Celebrating more than two decades as a jazz singer, Swedish vocalist Anna Pauline Andersson returns with Lucky To Be Me, a set of 10 songs recorded in New York with pianist and arranger John Di Martino.
The programme combines nine standards, show tunes and Michel Legrand favourites with one original, ‘Just One Song’. The album grew out of a mentorship with Janis Siegel, who joins Andersson for the title track.
The New York sessions feature a first-rate band led by Di Martino, with saxophonist Craig Handy and trumpeter Freddie Hendrix heard last week in Sligo at the core, while Siegel, Salieu Dibba, Aaron Heick and Randy Brecker make guest appearances.
Born in Kalmar and raised in Höganäs, Andersson grew up in a musical household and was performing publicly from the age of four. Early influences ranged from Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O’Day to Joni Mitchell. Pauline later studied in Copenhagen before completing a master’s degree at the Malmö Academy of Music in 2012. Her debut album Meant to Be (2011) was nominated for Sweden’s Orkester Journalen Golden Record award and since then she has worked with musicians including Nils Landgren, Viktoria Tolstoy, Jesper Thilo and Gunhild Carling.
There is an unaffected warmth to Andersson’s singing that never feels imposed on the material. Her phrasing is unhurried and conversational, capable of turning reflective one moment and quietly uplifting the next. Lucky To Be Me moves easily between wistfulness and optimism, and throughout Di Martino’s sympathetic arrangements give the songs room to breathe. It’s an accomplished, unfussy vocal album that values melody, storytelling and swing in equal measure.
This release is included in a list of what I reckon are the top vocal jazz albums of 2026 so far. Delights include a melody Charlie Parker’s step daughter Kim Parker once sang called ‘I Hope It’s Spring For You.’ Anna Pauline’s treatment is just as appealing. Originally composed as the instrumental ‘Theme from Kvarteret Oron‘ it was written by Swedish jazz baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin in 1974. The piece was initially created for the Swedish television series Kvarteret Oron. Then quite a bit later, Chan Parker (Kim’s mum, the writer and partner of Charlie Parker) wrote the poignant English lyrics to go with the melody.
The original vocal version found Kim backed by the Tommy Flanagan Trio. Flanagan had made jazz history years earlier as the pianist on John Coltrane’s hugely influential 1960 album Giant Steps. ‘I Hope It’s Spring For You’ was released on Kim’s 1982 studio album Good Girl through the Italian jazz label Soul Note records.
Anna Pauline here goes to the soul of things as she does throughout this very heart warming album that rewards extensive replay. It’s an achievement of considerable worth to be cherished. Di Martino’s arrangements and contributions are also first class. There’s lovely detail dotted about and I keep going back to the touch of guitarist Guilherme Monteiro cloaked by piano in the intro on opener Karla (being the singer’s beloved grandma) song ‘Just One Song’ featuring Brecker written by Pauline, a song that conjures thoughts of “childhood summers, memory, warmth, and the people who continue to live within us long after they are gone.” Aaron Heick’s slick smooth jazz soloing in the breaks between the fun Pauline and Siegel vocalese to-ing and fro-ing on ‘Lucky To Be Me’ is also masterly.
