Steve Layton YouTube Channel: Miriam Bryant sings the DuBose Heyward/George Gershwin classic from Porgy & Bess, "Summertime" on the August 10th, 2013 broadcast of SVT's "Sommarkväll" at The River Cafe, Göteborg, Sweden. http://youtu.be/5cVr9VKmmdo
Just like Swedish summers -short, sweet and sublime- Miriam Bryant singing "Summertime" from Porgy & Bess on SVT's "Sommarkväll"; @MiriamBryant, @Zedd, #GeorgeGershwin
Why this song, now?
Because sometimes you just need to hear an old song you've always known, and hear someone you've just begun to admire and appreciate over the past year, sing that song really well to remind you why you like them.
Miriam's voice is just perfect for this song.
I first saw her perform this iconic song the weekend after it first aired on Swedish TV, and was very keen on sharing it here, since it reveals another aspect of her range, but to be honest, I then sort of spaced it. It was probably the oppressive summer heat.
In any case, when I finally did remember, I thought it was probably long gone from the SVT website after a few weeks, as they are VERY punctual about their rights. It they say it will be up for 30 days on their website after first being aired, that's it. It will be gone by Day 31
But fortunately, someone thought ahead and placed it on YouTube for me to later see again and share with you today.
I've mentioned Miriam in five previous blog posts, but the ones that actually featured her were these two:
August 4, 2013 - Awesome! Miriam Bryant's musical talent is opening eyes and opening doors everywhere -even in the U.S.; video of Miriam performing LIVE Saturday night on TV4's Sommarkrysset at Gröna Lund in Stockholm, easily the best and most-compelling performance of hers I've ever seen; @MiriamBryant, @StereoscopeAB, @Zedd, #pushplay, #sommarkrysset, #happy
Miriam will be playing at Sommarkrysset TV4 tonight!
Don't miss it, and make sure to read this article! http://t.co/VTfVMvbrko — Stereoscope Music (@StereoscopeAB) August 3, 2013
One of our musical favorites, Göteborg's own, Miriam Bryant, performed on Sweden's TV4'sSommarkrysset TV show on Saturday night from Gröna Lund, mere hours ago, and as you can see, I have her most recent performance of "Push, play" from her Raised In Rain album for you all to see
Miriam not only sang great but looked great! Frankly, to me, she seemed much more relaxed and comfortable playing before an eager audience AND wearing shorts on a warm night, instead of walking around on stages wearing those long black/dark outfits she's favored so much the past few months, that seemed a little overly-dour during the summer. http://web.stagram.com/n/miriambryant I was very pleased for her!
While I've known for a few days that Miriam would be performing on the show Saturday night, I was reminded of that again on Saturday afternoon around Noon by a handful of readers from Sweden coming to the blog and doing queries about it, even though all the people doing so from Sweden are, in fact, the ones who are 6 hours ahead of me in time, NOT the other way around. So it seemed odd to me that they'd think I'd have something up on the blog before anything appeared online there. Made me laugh, actually. But maybe it's some sort of slightly askew compliment, no? This has been a very good week for Miriam all around, since she and her Raised In Rainalbum were tweeted about on Sweden's official Twitter site on Monday, @sweden.
which made me think that perhaps she was so busy that she didn't even know about it.
As it happens, there was also a very interesting newspaper article on Saturday morning by Aftonbladet entertainment reporter Frida Söderlundin about Miriam's future plans that some of you may've already heard about and that concerns the details of her trip to Los Angeles in June.
Below, a photo Miriam shot in Santa Monica of an iconic Southern California spot:
Svenska stjärnskottet supersatsar - i USA, Miriam Bryant jobbar med Gagas producent: "Absurt" http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article17235906.ab She's going to be working with the producer of Lady Gaga's current album, Anton "Zedd" Zaslavski, who really likes her voice and her songs, and may well be releasing an EP in the United States, and, presumably, Canada.
Last summer Miriam was working as a waitress at Järnvägsrestaurangen at the very popular Liseberg Amusement Park in Göteborg, and this year she's singing there to very appreciative crowds.
The closing paragraph is spot-on and, essentially, the comments said of Miriam, fortuitously, as history will likely show; again paraphrasing:
Before the concert a young man in his blue rain poncho spoke to the crowd and said that due to the poor weather, Miriam's show would probably be an I-was-there sort of gig that attendees would be bragging about years from now, because "small gigs may soon be history for Miriam Bryant. She's destined for bigger stages."
Nice!!! See also:: "Framför allt får man lov att fucka ur" Av Camila Astorga Díaz 2013-05-04 13:00 Miriam Bryant har blivit hyllad till tusen, om och om igen. Hon har blivit kallad "den nya Adele" och förväntningarna på henne är stora. Med debutalbumet lovar hon mer pop och mindre soul. http://gaffa.se/nyhet/72003
My two previous blog posts that mentioned singer Miriam Bryant were: APRIL 9, 2013 If Miriam Bryant isn't on your musical radar yet, she ought to be ;) Miriam Bryant - Push Play (Official), Finders Keeper (Official); @MiriamBryant http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/if-miriam-bryant-isnt-on-your-musical.html MAY 14, 2013 On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-wednesday-youll-be-thanking-me-for.html ----- Here's the official video released months ago
Miriam Bryant YouTube Channel video: Miriam Bryant - Push Play (Official). Uploaded April 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/h6GgeK3irUs Push, play, stop, rewind, you drown your heroes in red wine...
TV4 video: Miriam Bryant - Push, Play (with piano & bass only -NO drums!) on the Jenny Strömstedt Show. Originally aired March 4, 2013.
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel video: 50 seconds of Cecilia Nilsson singing her first single, "In My Room." Uploaded May 10, 2013. http://youtu.be/0SjBQnl1FNU Written by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson Sunday brought some very positive and interesting news from Sweden concerning a Friend of the Blog, Andreas Jismark, So good, in fact, that he also shared the news via his Twitter feed, shown below.
The good news concerns a very talented young female singer from Gävle who's part of his talented music stable, and whose first single will officially be released on Wednesday.
To prime the public interest in her, Andreas has teased us, Sweden and the larger world with a clip featuring some of the first single. Not too much, lest we get a sugar rush or brain freeze, but just enough to give us a taste and keep us interested in seeing how the story ends on onsdag, Wednesday. Mañana! Andreas wrote...
This bit of news follows closely on the heels of the blog post that Andreas had written back on April 29th titled, quite cleverly, Goodbye, See See, Hello Cecilia Nilsson, which detailed some of the very hard work over the past two years that she's put in to make this moment possible. http://andreasjismark.se/goodbye-see-see-hello-cecilia-nilsson/ Last Fall, some months before I traveled to Stockholm in January and met with Andreas and another great music talent whom he manages, the amazing Anni Bernhard, i.e Full of Keys, whom you'll be hearing more about in the coming days here at the blog, I'd watched this video of Cecilia quitea number of times, since by now you all know how much I love context. I was looking for clues and hints of things to come. As it happens, the video is in Swedish, but I still think you'll enjoy it as she speaks about herself and her music interests and desire to write songs that are honest and that will connect with people. It was recorded mostly at her home in Gävle, a very middle-class Swedish city in the best possible sense of the word, and one that I've written about a few times here in the past, which has not always had the easiest go of things. Just like growing-up or living in Baltimore or Pittsburgh or Indianapolis makes you a little more in-touch with the rest of the country than would be true in Santa Monica or Bethesda or Brookline, her town is a much-more accurate barometer of daily life in Sweden than many of the sweet upscale neighborhoods in Stockholm that I spent a lot of time in back in January. Places where money and some degree of influence often helps keep some social problems at bay a little bit longer than it does in Gävle, where you take life as it is. To me, at least, that means that any songs Cecilia writes and sings will be much more in-tune with the average listener's personal experiences than if she'd been born or raised in Södermalm, and had parents who pushed her around in one of those amazing $800-plus German prams they sell atNordiska Kompaniet, which I spent some time eye-balling on my last day in Stockholm. That came after I'd spent time walking at night from my hotel, The Omena in Norrmalm, down to the Royal Palace and then headed back to the hotel via the Kungsträdgården ice skating rink one last time and then the central downtown business district. NK has an entire area of the store on the 4th Floor not just dedicated to upscale Kids, but to what seemed to be designer baby strollers, complete with a video showing German soccer Moms putting them thru their paces in Frankfurt.
(And do the well-educated Moms ever love to show those prams and their babies off at their nearby coffee shops! Or even the "Social Media" McDonalds I was at. That is a whole 'nother blog post entirely -upscale Swedish soccer Moms! They were everywhere! Not that I was complaining. )
And, now that it occurs to me, this film was recorded back when Cecilia's hair was much-longer than it currently is, which I know causes her some small distress, something I know about and recognize from having grown-up with two attractive younger sisters with beautiful long hair.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: See See (Presentation). Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/0syxcoAblN8
Some of Cecilia's hard work and preparation came just a few weeks ago when she spent some time over in Gotland, where Andreas lives, where she rehearsed and even performed at Hammersmith Odeon Visby, which you'll recall is also where Anni/Full of Keys performed, as I mentioned here on the blog at the time.
There was a nice article on Cecilia that appeared in one of the local Gotland papers at the time of her trip and it includes a nice photo of her and the band rehearsing, including Andreas on guitar, which Cecilia also plays. Stjärnskott i Visby i helgen (Shooting stars in Visby this weekend) http://www.helagotland.se/nyheter/artikel.aspx?articleid=8210085 One of the quotes I love is where Andreas, a music veteran in all sorts of important ways -as a performer, teacher, promoter, producer and manager- says the following:
– Jag har aldrig stött på en elev som ens är 30-40 procent så bra som Cissi, säger han.
Miriam, from Göthenberg, had a gig on Friday in Tranås at Babar, as did another young singing dynamo from Gävle I've been keeping close tabs on by the name of See See -a.k.a. Cissi Nilsson- pictured below, whom I'll be writing about in more detail soon.So much sheer musical talent in Sweden, it's hard to believe sometimes!
Andreas was actually able to record one of the songs Cecilia performed in Tranås at Babar before Miriam came onstage to perform later, and it's a tune some of you might recognize:
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: Cecilia Nilsson "Never Let You Go" -LIVE at Babar in Tranås, Sweden. April 5, 2013. Uploaded April 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/xVmsUZCpJqI
Here's a nice newspaper article on Cecilia that ran on Friday in her local newspaper, Arbetarbladet, which has done quite a number of stories on her over the past few years as she's sung and performed at many events all over the area, and developed quite a great reputation with a killer voice: Hur känns det att släppa en singel? (How do you feel about your first single coming out?) http://arbetarbladet.se/noje/musik/1.5861796-hur-kanns-det-att-slappa-en-singel- Friday, Fredag, Friday, Fredag... For those of you reading this in Sweden -or elsewhere, but who want to check her out via the Internet- Cecilia will be performing two songs LIVE on Sveriges Radio, specifically, Radio P4 Gavleborg, on Friday at 15:30 Swedish Time, which is 9:30 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada.
But if you miss her, you WILL be able to listen to Cecilia here on the blog at some point soon, because one of the very best things about Sveriges Radio is that they make almost everything they air available online, and best of all, with embeddable code for blogs and websites.
(You longtime readers of the blog will recall that I've posted lots of SR audio material here in the past for Timoteij, Full of Keys, First Aid Kit and other singing artists, as well as various pieces they've done on Melodisfestivalen.) So, even if you miss her, I'll have her right here where you can take a listen just as soon as it's humanly possible, more than likely, this weekend.
Wednesday morning update:
Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song)
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAao
Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.
Miriam Bryant YouTube Channel video: Miriam Bryant - Push Play (Official). Uploaded April 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/h6GgeK3irUs Push, play, stop, rewind, you drown your heroes in red wine...
The person featured in Miriam's video is Swedish actor Krister Henriksson, who has portrayed police detective "Kurt Wallander" in Swedish TV films based on Henning Mankell's novels for many, many years. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/musik/article16524261.ab
His latest one came out in January and is called "Den orolige mannen" (The anxious man). Yes, there's always something nefarious going on in Ystad! http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Regions--Cities/Southern-Sweden/Wallanders-Ystad/ Here's Miriam's amazing first single from last year...so catchy!
Miriam's Unplugged version of this song is at: http://youtu.be/elj3JZLWMC4 You'll definitely want to check that out because it's in Black & White, just like the keys of a piano, which is the initial establishing shot of the vid and quite clever. Miriam, who's from Göthenberg, had a gig on Friday in Tranås at Babar, as did another young singing dynamo from Gävle whom I've been keeping close tabs on by the name of Cecilia Nilsson or See See -a.k.a. Cissi Nilsson- pictured below, whom I'll be writing about in more detail soon. So much sheer musical talent in Sweden, it's hard to believe sometimes!
If you're reading this in Sweden, you should be able to purchase a physical copy of the CD at most Åhléns Dept. Stores. If you're in Stockholm, I'd first try the one in Södermalm at Ringvägen 100, below, on the corner of Götgatan, on the south side of the street and across the street from the Skanstull T-Bana. It's on the first floor on the southeast side, past their large cosmetics area.
That's where I bought my Jill Johnson "A Woman can Chage her Mind" CD in January. ;)
Above, looking southwest on an overcast Saturday afternoon -temps about 20° F- towards the Åhléns Dept. Store in Södermalm, with the Hemköp grocery store in its basement that I frequented at the beginning of my trip to Stockholm. Though you can't tell it from this photo, this is the southern end of the always-bustling Götgatan commercial center that's the spine of Södermalm -and the bottom part of U-shaped Ringvägen that largely connects almost everything in Södermalm.
It's one of my favorite parts of Stockholm, in large part because it's the perfect combination of intelligent mixed-use zoning in action, with interesting commercial/retail use below or next to residential. It's a real living place with a beating heartbeat and sense of place, and you feel that spirit when you walk around, too. I know that I did.
