Pia Beck - Dutch Treats: Hot Boogie, Cool Bop & More (1946-1960) (2021)

Known throughout the jazz world of the 1950s as 'The Flying Dutchess' and a woman who held the respect of musical peers of the calibre of Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner, Pia Beck proved it was possible to take on American music and musicians and compete with them on an equal footing.

Her vibrant recordings, made mostly for the Dutch Philips label, still retain their lustre and appeal nearly 60 years on, and Jasmine is delighted to give the best of them what we believe to be their first UK CD release ever.

In this all-embracing anthology of Pia's finest tracks from the 1940s to the 1960s the emphasis is inevitably on the cool, concise recordings she made with her Dutch trio in the early-mid 50s, influenced by the Nat King Cole Trio and occasionally featuring Pia's charming Dutch-accented vocals (in English).

Also included are several sides from an album Pia made in New York in the mid-50s with some of the finest American jazzmen of the period, her first record 'Chickery Chick' and a few later sides made in Germany under superior recording conditions. If you're a fan of hot boogie and hip cocktail jazz, you can't go wrong here.