Fay Claassen, David Linx & WDR Big Band
Biography Fay Claassen, David Linx & WDR Big Band
Fay Claassen
is one of the great (female) voices of jazz. The American music magazine “Cadence” enthuses: “Fay sings as Audrey Hepburn plays: elegant and graceful”. For her new (eighties) solo album “Luck Child”, her most personal and emotional work, the multi-award winning Dutch singer (Golden Record, German Record Critics Award) has selected her absolute “Heart Songs”. Fay Claassen comes to Bonn with three renowned Dutch colleagues.
It seems the most natural thing in the world, when Fay Claassen brings English and Dutch pop songs, original compositions or standards of the "Great American Songbook" with her touching voice to new life.
When phenomenal improvisation and perfect intonation seem to be a child's play, combined with enormous emotional depth and more than twenty years of musical experience.
Born in Nijmegen, a city in the east of the Netherlands, Fay Claassen began with a ballet and theater training at early age, then switched to the musical subject and presented an impressive career.
With her unmistakable timbre, she is one of the great female voices of European jazz.
David Linx
Singer, composer lyricist, producer and multi-instrumentalist David Linx has recorded over 15 solo albums as leader and/or co-leader and besides his own projects he is a frequent guest in the jazz circuit and also giving masterclasses in renowned conservatories worldwide.
Since the 1980’s he has worked with with: Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Johnny Griffin, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Natalie Dessay, The Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster, Toots Thielemans, Mino Cinelu, Marc Ducret, Philippe Catherine, Paolo Fresu, Erik Truffaz, Aka Moon, Khalil Chahine, Roy Ayers, Oumou Sangaré, Meshell Ndegeocello, Billy Cobham, Lena Willemark, Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen, Didier Lockwood, Richard Galliano, Michel Portal, Abraham Laboriel, Kenny Wheeler, Claude Nougaro, Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Ivan Lins, Daniel Humair, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Omara Portuondo, Fay Claassen, Agnès Jaoui, Maria Pia de Vito, Irène Jacob, Rhoda Scott, John Clayton, Marc Ribot, Nguyên Lê, Craig Street, Ernie Wilkins, The Dutch Metropole Orchestra, Orchstra Jazz Della Sardegna, Steve Coleman, Jon Faddis, Ray Lema, Marc Ribot, Horace Parlan, Sahib Shihab, Andy Sheppard, Juan José Mosalini, Aldo Romano, Charlotte Rampling, Bob Stewart, Minino Garay, Hanna Schygulla, Maria Joao, Mario Laginha, Gustavo Beytelman, Maria de Medeiros David Gilmore, Maurane, Juliette, Greg Cohen, Michel Fugain, Tetê Espindola, Ray Lema, Kevin Breit, Claudio Roditi, Norma Winstone, Ibrahim Maalouf, Lenine, Cristina Zavalloni, Magic Malik, Tigran Hamasayan, Médéric Collignon, Jacques Schwartz-Bart, Miroslav Vitous, Hamilton de Holanda,…
In 1986 David’s first acclaimed project 'A Lover’s Question' with writer James Baldwin reciting his poetry on music composed and produced by David and Pierre Van Dormael, puts him in the lime light of the jazz world both in Europe and the USA. This cd with a.o. Steve Coleman, Slide Hampton, Deborah Brown recorded in 1985 and 1986 and released in 1991 is re-released in 2000 by Label Bleu/Harmonia Mundi and comes with a book of poems and short stories (some previously unpublished), in English, translated in French by the late Hubert Nyssen, founder and owner of the Actes Sud Publishing House.
In 1992 David gets together with pianist – composer Diederik Wissels to form the legendary vocal- piano project that has never stopped recording and touring ever since, whether it be in duo, 4-tet, with Symphony Orchestra etc… This widely acclaimed duo - project is known to have given new life to contemporary vocal jazz and their songs appear in the Real Book of Sher Music. They have won numerous awards in many countries over the last 20 years. Their songs have been sung and/or recorded by many jazz vocalists such as Sheila Jordan, Maria Joao, Fay Claassen, Maria Pia de Vito, Norma Winstone, a.o.
