Biography

Karin Krog is perhaps Norway’s leading jazz singer and certainly its most idiomatic. She is a unique song artist with a great international reputation, possessing her own distinctive style and voice. Her constantly creative approach towards contemporary jazz has never been bound by tradition, even though her music bears a deep respect for its forms. Karin is equally at home with jazz standards, blues or electronic experimental techniques and has continued to explore all of these avenues throughout her long career.

In addition to Karin’s work as a vocalist she has been active in improving the working conditions for musicians, and contributing towards a vital jazz milieu in Norway. In 2014 she celebrated 50 years since her first LP as a solo artist was released.

Karin Krog was born in Oslo, Norway, on the 15th of May 1937, and started to sing during her teenage years together with various local musicians. She attracted attention during jam sessions at the Penguin club in Oslo, and in 1955 was hired by the pianist Kjell Karlsen to sing in his sextet. Her broadcasting debut on Norwegian radio happened during the following year. By 1957 Karin was singing at the Humlen Restaurant in Oslo in company with some of the best Norwegian jazz musicians of that time, among others tenor saxophonist Mikkel Flagstad and pianist Einar Iversen and going on to participate in several Norwegian jazz concerts towards the end of the decade.

Karin was a natural choice on the bill when the very first Molde International Jazz Festival was formed, appearing there with Kjell Karlsen’s quartet. From 1962 she fronted her own groups as well as singing with trombonist Frode Thingnæs’ Quintet and pianist Egil Kapstad’s trio. During the period from 1962 to 1969 Karin studied with the American singer Anne Brown (the first Bess in Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”).

Karin Krog and Clark Terry

Karin’s recording debut, in 1963, was on the LP “Metropol Jazz”. She made her own solo album “By Myself” in 1964, and performed the same year at the Antibes festival, the Gyllene Circeln in Stockholm, and the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway. In 1965 Karin received the Buddy award, the most coveted mark of honour from the Norwegian Jazz Federation. That same year Krog and several of her colleagues formed the Norwegian Jazz Forum, where she became its first chairman. The Forum was instrumental in getting jazz out of the night-clubs and into concert settings, thus securing a place for live jazz performance and providing a platform for jazz musicians to perform and to receive inspiration.

“Karin Krog’s merits could easily fill pages. At this present date she has given us a vast amount of recordings, the majority in her own name.”

Karin’s second LP, “Jazz Moments”, which included a young Jan Garbarek, was recorded in 1966 – the same year that her international career began to take off with visits to Warsaw and Prague. She performed in the USA with Don Ellis and Clare Fischer in 1967, and later received the first place nomination for “Artist Deserving of Wider Recognition” in Down Beat magazine’s critic’s poll. An appearance at the Montreux Festival followed, and Karin continued on to tour Europe in 1969 and Japan in 1970 with the Down Beat Poll Winners.

Karin Krog and Jan Garbarek

In the early 1970s Karin visited America, was granted a Norwegian government’s work scholarship, led the European Workshop at Kongsberg Jazz Festival in 1972 and received a Norwegian “Grammy”. Also, during 1973-74, Karin took time off to study television production. To top all this off, the European Jazz Federation in 1975 elected her “Female Singer of the Year”.

Karin Krog and Dexter Gordon

During most of the 1970’s she fronted bands with Norwegian musicians, but from the mid-70’s she often worked in small combinations, duos and trios, with prominent internationally acclaimed musicians like Dexter Gordon, Bengt Hallberg, Red Mitchell, Nils Lindberg, John Surman, Archie Shepp, and Warne Marsh. In the 70’s, she also co-operated on a concert programme with the renowned film composer Richard Rodney Bennett, the programme, called “Synthesis”, toured both in Norway and Great Britain.

Karin Krog’s merits could easily fill pages. At this present date she has given us a vast amount of recordings, the majority in her own name. She picked up the Oslo Council Artist Award (1981) and continued with her performances at festivals abroad: Hong Kong 1975, India in 1975 and1978, Australia in 1985, Hungary in 1989, USSR in 1990, Djakarta in 1992, Bulgaria in 1994, Umbria 1994, Beijing 1996, London Jazz-festival 1996, Leipzig Jazzfestival in 2000, and Berlin Jazzfestival in 2001. She participated at Jazz Yatra in India for the second time in 2002.

One particular aspect of Karin’s work has been an ongoing interest in electronic treatment of the voice. Much of this work has been in collaboration with the British saxophonist and composer John Surman. Karin has worked extensively with Surman since the 1990s with a great deal of their work being in a duo format. However, in addition to their recording and live work in duo they have collaborated with a variety of other artists. Highlights include a modern dance production, “Cornerstone”, with the American choreographer Carolyn Carlson which toured extensively in Italy, a number of choral projects including an appearance in Salisbury Cathedral conducted by Howard Moody with orchestra and chorus and various other small group projects including “Tea with Thelonious”, tribute to Thelonious Monk featuring Surman’s Valhalla Quartet.

One particular aspect of Karin’s work has been an ongoing interest in electronic treatment of the voice. Much of this work has been in collaboration with the British saxophonist and composer John Surman. Karin has worked extensively with Surman since the 1990s with a great deal of their work being in a duo format. However, in addition to their recording and live work in duo they have collaborated with a variety of other artists. Highlights include a modern dance production, “Cornerstone”, with the American choreographer Carolyn Carlson which toured extensively in Italy, a number of choral projects including an appearance in Salisbury Cathedral conducted by Howard Moody with orchestra and chorus and various other small group projects including “Tea with Thelonious”, tribute to Thelonious Monk featuring Surman’s Valhalla Quartet.

Karin Krog was in 2005 awarded the medal of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav

In 1987 she formed her own record company, Meantime Records which has released several CDs of earlier vinyl and newer materials.

Karin´s international profile grew over the years with visits to most European countries with trips further afield including India, Israel, Australia, the USA, UK and Japan.

As a recognition of her contribution to Norwegian culture, in 2005 she was awarded the medal of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, only the second time that a Norwegian jazz musician has received the prestigious honour.

A brief glance at Karin’s discography will reveal that since the new millennium she has continued to be busy in the recording studio, beginning in duo with guitarist Jacob Young in 2002. Several notable recordings followed, including 3 albums with Steve Kuhn, a production with the Bergen Big Band and sessions with Scott Hamilton, Bengt Hallberg and Tore Johansen. Additionally there were two recordings featuring John Surman, the first a studio recording of their commissioned work for the Voss Jazzfestival in 2010, “Songs About This And That”, and a live duo recording “Infinite Paths” made in 2016.