Album Notes

Wies was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in a strictly classical music family. She discovered jazz (Artie Shaw a.o.) when she was 14 and immediately fell in love with the freestyle and creative possibilities this medium opened up fo her. As a student in Jugoslavia she was invited to join a vocal quintet/four-piece band made up of students: The Kvintet Djordjevic. After her return to Western Europe, she started working with small groups for the American clubs at camps and bases all over France, Spain and Morocco with o.a. Ted Easton, Carlos' Band and the Spotlights.

Coming to California and involved full-time in family life, she continued her voice studies with John Roberts and David Gordon of Carmel and Robin McKee Williams of Pacific Grove and participated in occasional concerts, classical as well as jazz. That is how she developed her range and the definitely classical influence in her jazz stylings.

This CD was created at the suggestion of Gennady Loktionov, a classical pianist from St. Petersburg, Russia, who plays the pianobar at Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch in Carmel. (Gennady is also mentioned in the credits of two Eastwood films "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby".) He created the arrangements for Wies and recorded her in his Monterey studio in 2003.