Here's To Life: The Lost Tapes 1998 - Girl Talk
At famous jazz journalist Roald Helgheim's 50th birthday party in 1992, saxophonist Bodil Niska and pianist Elizabeth Walker met over a shared interest in melodic and soulful jazz expression. Throughout the evening, there was a jam session in the basement of the Oslo restaurant. A crowd of jazz enthusiasts and other musicians were captivated by the interaction between Bodil and Elizabeth. “Two girls, huh?” Quite unusual at the time.
With the help of good friends like journalist and jazz icon Randi Hultin and legendary pianist Einar “Pastorn’n” Iversen, the girl duo was persuaded to form a group – if only they could get a proper bass player… The choice was easy. Tine Asmundsen had already made a name for herself in the jazz community and was more than willing to fill the bass spot in the trio - which was named "Girl Talk" after a jazz song composed by Neal Hefti in 1965.
Girl Talk could offer warm, melodic music from the standard jazz repertoire, and gradually received bookings at jazz clubs and festivals in Norway and abroad.
In 1996, Girl Talk's CD "Talkin' Jazz" was released. Encouraged by great interest, the trio went into the studio in 1998 and recorded 11 tracks for a new CD release - which unfortunately would never see the light of day. Girl Talk disbanded shortly after the recording. It simmered and went on for a while, but then other projects took priority for everyone. The recordings were archived and forgotten.
In 2023, Elizabeth was cleaning out forgotten audio recordings from the studio of her husband and bassist Terje Gewelt. And there - in a drawer filled with DAT tapes - were the Girl Talk recordings from 1998! With the help of Hallibakken Lydproduksjon in Nesbyen, the recordings were brought back to life. A new master was made, and with help and inspiration from the record label Jazzland, “Here’s To Life” is now available on CD and digitally, after a maturation period of 26 years!