Radka Toneff -

Radka Toneff (June 25, 1952 — Oct. 21, 1982) was a Norwegian jazz vocalist who released three albums between 1977 and 1982: Winter Poem, It Don’t Come Easy, and Fairytales, the last with American pianist Steve Dobrogosz.

Background

Radka Toneff was born Ellen Radka Toneff in Oslo on June 25, 1952. She grew up first at Lambertseter and later at Kolbotn in a musical household shaped by her Norwegian mother and her Bulgarian-born father, Toni Toneff, a folk singer, pilot, and radio technician. Piano study started early at home, and composition followed almost at once; by age five, she was already working out short melodies at the keyboard while her father pushed her toward notation and formal discipline.

Her teens pulled that training toward song. Toneff joined the rhythm-and-blues band Sect in the Kolbotn area and sang regular engagements at youth clubs around Oslo. Near the end of the 1960s she also entered the Club 7 orbit, where wider contact with Oslo’s jazz scene expanded her range and brought early professional work. Before her own debut LP, she contributed to the political album Slutt opp kamerat and Nationaltheatret’s Svartkatten, and at 19 she made her radio debut on NRK’s jazz program Åpent Hus.

After lower school, Toneff studied at Follo folkehøyskole and then continued at the music conservatory at Veitvet, where she trained for work as a piano teacher. Conservatory life also placed her among younger Oslo players who would shape her first recording years. Guitarist Jon Eberson recruited her into Unis, an experimental jazz-rock group that also included Jon Balke, Erik Balke, Terje Adde, Terje Lie, and first Pål Thorstensen, then Stein Gulbrandsen. That band did not last, but it led straight to her next unit.

In 1974, Eberson helped launch Radka Toneff Kvintett, the group that carried her from the club circuit to record release. The lineup shifted over time, but Arild Andersen, Lars Jansson, Jon Christensen, Svein Christiansen, and Pål Thowsen all figured in that first phase. The quintet made its live debut at Club 7 in March 1975, and Toneff also logged outside credits during the period, including vocals on Ole Paus and Ketil Bjørnstad’s Lise Madsen, Moses og de andre.

Winter Poem

Radka Toneff released her debut album, Winter Poem, in 1977 on Zarepta.

Toneff places English-language texts at the center of the album. Guitarist Jon Eberson and pianist Lars Jansson answer her lines over Arild Andersen’s bass motion and Jon Christensen’s light backbeat. Knut Riisnæs enters on tenor saxophone, and the string section broadens selected passages.

Side one concentrates on Toneff’s own settings of Sylvia Plath and Nikki Giovanni, then closes with Arild Andersen’s Robert Creeley setting “Love Comes Quietly.” “The Kid” returns to Creeley on side two. “A Child Is Born,” “Mr. Bojangles,” and “Ballad of the Sad Young Men” bring in three outside titles for the closing stretch.

A1. “Lorelei” (5:35) — Toneff/Plath
A2. “The Wonder Woman” (5:02) — Toneff/Giovanni
A3. “Winter Poem” (1:05) — Toneff/Giovanni
A4. “The Butterfly” (1:20) — Toneff/Giovanni
A5. “Love Comes Quietly” (2:08) — Andersen/Creeley
A6. “The Kid” (4:58) — Toneff/Creeley

B1. “A Child Is Born” (2:32) — Dave Grusin/Alan Bergman/Marilyn Bergman
B2. “Mr. Bojangles” (6:11) — Jerry Jeff Walker
B3. “Fire” (4:53) — Andersen/Creeley
B4. “Ballad of the Sad Young Men” (6:05) — Tommy Wolf/Fran Landesman

Toneff recorded Winter Poem in February 1977 at Arne Bendiksen Studio in Oslo with co-producers Arild Andersen and Lars Klevstrand and engineer Bjørn Lillehagen. Riisnæs arranged the strings, and Andersen handled the sound mix.

Arild Haugan photographed the front cover.

Winter Poem brought Toneff the 1977 Spellemannprisen for best vocalist and reached No. 18 on the Norwegian album chart.

It Don’t Come Easy

Radka Toneff released her second album, It Don’t Come Easy, in 1979 on Zarepta.

Toneff sets the album in a small-group texture with voice at the center of guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums. Guitarist Jon Eberson threads lean lines around keyboardist Lars Jansson, while bassist Arild Andersen anchors the pulse under drummer Svein Christiansen’s backbeat; pianist Jon Balke and percussionist Pål Thowsen enter on selected passages.

A1. “It Don’t Come Easy” (4:50) — Toneff
A2. “The Friend” (4:06) — Eberson/Robert Creeley
A3. “Aimless Wandering” (6:26) — Andersen/Toneff
A4. “Contemplation” (3:00) — Toneff
A5. “The Snow” (5:20) — Andersen/Robert Creeley

B1. “The World” (1:43) — Balke/Nikki Giovanni
B2. “Say Something Nice” (4:33) — Andersen/Toneff
B3. “A Certain Peace” (5:30) — Andersen/Nikki Giovanni
B4. “A Form of Women” (4:00) — Eberson/Robert Creeley

Toneff recorded It Don’t Come Easy in January 1979 at Talent Studio in Oslo with producer Arild Andersen and engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug.

Bruno Oldani handled the graphic design, and Svein Christiansen shot the front-cover photograph.

Fairytales

Radka Toneff and Steve Dobrogosz released Fairytales on August 25, 1982, on Odin.

Toneff narrows the album to voice and piano. Steve Dobrogosz answers her lines with spare voicings and short melodic turns that stay close to the vocal line, while the duo leaves wide space around held tones, soft entries, and slow cadences.

The set places standards such as “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,” “Come Down in Time,” “Lost in the Stars,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Nature Boy” beside new settings of texts by Fran Landesman and Emily Dickinson. “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” opens in a low hush with spare piano, a brief solo, and a late key rise. “Lost in the Stars” and “My Funny Valentine” slow the pulse further and let Toneff shape the line through long sustained tones over light accompaniment.

A1. “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” (3:05) — Jimmy Webb
A2. “Come Down in Time” (3:20) — Elton John/Bernie Taupin
A3. “Lost in the Stars” (4:15) — Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson
A4. “Mystery Man” (4:13) — Steve Dobrogosz/Fran Landesman
A5. “My Funny Valentine” (5:43) — Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart

B1. “Nature Boy” (5:41) — Eden Ahbez
B2. “Long Daddy Green” (4:09) — Blossom Dearie/Dave Frishberg
B3. “Wasted” (5:06) — Radka Toneff/Fran Landesman
B4. “Before Love Went Out of Style” (2:24) — Dudley Moore/Fran Landesman
B5. “I Read My Sentence” (2:07) — Steve Dobrogosz/Emily Dickinson

Toneff recorded most of Fairytales at Bergen Digital Studio, Grieghallen, Bergen, in 1982 with producer Arild Andersen and engineer Tom Sætre. “My Funny Valentine” came from an earlier 1979 recording, engineered by Egil Johan Damm and Jan Erik Tørmoen.

Anne Toneff drew the front cover and handled the design.

Fairytales became Toneff’s best-known release and Norway’s best-selling jazz album.

Death and Legacy

Toneff died in Oslo on October 21, 1982, at age 30. She was found dead in the woods at Bygdøy, and later accounts identified the death as self-inflicted.

Her standing in Norwegian music rose after her death and settled into canon. Fairytales became Norway’s best-selling jazz album and, in 2011, a poll of 100 Norwegian musicians named it the best Norwegian album of all time. Her name also continues through Radka Toneff Minnepris, which Stiftelsen Radka Toneff Minnefond awards every other year, and through her 2020 induction into Rockheim Hall of Fame.

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