Customer Reviews

Gling-Glo

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Björk does jazz. And it's good. Her voice rings out like on no other album, with all the shrieks and screams she's known for. Here lies the definite proof of her vocal prowess. None of the electronic treatments of her other work coat the music (which may not please everyone). Most of the songs feature only voice, bass, drums, and piano; the usual jazz quad arrangement. And an added bonus: she sings fourteen of the sixteen songs in Icelandic. Song titles such as "Brestir Og Brak", "Ástartöfrar", and "þaÐ Sést Ekki Sætari Mey" make this pretty clear. In fact, the liner notes and nearly all of the text on the album appears in Icelandic (the album credits even list her as "Björk Guðmundsdóttir" - one can see the impresarios at Elektra saying "How about cutting it down to just 'Björk'?). She also sings two jazz standards in English, "Ruby Baby" and "I Can't Help Loving That Man". All around a great sound with great performances.

Björk must have been experimenting at the time of this album's release. It was recorded in 1990; well before 1993's "Debut" and while the Sugarcubes were still offically together. Perhaps she flirted with the idea of becoming a jazz vocalist? Or maybe "Gling-Gló" just represents a one time experiment? Either way, Björk would've made a great jazz vocalist, but most of her fans likely prefer the direction she eventually went in. Consequently, not every Björk fan will probably appreciate this album. Nonetheless, it stands as a testament to Björk's artistic diversity and vocal abilities.

Whether or not you're a Bjork fan, this is a most interesting album to look into. Out of all of Bjork's published recordings, this has by far been the most well received in her native country of Iceland, and for good reason; though lacking the electronic and avant garde twists that her solo career has come to embody, Gling Glo represents Bjork's role in the Icelandic music scene, her uniqueness and power as a singer, and her ability to slide flawlessly from genre to genre. On the album, Bjork and Trio record Icelandic versions of classic and not-so-classic jazz standards, as well as jazzed up versions of traditional Icelandic songs. For Bjork fans, this cd will only be slightly surprising, as the familiar wails and yelps are just as present as they have always been...including the scat-like gibberish always at hand in her more recent solo work. Most importantly, the music is great, featuring impressive piano, percussion, and bass playing.

i wish people would take the time to check their information before writing reviews. but of course that's the trade-off we get with web reviews right - as opposed to reading a newspaper or magazine writer's take on something, which has to be fact-checked.

two things from previous reviews need to be addressed. laura laureate writes of bjork, "has success gone to her head? does she think she can 'do it all'? so far she has made fairly smart choices... but she is hitting a wall with gling-glo". if you looked at the title of the album you'd see that this is a reissue. gling-glo was released in the states in 2003, but originally recorded and released in iceland in 1989-1990. this is a full five years before post, when she was still playing with the sugarcubes and was barely known-of here in the states. so this was actually done way before the "smart choices" laura speaks of. besides which, musicians don't play music just for the benefit of the purchasing public. bjork and the very famous icelandic jazz trio she's playing with on this album had played together several times, and had really enjoyed themselves. so they recorded an album together. sometimes musicians play music of a type or genre that they're interested in, or to play with musicians they like, and the result ends up influencing their later work. in that sense i find it pointless to ask whether she can "do it all"; the fact that she tried it is what's interesting for us music fans.

steve parker writes of the trio that "somehow they manage to completely miss the essence of jazz... It's like learning a foreign language from a book, without ever hearing it spoken... somewhere between New York and Iceland something crucial got lost in translation.". perhaps that's because this is an icelandic jazz trio, popular in iceland, recording mostly icelandic folk songs, for an icelandic audience. musical traditions always morph and change when translated across cultures. it may not jive with our definition of the genre but that doesn't make it any less valid or successful as music.

on this album, bjork is playing with the gudmundar ingólfssonar trio. the trio is one of the most popular jazz groups in iceland. given the context, i think it's a fairly successful album. the jazz is "light" to american tastes, but enjoyable nonetheless. reminds me of the stuff played in the soundtrack to harry met sally, all the stuff that's iconically associated with warm christmassy winters in new york city. perhaps that's what happens when jazz is translated into a snowy, cold clime. not groundbreaking, but pleasant.

bjork, on the other hand, shows her incredible vocal range on this album. her jazz singing is compelling and successful. one of the reasons i initially fell in love with her solo music is because of her very jazz-like take on pop singing. (disclosure: i'm a jazz musician and fan, but i'm also a pop fan, and like most styles of music, i think the two genres are incredibly hard to "mix" and get right.) what i really like about this album is that it's an opportunity to hear bjork's vocals in a more "traditional" setting. for me, it proves her real abilities as a singer. plus it seems to have had a positive influence on her later work.

overall, if you're a bjork fan, a fan of light jazz, and/or a musician interested in hearing the various influences upon bjork's music, this album is definitely worth it. i just wish i knew icelandic so that i could sing along!

The first album I bought from Björk that I bought was "Post," and I have to say I loved it. Next, I saw the movie "Dancer In The Dark." I loved her quirky take on musicals! I think that "Gling-Gló" was a great next step in my Björk collection. I bought "Vespertine" at the same time, but listened to "Gling-Gló" first and loved it! It's simple music: piano, bass, percussion, and that's about it. Thought it sounds plain, her voice spices it up and makes it her own! Each song, though I have NO idea what she's saying, is enjoyable to me. There are two English songs at the end, thank goodness! =) I would reccomend this for any Björk fan.

I especially love Luktar-Gvendur, Kata Rokkar and I Dansi. I think Kata Rokkar may be the best song Bjork has ever recorded (that's in my humble opinion of course).

It's jazz... Upbeat at times, slow and smooth at others. Except it has Bjork's voice on it. She's not the jazziest of vocalists, but she still adds 150% to the beauty of the music. It's soo much different from the rest of her other work, which may mean that even if you don't like her solo-electronica stuff you may like this. However, if you're reading this you probably already like Bjork, thus I'm wasting all of this useful space. I'll stop now.

ahhhhhhhhhh.... 'bout all that needs to be said about gling-glo. happy little guants on the keys to tickle the earbone. whisping melodys nicely kept in tact with smooth walking bass. lay down some of the sweet sweet brush work jazz man. the piano tickles, the bass flows, the drums bob the head without restraint, the vocals....well, it's bjork. what every little boy dreams of how their mom should whisp them to dreamland every night the thunder scares them out of slumber. grins and giggles abound from play to stop. if you cant enjoy this, then you are not nice.

This jazzy set floored me. I know it predates her solo career but it unleashes all the joy and pleasure of that wonderful voice and presence. Now the rest of her solo career makes sense: the electronica experimentation and self-seriousness about her art are necessary because she's already expressed her straighforward, outright joy in music here in this set.

The negative reviews here have it wrong -- there's nothing slight about the jazz musicians backing her up. They may not be breaking ground, but in their own way, they are as exuberant and joyous as Bjork herself.

Wholeheartedly recommended, especially for social situations involving high spirits and perhaps distilled spirits.

"Gling Glo" remains Bjorks' only big-band Icelandic album. Its also the only Icelandic jazz album I own. However, the genre intrigued me so much, that Amazon searches for variations on the same theme led me to some interesting artists - I'm especially glad I found Irelands' Altan, and Finlands' Varrtina based on the recommendations this album threw up.

As you perhaps know already, "Gling Glo" is unusual even in Bjorks' own catalog because of the strange marriage between jazz and Icelandic. The combination does not always work very well, I'm afraid. Indeed, from track 4 onward, every song seemed to melt into the other as they sounded virtually indistinguishable. Granted, I don't speak the language, but how many people visiting this page do? Bjork herself would later say that this entire album was a fun, one-off experiment, and in that context it might work for people who can sit through the entire thing.

For its part, its cute. The title track is the best one. Reading the English translation of the lyrics, its evident that its about a young woman who's waiting for her man. The `Gling Glo' refers to the ticking of a clock as she waits for him. Its an especially happy song, because the young man ends up proposing, and she says Yes. Its this sort of happy sentiment that permeates the entire recording - this is a happy, exuberant album that has its' heart in the right place, and very little can be said against it.

There are two English language songs here (preceded by 14 Icelandic tracks). Bjorks' covers of "Ruby Baby" and "I Can't Help loving that Man" are curious little pieces, but definitely a welcome addition. I guess they added these on to make the album more `internationally appealing', but I'm not complaining. To me, Bjork's greatest album is her debut album from the 1970s (no official release yet), but Gling Glo was a nice little side project that hasn't aged at all - the melodies, the production - they all seem fresh and novel even after all this time.

Four Stars. An exciting, adventurous album.

This amazing album features Bjork singing for a famous Icelandic jazz trio. It features 16 tracks, two of which are in English. Bjork's vocal rang is incredible. A necessary album for hard-core Bjork fans!

I'm not sure I understand the assessments made by negative viewers that this album is lacking soul and that only Bjork fans can understand/appreciate it. I'd have to highly disagree on that end. This is such a great and rich album and I've known many people to enjoy it. Maybe I'm "jazz blind" but I don't care if it means I get to thoroughly enjoy this fun, simply wonderful Bjork gem with no pretentions attached.