Swedish sax player-composer Fredrik Nordström offers an insightful musical perspective of the poetry of American poet, playwright, and feminist icon Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). Millay captured the spirit of the 1920s, was known for her controversial descriptions of female sexuality, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for her poem «Ballad of the Harp-Weaver» and her compelling poetry. Millay’s poetry was rarely arranged for musical settings, and Edna Songs: Mariposa gives new life to six of her poems.
Nordström assembled a new ensemble for this project, including experienced musicians like trumpeter Magnus Broo (of Atomic and Fire! Orchestra) and Samuel Hällkvist (of Marilyn Mazur and Yazz Ahmed bands and his own Variety of bands) and young talents like vocalist Selma Pinton, double bass player Hugo Löf and drummer Nils Agnas. The album was recorded at Ingrid Studios in Stockholm in June 2024.
Nordström’s compositions attempt to capture Millay’s poetry’s melancholic thoughts and visions. Hällkvist’s atmospheric electric guitar sketches the fragile, emotional spirit of the opening «Ebb», following a poem about the loss of a dear love relationship, recited gently by Pinto and intensified by Nordström’s sax solo. The following «Sorrow» contrasts the poem’s spirit with a much too aggressive drumming of Agnas and a similar powerful interplay of Nordström and Broo, and only Pinton’s delivery of the poem by Pinton reflects the introspective, solemn message of the poem. Pinton shines on the following, melancholic song «Ashes of Life», about a love that «has gone», and now Nordström’s composition addresses faithfully the lyrical, vulnerable atmosphere.
The instrumental «Nancy Boyd», the pen name Millay used while writing short stories and satire, serves as a short interlude, with a beautiful interplay of Hällkvist’s effects-laden guitar and Nordström’s reserved sax playing. The somber, title song about the transient beauty of life and the inevitability of death, receives a thoughtful arrangement with fine, reflective solos of Broo, Hällkvist and Löf as well as Pinton’s beautiful delivery, all corresponding remarkably with Millay’s poignant approach to the fragility of life. The album concludes with «The Shroud», another poem that explores the transformative nature of death, now with a swinging arrangement that settles this poem in familiar landscapes thanks to Hällkvist’s Americana-tinged guitar and Pinton’s lush jazz vocalizations.
Eyal Hareuveni
Selma Pinton (voice), Magnus Broo (trumpet), Fredrik Nordström (tenor saxophone, alto saxophone), Samuel Hällkvist (guitar), Hugo Löf (double bass), Nils Agnas (drums)
