Written by What started as a late-night jam session became a unique piece of music. In need of lyrics, the Swedish-born singer Julia Werup grabbed a poetry book by Leonard Cohen from the shelf and from 2 random pages in the book, she did a one-take vocal recording on the fly. Julia instinctively knew that this was a truly magical take, and luckily the management of the Leonard Cohen estate fell in love with the way the poetry was used in a song.
The approval and blessing of the Leonard Cohen estate was quickly achieved, and now this song is released for the world to hear Julia’s eminent and graceful interpretation of Cohens words accompanied by the minimalistic production of drummer Thomas Blachman and double bass player Matthias Petri. This first take of the jam session was so strong that Julia decided to keep it as it is, simply to avoid the song to lose its magic, if she were to record it again. Judge for yourself.
Julia Werup is born and raised in Sweden. Her father is the late jazz musician and poet Jacques Werup, so the mixture of music and poetry has been a part of her life as far back as she remembers. Despite her background, she never planned to become an artist herself, but during the years of young adulthood it came naturally to her to write poetry. Now living in Copenhagen with her fiancee, drummer, producer and judge on the Danish version of X Factor Thomas Blachman, she has taken up singing along with writing poetry.
As of today, she has released two poetry collections with a third is on its way alongside the spoken word album “Blixtra” released in 2019, which consists of Julia’s own poetry with music by Thomas Blachman. In addition, in 2020 she released a full album of highly interesting interpretations of jazz standards called “The Thrill Of Loving You” on which she was backed up by a trio consisting of Thomas Blachman (drums), Johnny Åman (double bass) and Sven-Erik Lundequist (piano).
You can hear her version of Take Five from this album on our Jazz Vocals Spotify Playlist.
Last modified: March 9, 2023
