Decades earlier, the designation "Europe's First Lady of Jazz" had been applied to Rita Reys. From the mid-'50s through the turn of the millennium she ranked among the continent's foremost jazz vocalists and earned legendary status abroad. Born Maria Everdina Reys in Rotterdam, she took up singing while still a teenager, captured several song contests, and at age sixteen in 1941 became a member of the Hawaiian Minstrels. By 1943 she had joined her father's theater orchestra and also toured with Lex Van Spall, Ted Powder, and the Piet Van Dijk Orchestra. In 1945 she married drummer Wessel Ilcken, whose guidance drew her into the postwar jazz world; for the better part of the next decade she performed with his sextet. The pair spent time living in Stockholm, where she cut a 1953 session alongside the great baritonist Lars Gullin. Her best-known recording, the 1956 album The Cool Voice of Rita Reys, featured Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers as her backing ensemble. During 1956-1957 she and Ilcken visited the United States for several months, affording her the chance to appear with Blakey as well as Jimmy Smith, Chico Hamilton, Clark Terry, and Mat Mathews.
Tragedy occurred back in Europe in 1957 when Wessel Ilcken died in a car accident; after a period of recovery Reys resumed performing. In 1960 she wed pianist Pim Jacobs and continued to work regularly with his combo until his death in 1996. Over the years she also collaborated with Zoot Sims, Oliver Nelson, the Dutch Swing College Band, and other prominent musicians. Though shaped by the examples of Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé, she developed a singular style that caressed ballads and drove uptempo tunes with equal authority. Marking her eightieth birthday across 2004-2005, she published the memoir Rita Reys -- Lady Jazz and took part in numerous special events, among them television broadcasts and concerts throughout the Netherlands. Her recorded career is encapsulated in the four-CD retrospective The Rita Reys Story -- Songs of a Lifetime, which draws on material spanning 1953-2000.
