"Iceland's First Lady of Jazz, Miss Anna Mjoll plays another near-guaranteed sellout at Herb Alpert's Vibrato in Bel-Air Friday, February 24th 2012 @ 9PM."
Mjoll has been voted one of the top 5 Jazz singers in the current Jazz scene by Arnaldo DeSouteiro's Jazz Station.
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"Anna Mjoll By LA Weekly's Tom Meek
Iceland's Anna Mjoll grew up in one of her country's leading musical families, eventually representing Iceland in the famed Eurovision Song Contest. She then joined the band of Julio Iglesias, touring worldwide before setting out on her own career as a jazz singer and songwriter. Mjoll has quietly built a following around L.A. over the past two years, becoming one of the only vocalists to be a regular at the classy Vibrato supper club. Mjoll's striking beauty and often-breathtaking dresses combine with singing talent that's recently drawn praise from jazz luminaries including George Duke, Don Heckman and Dave Weckl. Add Mjoll's penchant for offbeat humor and a running dialogue with the audience, and you might find yourself wondering how long it'll be before she's headlining somewhere in Las Vegas — Sir Tom Jones is already a frequent guest at her shows in town....
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"Iceland's First Lady of Jazz, Miss Anna Mjoll plays another near-guaranteed sellout at Herb Alpert's Vibrato in Bel-Air Friday, February 24th 2012 @ 9PM."
Mjoll has been voted one of the top 5 Jazz singers in the current Jazz scene by Arnaldo DeSouteiro's Jazz Station.
_____________________________________________________
"Anna Mjoll By LA Weekly's Tom Meek
Iceland's Anna Mjoll grew up in one of her country's leading musical families, eventually representing Iceland in the famed Eurovision Song Contest. She then joined the band of Julio Iglesias, touring worldwide before setting out on her own career as a jazz singer and songwriter. Mjoll has quietly built a following around L.A. over the past two years, becoming one of the only vocalists to be a regular at the classy Vibrato supper club. Mjoll's striking beauty and often-breathtaking dresses combine with singing talent that's recently drawn praise from jazz luminaries including George Duke, Don Heckman and Dave Weckl. Add Mjoll's penchant for offbeat humor and a running dialogue with the audience, and you might find yourself wondering how long it'll be before she's headlining somewhere in Las Vegas — Sir Tom Jones is already a frequent guest at her shows in town.
12-12-2011"
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ANNA MJOLL and THE PAT SENATORE TRIO
ANNA MJOLL / vocals
PAT SENATORE / bass
ED CZACH / piano
BOB LEATHERBARROW / drums
Where: HERB ALPERT'S VIBRATO
2930 Beverly Glen Circle
Bel Air, CA 90077
310.474.9400
When: Friday, February 24th 2012 - 9PM.
NO COVER but reservations are a must.
Call 310.474.9400 for res.
“The sweetest voice in the current Jazz scene. Period." —Arnaldo DeSouteiro
“Lightly twisted, jazzy..." —Los Angeles Times
“Do yourself a favor and catch her now, at an intimate small club, before she breaks out into larger venues." —Charles Andrews, Music Forums Moderator, HomeTheaterSpot.com
NO COVER! But call 310.474.9400 for Reservations."
http://www.vibratogrilljazz.com/calendar/index.php?event=Anna_Mjoll&calview=event&event_id=2740&prevview=month&year=2012&month=2&day=24&type_id=&clickdate=2012-2-24
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"Sunday night, Santa Monica. Last Sunday night I was having a really good time, sitting in the Baked Potato, halfway between Hollywood and the Valley, and listening to jazz singer Anna Mjoll perform with her really good band. I wish I could be doing the same thing tonight, but it’s a much longer drive to her gig. She’s playing in Reykjavik. Yeah, Iceland. She’s closer to the ocean there... than she was in the Valley. But she’s a lot closer to the Arctic Circle too.
Why in the world would a jazz singer book herself into a small club in an island nation with one fifth the population of the San Fernando Valley?
Because she’s home for the holidays.
Anna Mjoll is not much of what you usually picture as a jazz singer. Few of her performance photos show her in a dress. More likely you’ll get what I saw at the Potato: strategically very torn jeans, punkish spiked bracelets, stylish “armlet” tattoo, leather half-vest and a thin leather headband holding in place her long golden (really, really golden) locks, white-toed black tennies (but no candy cane-striped knee socks this time), and centerfold-class beauty and figure. Her idea of patter is to regale you with odd and gory anecdotes (decapitation, burger breath). I wonder if she dresses up a little at home? Keeps the stories a little more conventional, with mom and dad in the crowd?
Probably not.
Mjoll seems very comfortable on stage, like she was born there (almost true), comfortable in her own skin and very comfortable with her material and her inimitable delivery of it. She has a barely detectable accent, but it does make her sound just a little different from everyone else, in a charming way.
I was somewhat disappointed in her show last Sunday in that I had come for what was billed as her “Christmas Jazzmaz” show, named after her just-released CD of Christmas songs, but she was mostly ignoring that by the time I came in for the late show, and I heard only two holiday numbers, “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride,” the latter with a verse in her native tongue thrown in, as on the album. I’ve got to admit: I love hearing jazz standards or even Christmas songs sung in Icelandic. You really should try it.
Her band was absolutely stellar. She always seems to attract really good players. (“Jazzmaz” features an enviable cast in Vinnie Colaiuta, Don Grusin, Luis Conte, Charlie Bisharat, and the late and very missed Dave Carpenter, as well as Mjoll’s talented father Olafur Gaukur producing, arranging and on guitar.) At the Spud she had Mike Miller on guitar, John Gilutin on keys, Ian Martin on bass and Gerry Brown on drums, impressive chops-meisters and cookin’ this night. A real treat was provided when Reggie Hamilton sat in for a few on bass, even though he had literally just flown in from Europe and went straight to the club. His solo excursions alone were worth the price of admission.
Her show was very similar to the excellent one I saw a few weeks earlier at Charlie O’s, including the stories, but it nagged at me that there was some missing piece this night. Then she gets to the very last number, “Blue Skies” (except for an ill-advised bowing to a persistent request for “Route 66” – ya gotta end high and leave ‘em wanting more). She goes to town with energized scatting throughout, and it jumps out that this was the one, where Anna Mjoll was in her element and shining. She had done some scatting in previous numbers, but not much, not as much as at Charlie O’s. I don’t think it was just the scatting that made the difference, but it was definitely tied to that.
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You don’t listen to Christmas music for weeks before the day now, do you? The last week before Christmas is prime time for me, enough to get the spirit but not to OD. So the timing is perfect to download Anna Mjoll’s “Christmas Jazzmaz,” at CDBaby.com. I like the last four songs the best because they’re sung in Icelandic, and the “Santa Baby” is probably the sexiest and most fun version you’ll ever hear."
Charles Andrews
Music Forums Moderator
HomeTheaterSpot.com
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