Personnel:
Rita Reys (vcl), Pim Jacobs (p), Wim Overgaauw (g), Ruud Jacobs (b), Kenny Clarke (d)
Reference: FSRCD 866
Bar code: 8427328608664
Kenny Clarkes presence in Paris round the middle of October 1961 was too good a chance for Pim Jacobs and Rita Reys to miss. Pim, with his brother Ruud on bass and Wim Overgaauw on guitar, were one of the smoothest functioning jazz combos in Europe, so when he phoned the great drummer to fix a date Clarke jumped at the offer. The result was a joyously grooving, relaxed concert recorded at the Singer Concerthall at Laren in Holland on October 12.
As a pair, Rita and Pim were an artistic marriage made in heaven from their first meeting, a fact mirrored in their real-life marriage. Serendipitously, the second album included here was the first record on which Rita Reys was heard at length with her soon-to-be husbands trio. It was recorded in Hilversum on June 23, 1960, the same summer they were awarded first prize in the international competition at the 1er Festival Europeen du Jazz in Antibes-Juan-les-Pins in July 1960; this last performance included here as a bonus.
She was already considered a top jazz vocalist with her own swinging styleEuropes First Lady of Jazz. In Kenny Clarkes own words, shes just great, shes just... well she is RITA!
—Jordi Pujol
"The first 10 tracks were originally released on LP as Jazz Pictures At An Exhibition and here they are followed by the 12 tracks from Marriage In Modern Jazz. The CD ends with three further tracks from the singers award-winning appearance at the 1960 Antibes Jazz Festival. Reys is in very good form, displaying the thorough grasp of the idiom that marked her out as one of the eras most significant contemporary jazz singers outside America. Her sound is warm and engaging and this reissued material is very welcome. Her earlier work with drummer Wessel Ilcken (see FSR 861, reviewed June 2015) made clear her affinity with bop drummers and doubtless she was delighted at the opportunity to work with Clarke, a key presence on the Pictures tracks."
—Bruce Crowther (August, 2015)
Jazz Journal Magazine
