Press Release
Fleurine has been dubbed the “vocal sensation of the New Jazz Generation”; her swinging debut CD “Meant to be!” has been presented at the North Sea Jazz festival. Within one month it became best-selling jazz album in The Benelux and Great Britain. The album produced by Grammy Award winning producer Don Sickler (a/o producer of Joe Henderson, Mark Whitfield, Jimmy Smith, Christian McBride) also features promising guitar talent Jesse van Ruller – winner of The Thelonious Monk International Jazz Guitar Competition, who has been her steady accompanist since 1992.
The story of how this young Dutch vocalist got to record in the USA reads like a fairy tale: At a Jazz Convention in New York, Fleurine approached producer Don Sickler about the lyrics she had written to a composition of Thelonious Monk.
To convince the curious producer of the quality of her lyrics, Fleurine rushed to the nearest ladies’ room and quickly recorded an a cappella version of the song on her walkman-cassette recorder. The very next day Don Sickler – impressed by her swinging alto voice, excellent timing and musical vision – offered her a record deal and introduced her to Thelonious Monk Jr, who listened to the “bathroom tape” and thought Fleurine’s lyrics were “cute as hell”. This led to the extraordinary privilege of Fleurine becoming the worlds 6th Official Monk Lyricist, alongside Abbey Lincoln and Jon Hendricks. Jon Hendricks also wrote the liner notes for this album.
(An exerpt:) “She writes intelligent and creative lyrics to jazz instrumentals ánd sings solos that she improvises as she goes along. She not only exemplifies this artform at its best, but also proves that you don’t have to be born in America to do it, not anymore.. I can relax now, Fleurine is on the scene!”