In 1982, she co-founded the band Street Beat, and was its vocalist for the next two years. From 1983, she was part of the jazz/funk group Frontline, which released two very successful albums Frontline (1985) and Frontlife (1986), and was awarded the prestigious Ben Webster prize. A readers' poll conducted by Danish music magazine MM bestowed prizes on the group for "Jazz Act of the Year", "Live Act of the Year", "Most Promising Act", and "Album of the Year", and Cæcilie was voted "Soloist of the Year".
In 1985, she began a long musical partnership with singer Nina Forsberg in the highly popular pop/rock group One Two. The group formally existed right up to 1993 (although the two still tour together to this day) and recorded three albums: OneTwo (1986), Hvide Løgne (1990), and Getting Better (1993), which sold approximately 250,000 copies in Denmark alone. In 1986, Cæcilie represented Denmark as part of an international jazz orchestra at the Knokke Festival in Belgium.
In 1990, Cæcilie's father wrote the work "Concerto for two sopranos" for the Zealand Symphonic Orchestra. The two sopranos were Cæcilie herself and her mother, and the work contained both classical and rhythmic and improvisational elements. Cæcilie had also performed with her mother and Thomas Clausen with a mix of opera, musical and jazz titled "Ballads, Blues & Lieder".
1993-2006
During these years, Cæcilie had collaborated with many renowned artists and musicians from both the U.S. and Europe, including Dianne Reeves, Curtis Stigers, John Scofield, Kurt Elling, Mike Stern, and Randy and Michael Brecker, as well as:
Bassplayers:
Ray Brown, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Lars Danielsson, Heyn van der Geyn, and Mads Vinding.
Drummers:
Billy Hart, Al Foster, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Alex Riel.
Pianists:
Bobo Steenson, Lars Jansson, Carsten Dahl, Joey Calderazzo, Dave Kikoski, and many more.
Big Bands & Orchestras:
Tolvan Big Band, The Danish Radio Big Band, Klüvers BB, Bohuslen BB, and The Umo Big Band.
Solo Recordings
Cæcilie's self-titled debut solo album Cæcilie Norby was released in the spring of 1995 through renowned jazz label Blue Note, with contributions by several composers and soloists like Randy Brecker, Chick Corea, Don Grolnick, Rick Margitza, Billy Hart, and Lars Jansson. The CD was mixed and partly recorded in New York.
Danish music magazine JazzSpecial.dk voted Cæcilie Norby one of the five best records, and the five-digit sales figure (approximately 53,000 copies) achieved so far both in Japan and Denmark were exceptional for a jazz album.
Her second release My Corner Of The Sky (1996) featured drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, bassist Lars Danielsson, and the Brecker Brothers. After achieving the sales figure of 70,000 copies, Cæcilie was voted one of the ten most popular jazz singers of the world in 1996.
Cæcilie toured for three weeks in Japan with her Scandinavian quartet in December 1996, a further three weeks in the U.S., and four months in Europe during the summer of 1997.
Her third album Queen Of Bad Excuses was released September 1999. This time, she wrote almost all of the music and lyrics herself; "self-biographical fiction", as she calls it. All arrangements, programming and producing were done in cooperation with Lars Danielsson. The album was released in Europe, Australia, Japan and South Africa. It received overwhelming reviews, from hardcore jazz reviewers to the broader pop-jazz audience. Once again, sales figures were over 40,000 copies.
First Conversation (2002), Cæcilie's fourth album, was a fast-selling record. It was again created in cooperation with producer Danielsson - who wrote special arrangements for the orchestra, tailored for the improvised sessions recorded in the famous ECM Rainbow Studio in Oslo, Norway. The album featured legendary drummer Jon Christensen and pianist Carsten Dahl, among other artists. To date, First Conversation has exceeded 40,000 copies sold and received very positive reviews.
The live album London/Paris (2004) came into being during the Europe tour of 2003. Two intimate jazz clubs became the backdrop for a successful documentation of the hectic touring schedule of Cæcilie Norby and her band. The album gives a dusty atmospheric sound with Ulf Wakenius (Sweden) on guitar and Xavier Desandre Navarre (France) on percussion. London/Paris is a bouquet of the best jazz standards and pop classics transformed to new versions in experimental and playful ways.
A month after London/Paris was released, American jazz diva Dianne Reeves invited Cæcilie to make a guest appearance on five songs in a TV concert recorded at the Baltica Jazz Festival in Germany. The duet collaboration was repeated at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival the same summer. London/Paris has also received a Gold Award for 25,000 copies sold in Denmark.
The fifth studio album from Cæcilie, Slow Fruit, was released in September 2005. For this album, she had written and composed all the material herself, while Lars Danielsson had co-composed three of the songs and appeared as both primary pianist and bassist.
A significant note about the album was the high degree of intensity derived from collaborations set in a home environment. Prominent musicians, who have over the years influenced Cæcilie's sound both live and on recordings, added to the personal and warm atmosphere heard on this album. Not surprisingly, just as her previous releases had done, Slow Fruit was well-received and drew high praises from reviewers. It also introduced a new collaboration opportunity by the American saxophone player and singer Curtis Stigers, who joined Cæcilie in a duet on the track "Big Time".
Cæcilie's most recent album I Had a Ball was released in Denmark on November 12, 2007 through Copenhagen Records. Labeled as a "greatest and more" offering, the compilation, recorded live with Klüvers Big Band, contains a mix of new material as well as favorites from her earlier releases. The album also includes the track "Comes Love" where Cæcilie and Kurt Elling join in a duet. That same autumn, she also released a special edition of Slow Fruit in Italy, Poland, and Germany, which included a bonus track and a duet with Curtis Stigers on the track "Big Time".
Awards
Cæcilie received the prestigious Ben Webster prize in 1986. Ten years later, in 1996, she received a prize for Best Album Recording in Japan. In 1997 Cæcilie received the Simon Spies soloist prize, and in 2000 she received the Wilhelm Hansen music prize. In addition, she has received a total of 10 Grammy nominations throughout her career.
Cæcilie Norby has scored tremendous success and overwhelming reviews with her numerous projects. Critics have compared her to Swedish singer-actress Monica Zetterlund and to American singers Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington, and Aretha Franklin. Her voice is lyrical and subtle; her improvisations and scats are done with elegance; her phrasing can be both down-to-earth and romantic; and she can radiate anything from sweet and vulnerable, to the crude and powerful.
Now in her early forties, Cæcilie has done it all: fusion, rock, and jazz. Through her illustrious career, she has contributed to breaking down the divisions between genres. And in doing so, she has awakened an interest in jazz among the younger, traditionally pop- or rock-oriented generation.
Cæcilie Norby's official website: www.caecilienorby.com
Cæcilie Norby's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/CaecilieNorby
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Cæcilie Norby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He'll be rising
He'll find the note
I left a hanging on his door
He laughs when he reads the part
That says I'm leaving
'Cause I left, I left that man
By the time I make Albuquerque
He'll be working
He'll probably stop at lunch
Just to give me a call
But he'll just hear that phone ringing
Off that wall
That's all
By the time I make Oklahoma
He'll be sleeping
He'll turn softly
And he'll call my name out low
And he'll just cry to think
That I would really leave him
Though time and time and time again
I'd try to tell him so
He just didn't know, I would really go
The song "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" by Cæcilie Norby is a classic love song of a woman who is leaving her man behind. The lyrics talks about how the man is going to react when he reads her note on the door and how he will be taken aback by her leaving him because she has left him so many times before. She is journeying to Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Oklahoma, and by the time she gets to these places she predicts what her man will be doing - rising, working, and sleeping. The lyrics display a sense of sadness and regret about leaving a significant other but nonetheless firm about the decision.
The song is an interpretation of how breaking up or leaving someone isn't easy. Even if you have made up your mind, the emotions involved can make the journey to 'freedom' a hard one with lots of second-guessing, but there comes a time when the decision has to be made, and it is always better to be firm in that decision.
Line by Line Meaning
By the time I get to Phoenix
When I finally arrive in Phoenix, so much time will have passed
He'll be rising
He will wake up in the morning
He'll find the note
He will discover the message that I left for him
I left a hanging on his door
I left the note on his door in a way that he would see it easily
He laughs when he reads the part
He finds humor in the portion of the note that mentions me leaving
That says I'm leaving
The message in the note states that I am departing
'Cause I left, I left that man
I have left this man on multiple occasions before
So many times before
I have left this man multiple times previously
By the time I make Albuquerque
Once I get to Albuquerque after more time has passed
He'll be working
This man will be busy with his job
He'll probably stop at lunch
He may take a break during the work day to contact me
Just to give me a call
He will contact me during his break
But he'll just hear that phone ringing
He will hear the sound of the phone ringing
Off that wall
He will hear the ringing but I won't answer because I am too far away
That's all
That's the extent of our communication while I am en route
By the time I make Oklahoma
When I finally reach Oklahoma
He'll be sleeping
This man will be asleep
He'll turn softly
He will rotate gently
And he'll call my name out low
He will softly say my name
And he'll just cry to think
He will feel sorrowful and may weep
That I would really leave him
He struggles to believe that I would truly abandon him
Though time and time and time again
Even though I have left him multiple times before
I'd try to tell him so
I have attempted to explain my reasons to him
He just didn't know, I would really go
But he didn't truly understand that I would truly leave him eventually
Contributed by Adrian G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.