The 40th Anniversary Edition of Fairytales is the final of many incarnations of singer Radka Toneff and pianist Steve Dobrogosz’s jewel of a duo album. In the course of the 40 years that have passed since its release – on LP in 1982, CD in 1986 – Fairytales has sold well over 100 000 units, making it the top-selling Norwegian jazz record ever, and was also voted Norway’s best album of all time in a poll of Norwegian musicians in 2011. For four decades the sometimes delicate and sometimes robust melodic intimacy between the singer and the pianist, and the fragile strength with which they imparted their lyrics and music, has cast a spell on listeners from all music scenes. Constantly new generations are enthralled by the 41 auditorily minimalist but eloquently narrative minutes, and this final version, with improved sound quality, brings us closer to the magic of the Toneff/Dobrogosz duo than ever before.

Radka Toneff (1952-1982, Norwegian mother, Bulgarian father) was established in Norway and its neighbouring countries as a unique singer and leader of her own band when she and American pianist Steve Dobrogosz (1956- ), who was living in Sweden, recorded Fairytales in February 1982. They had known each other since 1979, when Dobrogosz took over as the pianist in Radka’s quartet… more