Deborah Brown: vocals (& piano on 7 & 12)| Rik Mol: trumpet & fluegelhorn | Sjoerd Dijkhuizen: tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet & baritone sax | Rob van Bavel: piano| Marius Beets: bass | Eric Ineke: drums
Guests: Bart van Lier: trombone | Benjamin Herman: alto sax
Ivie Anderson was the best vocalist Duke Ellington ever had. When at the age of twenty-five she joined his orchestra in 1931, she had already proved herself as a singer who could appeal to black and white audiences alike. Her versatility was probably the aspect Ellington appreciated most: an unhibited flair for the dramatic, the ability to extract the maximum from sentimental songs and the facility to move effortlessly from easy swing into growling, bluesy scatting. “Ivie Anderson’s unique voice is immediately recognizable,” Deborah explains. “The timbre of her voice makes one feel warm. She has the quality of someone like a mother, singing you to sleep with a lullaby, and her happy earthy tone on her up tempo tunes makes you feel as though she has life all figured out.”
Throughout the twelve years she stayed with the Ellington orchestra she suffered from chronic asthma. In the summer of 1942 it became clear that the ailment made it impossible for her to continue singing and traveling with the band full-time. She returned to her home state California, where she made a succes of a restaurant in Los Angeles called the Chicken Shack. She died in 1949 at the age of forty-four.
Almost sixty years later the idea of a tribute to Ivie Anderson was put forward by producer Fred Dubiez to Eric Ineke, who was keen on doing an album with Deborah Brown and his JazzXpress. Soon it became clear that everybody liked this project very much.
The repertoire of the group is based on the hard bop idiom, closely related to Deborah Brown’s undeniable bebop roots. For this tribute the singer and the leader together selected eleven songs from the more than fifty recordings Ivie Anderson made with Ellington. Since these are modern interpretations of the original material and not recreations, it seemed fitting to pay homage also to Duke himself by adding an instrumental version of Black Beauty, one of his earliest and most enduring compositions. On a number of tracks two well-known Dutch jazz musicians were invited to join in as guests: trombonist Bart van Lier and alto saxophonist Benjamin Herman.
Playing music became a pure necessity for Marius at the age of ten. At that time his musical career started with playing the bass in various local pop- and rock bands.
At home Marius came in touch with jazz music. His father had a big collection of the best jazz records and his younger brother Peter developed himself as a true jazz freak. Marius’ continued to explore these jazz influences and started studying double bass at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
From that moment on his career set off with great force. Marius became part of young jazz bands such as the Houdini’s, the Hoogendijk/Van den Dungen quintet and the Beets Brothers. With these bands Marius performed on the most important jazz venues in the Netherlands and toured in the United States of America, Australia, Thailand and Russia.
Beets struck the attention of, and got much loved by, established Dutch jazz artists such as Rita Reys, Rein de Graaff en Piet Noordijk. The strong beat and forward motion in his playing fits seamlessly with the sound of the esteemed older jazz generation.
In 1999 Marius gave a new boost to the Rein de Graaff trio and set for several European tours with jazz legends as Johhny Griffin, James Moody, Bud Shank, Gary Bartz and Ronnie Cuber.
Marius has an impressive discography with over a hundred recordings. Featured artists are a.o.: Herb Geller, Jeff Hamilton, Deborah Brown, Rita Reys, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Peter Beets, Houston Person, Ronnie Cuber and Dave Liebman.
Beets is a well know guest at large Dutch orchestras such as the Metropole Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Schoenberg Ensemble, Skymasters and the Jazzorchestra of the Concertgebouw.
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