Lady Linn & Her Magnificent Seven announce new album

Lady Linn & her Magnificent Seven reveal a new side with the enchanting song Night Air, the first single from the upcoming album Midnight Sun – a musical tribute to the night. Midnight Sun features a selection of eleven songs about the night, carefully chosen from Lady Linn’s personal favorites. The result is a collection of fresh interpretations of timeless jazz, rock, pop, electronica, gospel, and house. Midnight Sun is an ode to darkness and light, the duality of life, and above all, to the night. The album will be released on October 17 via V2 Records, followed by a release concert at the Handelsbeurs in Ghent on November 10.

The first single and one of the more contemporary tracks on the album, is Jamie Woon’s Night Air. Being really struck at the time by his album Mirrorwriting (2011), she felt she had to feature this song:

“Mirrorwriting helped me through a stormy period in my life. By listening to Night Air I found a companion, a year later I even found my life companion, Filip Vandebril. The feeling Jamie Woon describes in his lyrics as well as his production about the calmness, the solitude of the night, is something I strongly relate to. I wanted to capture the same floating and delicate feeling of the original song in our interpretation. We made a lot of different versions with the full band, but eventually Filip and I started jamming at home, resulting in a more intimate version and a different groove. He came up with a hauntingly beautiful sequence on double bass, and I immediately recorded it on my phone, because often the most natural ideas come first. I then used a Boss vocal performer to add harmonics to make it more haunting and darker. The piano and drums join later in the song to reinforce the dreamy atmosphere. Less is definitely more in this interpretation.”

For Midnight Sun, Lady Linn once again assembled a group of exceptional musicians: Bart Van Caenegem on piano (De Frivole Framboos, Gwen Cresens Eclectica Quartet, Brussels Jazz Orchestra, High Voltage Sextet) , Filip Vandebril on double bass (Black Flower, Antwerp Gipsy Ska Orchestra, Kaaiman, Valerie Solanas, Andy & The Androids), Simon Segers on drums (De Beren Gieren, Black Flower, Sylvie Kreusch, Stadt), Yves Fernandez on trumpet (Monsieur Fernand, Hot Lips, Belle Perez, The Whodads, Admiral Freebee), Frederik Heirman on trombone (Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Lara Rosseel Orchestra, The Whodads, Hellfighter) and Marc De Maeseneer on baritone saxophone (Back Back, Admiral Freebee, The Whodads, Karen Willems Terre Sol 4, Madou). They took a whole year to let the music sink in, record rehearsals, evaluate them and jam together. Each member of the band had a big part in the making of the interpretations.

Lady Linn says:

“They’re all songs by artists that inspire me or have inspired me over time. I only selected songs I have a real connection with, not because they happened to fit the theme of the album.” Round Midnight, for instance, is one of the first jazz songs she got to know (“I even used it for an entrance examination once”), and Strangers In The Night reminds her of her grandfather, who introduced her to jazz music and often played the song on organ. An essential artist is Nina Simone, who’s always been a big inspiration for Lady Linn. “She wrote Theme from Middle Of The Night for a movie and the lyrics are so beautiful: “to breakfast with the moon…” I like those old-fashioned, poetic lyrics.”

But the album is not only jazz standards. Lady Linn’s love for 60s and 70s classic rock is represented by The Eagles (One Of These Nights), JJ Cale (After Midnight) and Stevie Nicks (Nightbird).

“One Of These Nights is a favorite song of my mum’s and a fond memory of her college days with my dad. And Nicks is one of my all-time favorites.” 

Equally indispensable was the inclusion of house and dance tracks like Move Your Body and Night Air.

“For me, jazz and house music have a very important thing in common: the atmosphere and energy of creating something together, with room for improvisation and giving each other freedom. That’s the connection I wanted to make with these songs.”

Lady Linn & Her Magnificent Seven will be playing Midnight Sun at some festivals in the coming months, like Midsummer Jazz in Ronse and OLT Rivierenhof in Antwerp. They’ll be playing the whole album, but in a slightly different order for a better live experience, and a selection from their own repertoire that works well with the new songs, like Love Affair, Cry Baby or I Don’t Wanna Dance.

Midnight Sun Tracklist (and original composers)
1. Midnight Sun (Lionel Hampton, Sonny Burke, Johnny Mercer) 
2. Nightbird  (Stevie Nicks, Sandy Stewart) 
3. One of these nights (Donald Hugh Henley, Glenn Lewis Frey)
4. Night Air (Jamie Woon, John O’Kane)
5. A Night to remember (Charmaine Elaine Sylvers, Dana L Meyers, Nidra Elizabeth Beard)
6. The night the lights went out in Georgia (Bobby Russell)
7. After midnight (John Cale) 
8. Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams, Bernie Hanighe)
9. Move your body (the house music anthem) (Marshall Jefferson)
10. Theme from ‘Middle of the night ‘ (George Bassman, Paddy Chaysfsky) 
11. Strangers in the night  (Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder) 

Live shows
20/06 – Midsummer Jazz festival, Ronse
18/07 – OLT, Deurne 
22/08 – Boulevard Solar, Menen
30/10 – De Singer, Rijkevorsel
10/11 – Ha Concerts, Gent (release show!)