Dave Gelly 

Jessica Pilnäs: Norma Deloris Egstrom – review

This Swedish singer's take on Peggy Lee is fragile and refreshing, says Dave Gelly
  
  


Jessica Pilnäs is Swedish, and so, by descent, was Peggy Lee (née Norma Deloris Egstrom). This set of Peggy Lee songs is billed as a tribute, but it's by no means an attempted soundalike. Peggy was actually very American, brought up in the swing era. She sounded gentle but tough. Jessica is altogether more – well, Swedish. Her version of Peggy's big hit, Fever, with folky-sounding marimba in the background, is fragile and slightly ghostly, and that's the general effect throughout. It's refreshing to have a new perspective on these familiar, and some less-familiar, songs. That's what gives this collection its charm.

 

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