RITA REYS & THE PIM JACOBS TRIO FEATURING KENNY CLARKE - Jazz Pictures at an Exhibition plus Marriage in Modern Jazz.
Fresh Sounds Records: FSR –CD 866
Rita Reys (vocals) Pim Jacobs (piano) Wim Overgaauw (guitar) Ruud Jacobs (bass) with Kenny Clarke (drums) Recorded in Laren. Holland, October 21st 1961, Hilversum, Holland, June 23rd, 1961 and the Antibes Jazz Festival, Jean-Les –Pins, France, July 30th 1960.
Apart from a short entry in New Grove you will look hard to find any reference to Rita Reys in the various jazz guides and manuals, yet in her heyday around the time of these recordings she was fetéd as `Europe’s First Lady of Jazz`; a large claim, one might say, for a talent that has been so quickly relegated to the footnotes. It is therefore very useful to have this re-issue so that those, like myself, hitherto unaware of her existence, can make an evaluation of or simply enjoy an artiste who once enjoyed critical accolade but that posterity has largely forgotten.
Rita and her second husband, Pim Jacobs, were clearly a big deal on the European jazz scene of the time in that they were able to attract the interest of no less a luminary than Kenny Clarke to join them for a live session in Laren in 1961. Clarke, having by that time moved to Europe, must have thought it worth his while to make the date and his presence turned what would have been a pleasant but fairly run of the mill session into something a bit more special. Although the great architect of be-bop drumming confines himself to brushwork his playing propels the vocalist and her accompanists through a set of standards in a way that really enhances their jazz credentials.
Rita turns out to be an Anita O’Day style of singer with a good range and sense of rhythm, singing in a transatlantic style with faultless English and just enough in the way of vocal mannerisms to give her sound a degree of hipness. Her choice of repertoire is predictable but good songs never out stay their welcome and to these she adds a most affecting version of `I Remember Clifford` with moving lyrics by I know not whom. Husband Pim proves a most able accompanist and though without any particular stylistic axe to grind he turns in some neat, cleanly articulated solos as does the guitarist.
The tracks without Clarke, recorded at an earlier date and just before Rita and Pim’s marriage are almost as good but lack the buoyant élan of the drummer’s contribution relying as they do on the guitarist to provide the rhythmic impetus which being unvaryingly metronomic rather weighs things down. To make up for this the instrumentalists get to stretch a bit more and Rita is perhaps a little more relaxed without the competing presence of a jazz legend, not that she was a stranger to performing with American greats of the time. The disc ends with a couple of jazz festival performances which reveal through the captured audience response that Rita was regarded as the real deal with a reputation that the passage of time has sadly allowed to decay. Thanks to this very desirable re-issue it will surely be deserving of re-appraisal.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Fresh Sounds Records: FSR –CD 866
Rita Reys (vocals) Pim Jacobs (piano) Wim Overgaauw (guitar) Ruud Jacobs (bass) with Kenny Clarke (drums) Recorded in Laren. Holland, October 21st 1961, Hilversum, Holland, June 23rd, 1961 and the Antibes Jazz Festival, Jean-Les –Pins, France, July 30th 1960.
Apart from a short entry in New Grove you will look hard to find any reference to Rita Reys in the various jazz guides and manuals, yet in her heyday around the time of these recordings she was fetéd as `Europe’s First Lady of Jazz`; a large claim, one might say, for a talent that has been so quickly relegated to the footnotes. It is therefore very useful to have this re-issue so that those, like myself, hitherto unaware of her existence, can make an evaluation of or simply enjoy an artiste who once enjoyed critical accolade but that posterity has largely forgotten.
Rita and her second husband, Pim Jacobs, were clearly a big deal on the European jazz scene of the time in that they were able to attract the interest of no less a luminary than Kenny Clarke to join them for a live session in Laren in 1961. Clarke, having by that time moved to Europe, must have thought it worth his while to make the date and his presence turned what would have been a pleasant but fairly run of the mill session into something a bit more special. Although the great architect of be-bop drumming confines himself to brushwork his playing propels the vocalist and her accompanists through a set of standards in a way that really enhances their jazz credentials.
Rita turns out to be an Anita O’Day style of singer with a good range and sense of rhythm, singing in a transatlantic style with faultless English and just enough in the way of vocal mannerisms to give her sound a degree of hipness. Her choice of repertoire is predictable but good songs never out stay their welcome and to these she adds a most affecting version of `I Remember Clifford` with moving lyrics by I know not whom. Husband Pim proves a most able accompanist and though without any particular stylistic axe to grind he turns in some neat, cleanly articulated solos as does the guitarist.
The tracks without Clarke, recorded at an earlier date and just before Rita and Pim’s marriage are almost as good but lack the buoyant élan of the drummer’s contribution relying as they do on the guitarist to provide the rhythmic impetus which being unvaryingly metronomic rather weighs things down. To make up for this the instrumentalists get to stretch a bit more and Rita is perhaps a little more relaxed without the competing presence of a jazz legend, not that she was a stranger to performing with American greats of the time. The disc ends with a couple of jazz festival performances which reveal through the captured audience response that Rita was regarded as the real deal with a reputation that the passage of time has sadly allowed to decay. Thanks to this very desirable re-issue it will surely be deserving of re-appraisal.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
|
|
|
