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Rachel Gould

Rachel Gould is known for her unique interpretation of standard material, her outstanding musicianship, her original compositions sung and played by herself and others, and her generous, individualized teaching styl

About Me

Rachel Gould is known for her unique interpretation of standard material, her outstanding musicianship, her original compositions sung and played by herself and others, and her generous, individualized teaching style, evidenced by her countless former students leaving their mark on today’s international jazz scene.

Rachel Gould, born June 25, 1953 in Camden, New Jersey, USA, studied cello and classical singing at Boston University. She began her professional singing career in the early 1970’s in the United States, toured Europe and settled in Germany in 1975. She moved to Switzerland in 1988 to take up a teaching position at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern and, in the end of 1991, moved to The Netherlands, where she taught at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague for 20 years. She now divides her time between Holland and the United Kingdom. She has made appearances on French, German, Japanese, Polish and Swiss TV and was the featured soloist for radio productions in Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Rachel taught jazz singing, jazz choir and ensemble at the Rheinische Musikhochschule in Cologne, Maastricht Conservatory and the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, as well as stints as guest teacher at the Remscheid Summer Jazz Clinics, Mainz University, Klagenfurt Conservatory, numerous jazz choir clinics, the Tűbingen Jazz Clinics, the Modelversuch at Hamburg Musikhochschule, the Sondrio Jazz Workshops, and at the Orsara Jazz Camp to name a few. In recent years she has been invited as a guest examiner at a number of major music institutions, including conservatories in Antwerp, Luzerne, Bern and Paris. In her career as a singer Rachel has worked, performed and recorded with many well-known jazz musicians: Edgar van Asselt, Chet Baker, Benny Bailey, Clarence Becton, Jerry Bergonzi, Lou Blackburn, Richard Boone, Billy Brooks, Bobby Burgess, Phillipe Catherine, Hal Crook, Stef van Es, Joe Farnsworth, Glenn Ferris, Riccardo del Fra, Sandro Gibellini, Ulli Glassman, Michel Graillier, Charlie Green, Wolfgang Haffner, Joe Haider, Jake Hanna, Philip Harper, Woody Herman, Michel Herr, Greg Hutchinson, Bert Joris, Tilmar Junius, Stephen Kurman, Bart van Lier, Eric van Lier, Dennis Luxion, Rita Marcotulli, Sal Nistico, Tom Nicholas, Peter Nieuwerf, Pietro Odorici, Ruud Ouwerhand, Horace Parlan, Jacques Pelzer, Enrico Pieranunzi, Larry Porter, Ferdinand Povel, Andrea Pozza, Allan Praskin, Ruben Rodgers, Ack van Rooyen, Mario Rusca, Cees Slinger, Juraj Stanik, Marco Tamburini, Luigi Tessarolo, Marcello Tonolo, Pietro Tonolo, James Woode, Jon Webber, Bob Wijnen and many others. She has also worked with arrangers and bandleaders such as Dieter Glawishnig, Peter Herbolzheimer, Woody Herman, Bill Holman, Horst Jankowski, Silvan Koopman, René Laanen, Erwin Lehn, Rob Pronk, Dieter Reith, and with the Metropole Orchestra and the Skymasters Big Band.

Some of the festivals where Rachel has appeared are: The Singen Jazz Festival, the Leverkusen Jazz Festival, the Kempten Jazz Festival, the JIM Festival München (Germany), the Comblain-La-Tour Jazz Festival, the Liège Jazz Festival, the Jazz Rally, Brussels (Belgium), the International Jazz Vocalists Meeting in Zamosc (Poland), the Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy) and Jazz festivals in Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble and Avignon (France).

My Jazz Story

I love jazz for lots of reasons; I love the spontaneous group composing, the subtle and not-so-subtle communication between musicians, sometimes beats and rhythms that drive forward, the broad range of emotions, the storytelling, the focus and concentration, the ‘dancing heart ‘and more. I was first aware with jazz as a “name for a kind of music” in the end of 1974 beginning of 1975 when I discovered a 24 hour radio jazz station. From then until I left for Europe, I listened to nothing else. I was first exposed to jazz subliminally. Where I grew up in the 1960s gentle jazz was common at the dentist’s office, in TV theme songs, and even in the supermarket. Certainly, I absorbed lots of standards without realizing it. I have met and sometimes got to play with so many great musicians, but I thought I would just write down the trumpet players: Chet Baker, Benny Bailey, Randy Brecker, Till Bronner, Conte’ Candole’, Don Cherry, Wild Bill Davidson, Jon Eardly, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Art Farmer, Paolo Fresu, Dusco Gojković, Roy Hardgrove, Tom Harold, Freddie Hubbard, Thad Jones, Chuck Mangione, Wynton Marsalis, Enrico Robbie, Red Rodney, Jim Rotondi ,Woody Shaw, Don Sickler, Luis Salas, Marcus Stockhausen, Clark Terry, and Jack Walrath The best shows that I ever attended were either Janis Joplin, Freddie Hubbard with Leon Thomas, The Kenny Clark / Francie Boland Big Band Alvin Jones, Carmen McRae and Dizzy Gillespie and many more. I've been blown away by lots of wonderful concerts. The first jazz records I bought were with absolutely no advice or mentoring: they were the Best of Billie Holiday; Headhunters by Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones’ Bodyheat : this was a 1975 just before I left for Europe. My advice to new listeners ... Try everything! There are as many kinds of jazz as there are kinds of classical music and try to go to live concerts sometimes; watching it happen is amazing!

My House Concert Story

I love performing house concerts with my favorite musicians, because the audience is usually very jazz educated and responsive to the subtle cues of the band. It is an honor to be asked to play jazz in a house concert.