During August and September 1990, Björk recorded a number of songs with backing from a jazz trio, consisting of Guðmundur Ingólfsson on piano, Guðmundur Steingrímsson on drums, and Þórður Högnason on bass. The 'Gling-gló' album was released in October 1990 by Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, and included several covers of jazz standards, translated and sung in Icelandic. The project started when Guðmundar Ingólfssonar was commissioned by the Icelandic State Radio to record a set of popular instrumental standards, and the trio felt it would be infinitely better with a vocalist performing in the native Icelandic language, and who else could have filled the bill better than Björk, who had already put the country on the map musically with her success with The Sugarcubes. The album is mostly sung in Icelandic, as it was meant to be for an Icelandic audience, where it actually did quite well. The majority of the tracks are short but sweet jazz standards, focusing on the virtues of vocal jazz but also incorporating a bit of hard bop, Mexican salsa and even Icelandic folk into the mix. To promote the record, the trio plus Björk played some gigs around Iceland, and the one at the Hotel Borg in August 1990 was recorded, providing the two bonus tracks for the CD edition of 'Gling-gló'. As well as tracks from the album, they also played a number of jazz classics, this time sung in English, and so by extracting these and teaming them up with two other jazz standards that Björk recorded later in her career, we have an excellent companion-piece to her Icelandic-language jazz album.
Track listing
01 Misty
02 My Funny Valentine
03 I Fall in Love Too Easily
04 You Don't Know What Love Is
05 Cry Me a River
06 Like Someone In Love
07 Can't Help Loving That Man
08 I Remember You
09 Ruby Baby
