Jeanette Lindström

by Alex Henderson Jeanette Lindström was born and raised in Sweden, but there have been times when her phrasing might lead those who haven't seen her picture to think she could be African-American, although one would have been unlikely to make that mistake if they'd heard her singing jazz in Swedish with bassist Anders Jormin. African-American singers have clearly had a great impact on Lindström, whose impressionistic approach brings to mind Dianne Reeves and Abbey Lincoln, and whose Caprice CDs are best described as post-bop with R&B overtones. Born in Östersund, Sweden, a few hours north of Stockholm, Lindström studied at the University of Lund and earned a degree from the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm when she was 23 in 1995. After attracting attention on the Swedish jazz scene, where she sang with everything from big bands to more experimental groups, Lindström went to Copenhagen in neighboring Denmark in 1995 to record her debut album, Another Country, for Caprice. The following year, she was documented in more of an avant-garde setting when Jormin featured her prominently on his Dragon date, Once. While that disc found Lindström singing in both English and Swedish, she stuck to English on Another Country and her equally appealing sophomore effort, I Saw You (1997).