Michel Legrand’s world famous melodies from films with great jazz feeling. Some of his songs like “Windmills of Your Mind", "Once upon a Summertime" or "You Must Believe in Spring", have become part of the world's musical heritage, and Gustafsson û directed by producer Landgren û proves to be the ideal voice for these songs. Michel Legrand himself admits: “I am honoured that Rigmor has chosen to do some of my songs. She knocks me out!” On My Way to You even placed Gustafsson 12th in the Swedish POP charts, and the album won a gold record in Sweden.

Her current album Alone With You (ACT 9717-2, to be released in fall 2007), her fourth release on ACT, ventures into uncharted (for Gustafsson) territory. Although she has been writing music and also lyrics herself for years, Gustafsson is more known to the public for her exceptional and empathic versions of other people’s songs. Now she has taken another step forward and put together a highly personal album comprised exclusively of her own songs.

“Her soul speaks to other souls”, Werner Burkhardt wrote about her performance at JazzBaltica a few years back. One is hard put to find better words for her voice and her personality.

Booklet for Come Home