Why Are All the Best Jazz Singers from Norway?

Sweden gave us ABBA. Bleh. Meh. So what? Who cares? But Norway gave us some of the best jazz singers in the world. I keep discovering more of them each day.

Last night I had dinner with one of Norway's leading jazz vocalists, Busby "Bryce" Digdug. We planned to meet at the Big Sunflower at 16th and Valencia, not to be confused with the Little Sunflower at 16th and Valencia. The fact that the same restaurant has a branch just around the corner is proof that the Vietnamese are the best dadaists.

Busby and I had meant to meet at the Little Sunflower, but there was a jumper who forced the city to shut down the block for seven hours while onlookers (according to another friend) were shouting JUMP, JUMP!!! Maybe they just wanted to be the first to get into the Big Sunflower. Ironically down the street NBC's Trauma (not to be confused with Trauma Flintstone) was filming outside of Range. There were several ironies going on here. The jumper was in a residential hotel above the high end Peruvian restaurant where attorneys and tech millionaires can enjoy the better cuisine of a nation where the majority of people live on a dollar a day or less. Unfortunately the Big Sunflower crowd had filled Little Sunflower to the point it felt like some dadaist stunt trying to prove how many b.o.-infested skateboard hipsters you can stuff into a pho shop.

So we went across the street to Ti Couz where we discussed a possible appearance by Busby on a future episode of Junk Thief TV with this year's host, Alton Yowells VII. Sorry that I didn't properly introduce Alton in the Season 4 premier, though several people have asked "Who was that deranged creature with the blond afro?" Or "Who is she?" Well, Alton is a he and he is the creative director and chief astrologist here at Junk Thief Entertainment. He'll be appearing before the camera more this year as I step back and take more of a management role at Junk Thief Entertainment as we branch out to Timore Leste and Catalonia.

Well, maybe we can coax Busby to sing a few jazz tunes when he returns to our show. He does a dynamite version of "Get Out of Town". I think there is something about Norwegians like Busby that is a natural to jazz. For years I've loved Norwegian pop star Wyncke Myhre (who had to go to Germany to make it big) and the late jazz stylist Monica Zetterlund. Monica did some great work with Bill Evans, but I love her stuff done in Norwegian the best.

Latley I've been really big on Radka Toneff who covers Bulgarian folk songs, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Kurt Weill and Jimmy Webb. I'm thinking I might have Busby sing some of the more complex Jimmy Webb tunes from Secret Garden when he drops by.