Pia Beck born 18 September 1925

Pia Beck (18 September 1925 – 26 November 2009) was a Dutch jazz pianist and singer. She was one of the most popular entertainers in the Netherlands during the 1950s and achieved international success in Europe and the United States. She had an allure that transcended her homeland and with her carefully sculpted platinum blonde quiff, her glitter jackets and blouses, her love of sports cars and the smile chiselled on her face, jazz pianist Pia Beck had a glamour that you hardly saw here in the Netherlands, especially in the fifties, when she was at the height of her fame.

Pieternella Beck was born into a middle-class family in The Hague. She was the daughter of Floor Beck, a merchant and procuration holder, and Johanna Westerbaan. From an early age she displayed musical talent and later claimed that she could play several instruments as a child. Beck eventually focused on the piano. Attempts at formal musical training were unsuccessful; according to Beck, her teacher, the later conductor Bernard Haitink, dismissed her because of her 'unique gypsy talent' and advised her to pursue her music elsewhere.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945), Beck performed with the female vocal group the Samoa Girls. After the Second World War, she joined the Miller Sextet as a pianist and singer. With this ensemble she toured Europe, performed for American soldiers in Germany, and spent six months entertaining Dutch troops in the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1949 Beck left the Miller Sextet and formed her own trio. Throughout the 1950s she performed across the Netherlands, particularly at the venue De Vliegende Hollander in Scheveningen. 

                                   

Her repertoire consisted mainly of boogie-woogie and jazz standards, alongside German and French songs. Her first major hit was Pia's Boogie. Beck regularly toured Europe and from 1952 she also travelled to the United States, where she enjoyed a certain popularity during the fifties. She performed her boogie-woogie and the songs from the Great American Songbook in famous jazz clubs such as Birdland (New York), The Blue Note (Chicago) and Crazy Horse (Hollywood). She was now so famous that all the Dutch newspapers reported on her departure, and wrote again relieved when she had set foot in the Netherlands again. She was also the first Dutch artist for whom a fan club was founded, which was a rare phenomenon in the fifties. She played with many well-known artists and to her considerable pride she even made it to Time Magazine in 1956, which gave her the title 'The Flying Dutchess'. 

Pia reached the height of her popularity in Europe in the 1950's and 1960's, particularly through her interpretations and unique phrasing of standards like 'Dancing on the Ceiling' and George Shearing's 'Lullaby of Birdland'. On several of her recordings from that period, she was accompanied by noted American jazz musicians, such as Milt Hinton and Barry Galbraith. Fine, mythical stories could be told about Pia in America. How Billie Holiday in her twilight years, jealously threw a bottle at her head. How Sarah Vaughan shoved a birthday cake in her face. Although unable to read music she could still play boogie woogie, jazz, rock'n roll or blues. Oscar Peterson was so impressed he called her the best female jazz pianist in the world. She also played for General Eisenhower, fashion kings, intellectuals and the English royal family.

Pia & Marga

Despite appearances in Las Vegas in the early 1960s, she never permanently established herself in the American music scene, which she attributed partly to homesickness for the Netherlands. From the mid-1960s Beck's popularity declined as boogie-woogie fell out of fashion. Around 1965 she moved to Torremolinos in southern Spain, where she lived with her partner Marga Samsonowski and helped raise Marga's children. Beck largely withdrew from public performance and ran various businesses, including a piano bar and a radio programme. Following that she worked in real estate and wrote travel books about the Costa del Sol.

In the mid-1970s she made a successful comeback in the Netherlands, attracting an older, nostalgic audience. Beck was widely regarded as a flamboyant and charismatic performer, noted for her distinctive piano style, stage presence, and ability to connect with audiences. Although she achieved international recognition, her later success was largely nostalgic. In 1977 Beck drew public attention by participating in protests against American anti-gay activist Anita Bryant. In 1982 her life story was published under the title The Pia Beck Story.

In the autumn of 2000, Pia Beck celebrated her 75th birthday and also her 60th anniversary as an artist during a large-scale gala in the Royal Theatre in The Hague. Beck continued to perform until 2003 when she retired at the age of 78. In the end, she even got rid of her piano, although that was officially because the instrument suffered from the drought of the Spanish climate. Beck remained in Churriana near Torremolinos, where she died on 26 November 2009, aged 84, several months after the death of her partner Marga Samsonowski. According to a friend the cause of death was heart failure.

(Edited from Wikipedia, The Hague Municipal Archives & Huygens Institute)