IMN : Updates for Dianne Reeves

Jazz Fest Minutes: A Conversation With Dianne Reeves

IMN

April 8th, 2013

From 88.9 WWNO

Jazz Fest Minutes: A Conversation With Dianne Reeves
By: Fred Kasten

Dianne Reeves is one of the finest jazz singers on the planet. Born in Detroit, she grew up in Denver in a family full of musicians.

“There’s a lot of musicians in my family,” Reeves said. “My uncle is a bassist and he was with the symphony for many years, as well as a jazz bassist. A couple of great aunts were performers, and then I have another cousin who actually produced a lot of my records, George Duke. So music was very much part of the family.”

Reeves started singing seriously in junior high, taking vocal lessons and joining the school choir.

“I remember walking down the hall in passing period in school and thinking I’ve always heard ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,’ but I am. Because I loved it. I loved how singing made me feel and I loved how I could communicate with people on this other level that I couldn’t define.”

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Singing Her Heart Out: Vocalist Dianne Reeves on Crossover

IMN

April 3rd, 2013

From WRTI

Singing Her Heart Out: Vocalist Dianne Reeves on Crossover
By: Joe Patti and Jill Pasternak

There are a ton of great jazz vocalists in the world, but there’s only one Dianne Reeves. Since age 11, she’s been singing her heart out, garnering three Grammy awards for three consecutive CDs – the only vocal recording artist in any category to do that. And to top that off, she won yet another Grammy for her work on the soundtrack for George Clooney’s 2005 film, Good Night and Good Luck.

Ms. Reeves was the first vocalist signed to the revived Blue Note Records in 1987. She was also the first Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the first singer to appear at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

On Friday, April 5th at 7:30 pm, Ms. Reeves appears with the Reading Symphony Orchestra, at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center, as part of their 100th anniversary celebration. Ticket information here. The concert also marks the start of this year’s Berks Jazz Fest.

To read more and hear the interview click here

REVIEW: Dianne Reeves at Ronnie Scott's, London

IMN

November 12th, 2012

from The Guardian

Dianne Reeves at Ronnie Scott’s
By John Fordham

Dianne Reeves is often considered the torch-bearer of the great Sarah Vaughan’s operatic-jazz legacy. But if the names of Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald are often invoked as proof of her class, Reeves has been open to a wider world than jazz. Since her early years (aided by her 1980s mentor, Harry Belafonte), she has been influenced by sounds from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. She has enjoyed big-star treatment in recent years, but these intimate performances at Ronnie Scott’s revealed new depths to this passionate, fearless and technically astonishing artist.

A compatible quartet comprising Romero Lubambo (guitar), the elegantly economical Peter Martin (piano), Reginald Veal (bass) and Terreon Gully (drums) opened Monday’s show on their own. They seamlessly accelerated from soft, acoustic-guitar musings, though a Latin-jazz pulse that built to a dancefloor groove. Reeves arrived with unstarry casualness to Gully’s quiet rimshot tick. She floated a pure, high sound, curled it downward and slowly revealed the song to be The Twelfth of Never. Within moments, her clarity of phrasing and vocal agility were drawing startled reactions from the audience.

A flawlessly articulated and unaccompanied African chant turned into a stately Cuban swinger, before Reeves conjured an astonishing interpretation of Stormy Weather, with eerie falsetto pleas. Bob Marley’s Waiting in Vain rolled out over a languid shuffle, and I’m in Love Again benefited from a perfect arrangement. Fitzgerald-like fast scat opened the second half, before Reeves ripped into a gospelly, sexually charged and increasingly freewheeling love song that felt like eavesdropping on private ecstasy and turmoil. It was a show for the 2012 fave‑raves list.

Read the full article here

REVIEW: Dianne Reeves Dazzles at Ronnie’s

IMN

November 12th, 2012

from JazzWise Magazine

Dianne Reeves Dazzles at Ronnie’s
By Jack Massarik

To observe the wonderful Dianne Reeves going about her business at Ronnie Scott’s recently was a powerful reminder that real jazz singers don’t repeat themselves and create their best work in the moment. Blessed with a rich contralto of Sarah Vaughan-like proportions, Dianne is all music. She doesn’t speak to audiences, she sings to them – just as the great Ray Charles used to do, swinging all the while. “How y’all doing tonight? I’m fine too, and so glad to be with you,” was her opening message as a top-class quartet – Dianne never works with average players – eased into a supple groove beneath her.

Ten minutes previously they had opened her set with a bossa-nova instrumental featuring jaw-dropping solos from pianist Peter Martin, bassist Reginald Veal, drummer Terreon Gully and Brazilian ace Romero Lubambo, a master of dazzling finger-style jazz on the nylon-string guitar. Highlights of the set were ‘Solitude’, a bossa classic whose changes inspired several rich choruses of impassioned vocal improvisation from Dianne, and ‘In Your Eyes’, a George Benson hit subtly reharmonised for her by pianist Billy Childs.

All good stuff, as you would expect from an artist always more satisfying live than on record. Dianne has had the jazz diva field more or less to herself for some while now, but her standards remain formidably high.

Read the full article here-

Dianne Reeves Wields Storytelling Power at Howard Theatre

IMN

June 6th, 2012

from downbeat.com

Dianne Reeves Wields Storytelling Power at Howard Theatre
By: John Murph

“Tell your stories.” That’s how Dianne Reeves signs off her shows lately. At the Howard Theatre, as part of the grand kickoff of the 2012 D.C. Jazz Festival (June 1–10), she illustrated the magnetic power of storytelling. Reeves linked a varied program of jazz standards, pop tunes and originals with touching anecdotes, mostly concerning family. It’s a strong characteristic to her artistry that comes as no surprise given that her 1987 breakthrough composition, “Better Days,” was a heartfelt tribute to her late grandmother. Twenty-five years later, the song continues to have a strong hold on listeners. When Reeves concluded her hour-and-a-half show with “Better Days,” she inspired many in the audience to shimmy and sing along.

Earlier in the set, she mentioned the recent passing of her mother and how she imparted tremendous motherly wit. She said that her mother didn’t entertain foolishness, sadness or depression. “She might have received them, but she didn’t entertain them,” Reeves noted. Then, as if she were taking cues from her mother, Reeves launched into the ebullient “Today Will Be A Good Day.” Powered by Chris Thomas’ fatback bass line and Terreon Gully’s good-foot drums, Reeves superbly channeled her gospel roots, imbuing the lyrics with defiant optimism and glorious musicianship.

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LIVE REVIEW: A Jazz Singer Demonstrates the Fine Art of Holding Back

IMN

February 27th, 2012

from nytimes.com

A Jazz Singer Demonstrates the Fine Art of Holding Back
By: Stephen Holden

Grandeur with refinement: that describes the aura of Dianne Reeves, whose concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall on Friday evening revealed her more than ever to be the vocal heir of Sarah Vaughan, whose voice could also travel anywhere. To call Ms. Reeves a warbler or a songbird isn’t just to trot out shopworn terms for a female jazz singer, but to point out how many of her introductions to songs are wordless, improvised exercises in tonal coloration.

These preludes have the feel of preparatory meditations before Ms. Reeves plunges into fresh musical territory. Within the semi-orchestral settings of her band — Peter Martin on piano, Romero Lubambo and Peter Sprague on guitars, Reginald Veal on bass and Terreon Gully on drums — the drums kept a lower-than-average profile. Rather than punching out hard rhythm, they supplied complex textural seasoning. Instrumental solos were tasty but never ostentatious.

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INTERVIEW: Dianne Reeves: The Storyteller

IMN

October 22nd, 2011

from Jazztimes.com

Dianne Reeves: The Storyteller
Interview with the noted singer at the 2011 Clearwater Jazz Holiday

By:Gigi Brooks

The 2011 Clearwater Jazz Holiday located in Clearwater, Florida was four days of sheer musical talent. Its headliners, Christian McBride & Inside Straight along with Dianne Reeves, brought people from all over the country to watch in awe these great performances.

As usual Christian McBride held listeners captive while he tore into his bass with an approach and a fingering precision that makes him the world renowned innovative, Grammy Award-winning bassist that he is. There is no bassist quite like Christian Mc Bride in jazz today. His straight ahead quintet, Inside Straight, featuring alto/soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist, Warren Wolf, jazz pianist, Peter Martin and drummer, Carl Allen performed tunes from their latest release The Good Feeling and tunes from the previous CD Kind of Brown, which takes one down the road of pure yet good ole’ down-home jazz.

One thing I know for sure is that the performance of a true legendary Jazz Diva, (I mean Diva in the sense of presence, style and elegance) cannot be put into words when you are sitting smack center in front of the stage listening to indescribable vocal talent that saturates your soul with pure joy.

I sat with my mouth wide open the entire time during the performance of Dianne Reeves. As a jazz radio personality and a lifetime collector of jazz music; I can say that I am the proud owner of all of Ms. Reeve’s recordings. However, nothing prepared me for what I heard live and in the flesh on that balmy Sunday evening as I watched her perform for the very first time.

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Jazz Classics, Still of the Moment

IMN

September 26th, 2011

from nytimes.com

Excerpt from: Jazz Classics, Still of the Moment
By:Stephen Holden

Ms. Reeves applied her stamp to “Social Call,” the Betty Carter signature song, with lyrics by Mr. Hendricks. If Carter’s self-contained angular style and Ms. Reeves’s lush wide-open singing couldn’t be more dissimilar, the song welcomes both approaches. That one-man acoustic-music machine Bobby McFerrin joined Mr. Hendricks for an extended improvisation, “Scatting on the Corner,” in which they took turns singing the bass. The set closed as Mr. Hendricks and his guests gathered to turn “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” into excitable group chatter.

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Dianne Reeves Shines at Playboy Jazz Festival

IMN

June 14th, 2011

From the LA Times

Jazz review: Day 1 of the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl
By Chris Barton

Because as a jazz festival Playboy has long been less of a top-to-bottom survey of where the music is and where it’s headed than it is a massive annual party thrown in its honor, and Playboy’s musical approach remains as gleefully diverse as its crowd.

In her eighth festival appearance Saturday, singer Dianne Reeves was a breezily elegant representative from the jazz vocal tradition in a set highlighted by a richly contemplative take on the late Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw It Away” as the sun fell behind the trees. Reeves also flexed an ability to cast a wide net into new territory with a crackling cover of Ani DiFranco’s sassy “32 Flavors” and a set-closing romp through Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”

Read the entire review here

Dianne Reeves was simply terrific

IMN

June 6th, 2011

From The Charleston City Paper
Less Is More
By: Joy Vandervort-Cobb

I told you, Charleston. The place to be last night was the Gaillard Auditorium where Dianne Reeves and her boys, guitarists Romero Lubambo and Russell Malone, made it hotter inside than out. I strolled around the lobby, eavesdropping on conversations as I took in the large, mixed crowd. There were young and old, black and white, artists and musicians and vocalists and those of us who just dig vocal jazz. And bless us she did, even invoking a moment before her final bow to wish us all “peace and light” as she left the stage, guitarists in tow.

A very simple set met the sell-out audience at the Gaillard. There were three stools, two amps, two guitars on stands, and a small table center stage covered in black cloth, holding two water glasses and a vase of flowers in a small pool of light. The backdrop was a curtain that played light very well, shimmering upstage of the action with a break-up pattern (a gobo, for those of you in the know) to give some added visual interest in case the music wasn’t enough. It was. It was more than enough.

Ms. Reeves was in good voice, running up and down the scale from the attic to the basement from the center stool, a place she called “a sweet seat.” She was talking about sitting between her two extraordinary musicians. “The first time I played with these two five years ago,” she said between songs, “I thought to myself, ‘Oh, no. What is this gonna be? I was so used to singing with my band or having an orchestra — something more.’ Well,” she said grinning, “less is really more.” And for two solid hours, Reeves proved that adage true.

If you haven’t heard her 2008 album, When You Know, and you missed this opportunity to hear her with Malone and Lubambo as they made two guitars sound like a whole lot more, take a listen. When You Know’s “Social Call was the third song of the evening and it was simply outstanding. Reeves’ voice peaked and plummeted, rolling soprano to alto with ease.

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Dianne Reeves brings her outsize talent back to Spoleto Viva la Voice

IMN

May 25th, 2011

From Charleston City Paper

*Dianne Reeves brings her outsize talent back to Spoleto
Viva la Voice*
By Joy Vandervort-Cobb

I’ve heard somewhere that jazz is dying. If it is, nobody told the Holy City and certainly no one has shared it with the inimitable vocal powerhouse Dianne Reeves.

“I don’t think jazz is dying,” she says, when confronted with the notion. “I think what we’ll find when we look back at this time period, in retrospect, what we’ll see is that jazz was reconstituting. Dying? I don’t think so. There are all these programs of study dedicated to jazz music, students of jazz. Dying … No.”

Reeves will be returning to perform in Charleston for the Spoleto Festival as part of the Wells Fargo Jazz Series on May 30 at the Gaillard Auditorium. And quite frankly, if you love music, if you love jazz, then there is no other place you’ll want to be that evening.

“I love Charleston, and I love this festival,” she says. “It supports the idea of music without boundaries. I’m coming with a scaled-down version of my band. No orchestra this time. It’s fun to sing this way.”

Recently Reeves has been traveling about with her small combo, which includes Romero Lubambo and Russell Malone, two guitarists she credits with helping her find a new place in her voice, a place she describes as “very light and sweet and peaceful.”

To read more click here

Dianne Reeves On Piano Jazz

IMN

May 16th, 2011

From NPR Music

Dianne Reeves On Piano Jazz
By Grant Jackson

This Piano Jazz episode from 1999 features one of today’s preeminent jazz singers. Dianne Reeves brings her rhythmic virtuosity to a sparkling set of standards, including duets with host Marian McPartland on “Close Enough for Love” and “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise.”

Reeves was born in Detroit to a family full of musicians — her father was a singer, her mother played trumpet, an uncle played bass for the Colorado Symphony and her cousin is pianist, composer and arranger George Duke. She began studying piano at an early age and recalls singing ever since she can remember. Jazz music, particularly the work of Sarah Vaughan, resonates in Reeves’ childhood musical memories.

At 16, Reeves began singing with her local high-school jazz band. The group won a competition that eventually led to a feature performance at the National Association of Jazz Educators. It was there that trumpeter Clark Terry first noticed Reeves’ abilities and took her under his wing, encouraging her to pursue a career as a singer. She was invited on several occasions to sit in with Terry’s All-Star group, which gave her the opportunity to sing with jazz legends such as Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Rowles and Louis Bellson.

Listen to the program here

JAZZ SPRING 2011 Dianne Reeves: ‘Strings Attached’

IMN

May 5th, 2011

http://www.funzine.hu/event-jazz-spring-2011-dianne-reeves/

JAZZ SPRING 2011 Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves is one of the greatest living jazz singers of our time. Her musical career stretches back to her teenage years at the beginning of the 1970s, when the legendary trumpeter Clark Terry became her mentor. Her first album, Welcome to My Love, was released in 1977, and has since been followed by numerous live and studio recordings. The American music community has recognized Reeves for her work so far by awarding her four Grammy Awards in the “Best Jazz Vocal” category. An intensively creative artist, Reeves gave a highly successful concert to promote her new album at the Főnix Hall in Debrecen in the spring of 2010. Just one year later she returns with a clutch of new musical ideas, which she presents on this occasion in the Palace of Arts for the opening concert of the 2011 Jazz Spring. The special thing about this concert, dubbed Strings Attached, is that the singer’s voice will be backed by two guitars, played by two musicians at the forefront of the jazz guitar.

To read the full article click here

Dianne Reeves STRINGS ATTACHED to perform in Cyprus

IMN

April 29th, 2011

www.mumsincyprus.com

Dianne Reeves is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world today. As a result of her virtuosity, improvisational prowess and unique jazz and R&B stylings, Reeves received the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings—a Grammy first in any vocal category.

Reeves appeared in George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the Academy Award nominated film that chronicles Edward R. Murrow’s confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy. The soundtrack recording of “Good Night, and Good Luck” provided Reeves her fourth Best Jazz Vocal Grammy in 2006.

To read full article click HERE

Jazz Great Dianne Reeves Works Vocal Miracles at Wisconsin Union Theater

IMN

April 7th, 2011

From the Daily Page

Jazz great Dianne Reeves works vocal miracles at Wisconsin Union Theater
By Dean Robbins

Was I lying when I called Dianne Reeves one of the greatest jazz singers ever in my preview article for her Isthmus Jazz Series concert? I don’t think anyone in Friday’s ecstatic audience at Wisconsin Union Theater would have indicted me. With her uncannily flexible voice, Reeves turned every song into a tour de force. Heck, she could even turn individual words into a tour de force, breaking them into scales, hopping crazy intervals, and never landing on the note you expected her to land on. Reeves matched her idol, Sarah Vaughan, in virtuosity, and that’s saying a lot.

But thankfully, virtuosity wasn’t the point. Expressiveness was, with Reeves’ technical skill serving as the means to an end. With help from an extraordinarily sympathetic quartet — pianist Peter Martin, bassist Reginald Veal, guitarist Romero Lubambo and drummer Terreon Gully — she rendered subtle moods on original songs and standards like “Stormy Weather.” With her beaming smile and occasional dance moves, Reeves gave the impression of enjoying herself greatly. “This isn’t a stage,” she said, sashaying in a white silk dress. “It’s really a playground.”

Read the entire review here

Confirmed Tourdates As Of

IMN

May 24th, 2013: SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA USA [Dianne Reeves]
May 25th, 2013: SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA USA [Dianne Reeves]
May 26th, 2013: SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA USA [Dianne Reeves]
May 31st, 2013: Arena at the Oasis Hotel Cancun, MEXICO [Dianne Reeves]
June 26th, 2013: Harstad Kulturhus Harstad, NORWAY [Dianne Reeves]
July 4th, 2013: National Concert Hall Dublin, Ireland
July 5th, 2013: Chateau de Beaupre Saint Cannat, France
July 6th, 2013: Kongsberg Cinema, Kongsberg Jazz Festival Kongsberg, USA [Dianne Reeves]
October 24th, 2013: Centro Cultural De Belem Lisbon, Portugal [Diann Reeves]
October 25th, 2013: Teatre Auditori Sant Cugat, Barcelona Jazz Festiva Barcelona, Spain [Diann Reeves]
October 26th, 2013: La Halle au Grains, Festival Rio Loco Toulouse, France [Dianne Reeves]
November 19th, 2013: Maison de la Culture d'Amiens Amiens, France [Dianne Reeves]