Rita Reys (born Maria Everdina Reijs 21 December 1924 in Rotterdam) is a jazz singer from the Netherlands.
Rita Reys, since 1960 officially 'Europe’s first lady of jazz', has been a professional performer for more than six decades.
Maria Everdina Reys was born on 21 December 1924 in Rotterdam, in an artistic family: her father was a violin player and conductor, her mother a dancer. At home, there was virtually no jazz music. Her parents preferred...
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Rita Reys (born Maria Everdina Reijs 21 December 1924 in Rotterdam) is a jazz singer from the Netherlands.
Rita Reys, since 1960 officially 'Europe’s first lady of jazz', has been a professional performer for more than six decades.
Maria Everdina Reys was born on 21 December 1924 in Rotterdam, in an artistic family: her father was a violin player and conductor, her mother a dancer. At home, there was virtually no jazz music. Her parents preferred light classical music instead, so Rita grew up with the sounds of Tchaikovsky and Chopin. But the singing was already in her blood: As a teenager, Rita entered and won many local talent competitions.
In 1943, Rita met her first husband, jazz drummer Wessel Ilcken, who introduced her into the jazz scene. Rita Reys & the Wessel Ilcken Sextet, featuring Jerry van Rooijen on trumpet and Toon van Vliet on tenor saxophone, regularly performed at the Sheherezade jazz club in Amsterdam and other Dutch stages. In the following years, Rita and Wessel...
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