Caro Emerald, the Dutch jazz vocalist born Caroline van der Leeuw on April 26, 1981, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, first gained widespread attention in 2009 through her explosive single “Back It Up” before issuing her chart-topping debut album Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor in 2010. After completing jazz studies at the conservatory she spent time working as a vocal coach. That breakthrough single, crafted by David Schreurs and Jan van Wieringen of Grandmono Records together with songwriter Vincent de Giorgio, started as a summer sensation yet ultimately logged 21 weeks on the Dutch charts between July and December; its reach expanded further through remixes by Kraak & Smaak and a version featuring Madcon. The follow-up track “A Night Like This,” also penned by Schreurs, van Wieringen, and de Giorgio, climbed even higher to claim the top spot on the Dutch singles chart. Emerald then released her first full-length project, Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor, a collection shaped by postwar jazz and classic cinema that dominated the Dutch albums chart for an extended run.
In May 2013 she returned with her sophomore effort The Shocking Miss Emerald, again produced in tandem with longtime associate Schreurs; the album promptly ascended to number one in both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, while the single “Tangled Up” entered the Dutch Top Ten. After limiting her live work to regional dates for the ensuing two years, Emerald and her band launched the expansive Emerald Island Tour in 2016, traversing Europe and the United Kingdom. On December 30, 2016, she delivered a BBC 2 concert from Madeira while aboard a large luxury liner. Recorded in just two days, a second Acoustic Sessions installment titled Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor contained eight stripped-down renditions drawn from her debut album; the sessions employed a Binson Echorec—an early-1950s Italian echo unit known for its unpredictable behavior—alongside a vintage 1958 Ampex reel-to-reel recorder, with the musicians performing together in one room, without headphones, captured directly to tape. The resulting material first appeared exclusively on tour and via her website, and both volumes were later compiled as Acoustic Sessions: Pts. I & II for a general release in April 2017.
