Wouter Hamel
18 videos • 1,763 views • by Dox Amsterdam Wouter Hamel flirts with jazz and pop without being bogged down by one particular style. At times he croons like Mel Tormé or Frank Sinatra. Hamel and Benny (Benny Sings) - who produced the album - have managed to seamlessly fuse the complete history of pop music into twelve catchy songs. "As a teenager I listened to P.J. Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins and was a huge fan of Jeff Buckley. I played my guitar to their albums and wrote songs trying to copy their styles. When I started studying music everything changed." Hamel fell for the legacy of vocalists such as Mel Tormé, Mark Murphy and Anita O'Day. Their mastery became his standard. Hamel participated in the Dutch Jazz Vocalist Competition in 2005. He was the first male singer to win this prize. Just months after winning the award, Hamel and band played at the internationally renowned North Sea Jazz Festival. He was the only vocalist to be nominated for the Deloitte Jazz Award in 2006. Subsequently, he was featured in several prime time TV shows such as Good Morning Holland, Barend en van Dorp,TV3 and PaPaul. The obvious Great American Songbook material is not to be found on Hamel's album. "I adore standards but wanted to seize the opportunity to debut with my own compositions." Bart Suèr from Dox Records introduced Hamel to singer, songwriter, producer and musician Benny Sings, who has released three albums on Dox Records / Sonar Kollektiv so far.