With her concert at the festival, the grande dame of Dutch jazz, vocalist Rita Reys, will be starting her farewell tour in Dutch theaters. She has belonged to the Dutch top for decades and she is nowhere near to losing the urge to sing. But after fifty years on stage, with a voice as solid as ever and inimitable timing, the jazz diva feels that enough is enough. Two years ago she surprised friend and foe with her CD The Lady Strikes Again, on which she sang with flexibility, flair and enthusiasm. She was accompanied by the Lex Jasper trio, the Cor Bakker trio and the Rosenberg trio. Her duet with singer Matilde Santing was exceptional as well. Reys, who started her professional singing career at the age of sixteen, has shared the stage with legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Art Blakey and Duke Ellington. Her career started in Scandinavia in the early fifties. She made her Dutch debut on vinyl in 1957 with The Cool Voice of Rita Reys. In particular, important musicians in Reys' life have been her late husband Pim Jacobs and Wessel Ilcken. The First Lady of Jazz will end her ornate career in style, with a farewell tour with the dynamic The Beets Brothers. This trio with Marius on string bass, Alexander on tenor sax and Peter on piano, ensures some very accessible mainstream jazz.
