Rita Reys
Biography
Rita Reys (full name: Maria Everdina Reys, born Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 21 December 1924 - died Breukelen, The Netherlands, 28 July 2013) was a Dutch jazz vocalist who, at the 1960 French jazz festival of Juan-Les-Pins, received the title "Europe's First Lady of Jazz".
Her first husband, jazz drummer Wessel Icken, introduced her into the jazz scene around 1943. She recorded dozens of albums: with her own sextet, with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (in 1956) and - more than with anybody else - with her second husband, jazz pianist Pim Jacobs, whom she married after Icken's untimely death and with whom she made her greatest recordings.
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Rita Reys performed with the greatest musicians in jazz: from Donald Byrd to Art Blakey, from Jimmy Smith to Hank Mobley, from Horace Silver to Lester Young.
Among the countless awards she won was a prestigious Bird Award for her achievements in jazz. She was also an Honorary Citizen of the city of New Orleans.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.