Paul Heller invites Marjorie Barnes & Lex Jasper

Paul Heller's second "Vocal Summit" in February 2023 was one of the most vital highlights of the past year. The brilliant singing voices of Marjorie Barnes, Fay Claassen, Alma Naidu and David Linx took the audience on a multifaceted, musically spirited and stylistically wide-ranging journey, with only one regret: that it was not possible to hear much, much more of each individual voice. In one case, this wish has now been fulfilled: Marjorie Barnes, who enriched the "Vocal Summit" with soul-jazz varieties, is returning at Paul Heller's invitation.

Born and raised in New York, Marjorie Barnes sang in musicals such as "Hair" and "Dreamgirls" and was the lead singer in The Fifth Dimension before moving to Europe. After London, where she performed in the West End in "Bubbling Brown Sugar", she made stops in Paris and Vienna before finding her new home in the Netherlands. Now her creative "Dutch connections" also play a role in "Paul Heller invites...": together with her, Paul Heller invited one of the most important jazz musicians from the Netherlands, the Groningen-born pianist, composer and arranger Lex Jasper.

Jasper has arranged for the Metropole Orkest, the BBC Big Band, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the NDR Big Band, and has also played with Joe Pass, Herb Geller, Bobby Shew, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, James Moody, Bob Brookmeyer and John Clayton. His stylistic diversity is impressive: with the song "Vlaanderen" he even created a second national anthem in the Flemish part of Belgium. After a long break, Lex Jasper has been back in concert since 2016. In "Paul Heller invites...", he and Marjorie Barns are joined by three other established jazz greats from the Netherlands: Guitarist Vincent Koning, double bassist Frans van Geest and Hans Dekker, drummer of the WDR Big Band, join the ensemble around saxophonist and host Paul Heller for the exciting "Dutch Summit".