Sharón Clark (vocals), Mattias Nilsson (piano), Bo Stief (bass), Rasmus Kihlberg (drums)
Sweden’s oldest movie house, Scala, doubles as an Ystad festival concert hall. Washington, DC, singer Sharón Clark appeared there with a quartet headed by pianist Mattias Nilsson. The band included drummer Rasmus Kihlberg and the formidable Danish bassist Bo Stief. Ms. Clark has a reservoir of power that she holds in reserve, to the benefit of her expressiveness. Scheduling meant that I had to leave before she finished her set, but what I heard convinced me that this is a singer whose ability should make her far better known. She provided “Give Me the Simple Life” with a lift that went to the heart of the song’s optimistic message. Scat-singing, that notorious trap for so many vocalists, enhanced the performance. Scatting again on “Bye Bye Blackbird,” she managed to work the word “bebop” into the scat vocabulary without falling into corniness. Stief, with his huge bass sound, soloed to great effect on the piece. Crediting both Frank Loesser and “Mr. John Coltrane,” Ms. Clark did justice to Loesser’s and Jimmy McHugh’s elegant ballad “Say It (Over and Over Again).” In a Frank Sinatra tribute, she gently swung “The Song is You” and “If They Asked Me, I Could Write a Book.” Nilsson’s piano solo on the latter interpolated bits from several songs, notably and cleverly the “heaven, I’m in heaven” phrase from “Cheek to Cheek.” I was headed for the door as she began “Wives and Lovers” and hated to leave it behind.