Keep (it) Swinging: Sanna Van Vliet- Dutch scat singer: Dance On The Moon

Sanna van Vliet's nieuwste album: Dance On The Moon ( Nederlands) - Sanna Van Vliet - Dutch scat singer: Dance On The Moon ( English)

A vocalist-pianist with her roots deep into the swing tradition.
SANNA VAN VLIET - a Dutch scat singer: DANCE ON THE MOON
Hans Koert

A few months ago Sanna Van Vliet released her latest album, entitled Dance On The Moon on the Maxanter label (CD MAX 74910). On the album she is accompanied by her regular trio, featuring Marius Beets on bass and Eric Ineke on drums. Special guests are Sjoerd Dijkhuizen on tenor saxophone and Al Cohn on the guitar. The album was presented at the The Hague Jazz festival June 2010 in a concert with her Trio enlarged with tenor saxophone player Ferdinand Povel. Special guest: Joe Cohn.

Maxanter CD MAX 75910 (cover design: Sander Van Veen / Stormvogel Artistiek Bedrijf, Baarn (The Netherlands))

Sanna Van Vliet, vocalist and piano player, studied at The Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she teaches upcoming vocalists. She also works at the Koorenhuis in The Hague and the Amsterdam Conservatory. She also leads workshops and master classes all over the world - later this month you can meet her at the Jeppis Jazz festival in Jakobstad, Finland.

Sanna Van Vliet ( photo courtesy: Illah van Oijen )

She started her own quartet while still on the Conservatory and made her first album In Sight in 2004. Her second album was a tribute to Shirley Horn, who had just passed away in 2005, and she sung this repertoire at the JazzImpuls concerts of the 2007-2008 season. She played the piano in Alice in Dixieland and the First Ladies, an all-women trio. For her latest album, Dance On The Moon, she made an appeal to the same rhythm section as her last-but-one album Remembering Shirley Horn: Marius Beets on bass and Eric Ineke on drums - both belong to the most stable rhythm section available and don't need further introduction to the Dutch jazz fans, I guess. They can be heard in Eric Ineke's JazzXpress and the Rein De Graaff Trio.

Joe Cohn ( photo courtesy: Cees van de Ven)

Joe Cohn, graduated at the Berklee School of Music, plays several instruments, like trumpet, but he is best known on guitar. In the past he played with his father, the legendary Al Cohn, whose musical duets with Zoot Sims belong to my favourites. He performed with the latter, Zoot Sims and Nick Brignola and some sideman-gigs with great names like Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz and Pepper Adams. In The Netherlands he is best known for his cooperation with Peter Beets and his drums-less trio, recorded on the New Groove album for Criss Cross Jazz. He's to be heard on four of the ten tracks, recorded at Marius Beets' Studio de Smederij in Zeist.

Sjoerd Dijkhuizen ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

The album opens with a great version of I Didn't Know What Time It Was which learns what a great vocalist and piano player Sanna is in a unison scat-guitar duet with Joe Cohn. In the title song Dance On The Moon, one of her own compositions on the album, she shows her scatting skills again followed by a solo on guitar by Joe Cohn. In the tune In a Dream, a Marius Beets composition with lyrics by Sanna herself and the tune Here's To Life, known from Shirley Horns album of the same name, she shows that she's a lyrical vocalist too in this kind of ballads.

Eric Ineke ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Half of the tracks were recorded live with Sjoerd Dijkhuizen on the tenor saxophone. In My Shining Hour, which opens with a vocal-drums introduction with drummer Eric Ineke on the brushes, continues with a unisono duet with tenor saxophonist Sjoerd Dijkhuizen. For me it's one of the best tracks of the album. Sjoerd Dijkhuizen, who grew up with jazz ( Bij ons thuis werd voornamelijk jazz gedraaid. Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, dat is de muziek waarmee ik ben opgegroeid) ( = I grew up with jazz music, played by musicians like Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk- that's the music we listened to at home.), studied at the Hilversum Conservatory, where he learned the tricks of the trade from Ferdinand Povel. In 1996 he became graduated and since that date he can be heard in bands like the Rein De Graaff Trio, Eric Ineke JazzXpress ( I heard him in a concert with Eric Ineke's JazzXpress at the Scheldejazz festival of Terneuzen ( june 2009) with David Schnitter and Rodolfo Neves), the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw and his own bands like the Sjoerd Dijkhuizen Quartet with guitarist Martijn Van Iterson.

Marius Beets ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

This album, Dance On The Moon, is, in contrast with most vocal "jazz"albums that are released now-a-days, a real jazz album - not a jazzy pop album. An album which has its roots deeply into the swing jazz from the 1950s and 1960 - the period of scat singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sara Vaughan, which will please a large audience. If you like swinging jazz and great scat vocals - get yourself a copy of this great album. A must-have! You can order thisd album at the Sanna Van Vliet site or at your online record shop.

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

This is the most swinging' album I've heard in a very long time, Bob Stoloff writes in the liner notes, and he's an expert, being the author of the book Scat. And she is really a great scat singer, who listened to the great examples Ella Fitzgerald and Sara Vaughan. A swinging jazz record, with one of the best scat singers from Western Europe with both feet into the 1950s and 1960s. A fresh sound between all those glamourfull jazzy pop vocalists we have to loisten to, now-a-days .... Keep swinging loves to point you to this kind of artists. If you don't want to miss any, ask for its newsletter.