Dianne Reeves to perform in Ann Arbor
Written by Vicki L. Kroll | | news@toledofreepress.comCall her coy. Dianne Reeves was being delightfully vague.
Is the jazz superstar working on a new disc?
“It’ll be out in the fall of next year,” she said. “I don’t really talk about it; we’re right now in the studio working on it. I’m excited about it. I can say that it’s produced by my very dear friend, Terri Lyne Carrington.”
Is she singing any new tracks on tour?
“I do occasionally to try them out, yes,” she answered. “I just won’t say right now because I don’t know which ones, and I never, ever disclose a set list because I always call it when I’m on stage.”
How about holiday songs at December concerts?
“Oh, definitely. We have lots of good holiday music from the ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ record that I put out,” she said during a phone interview from her Denver home.
Dianne Reeves
The singer received the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings: “In the Moment — Live in Concert” (2001), “The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan” (2002) and “A Little Moonlight” (2004). The hat trick was a Grammy first in any vocal category.
Taking home a Grammy for the 2006 soundtrack “Good Night, and Good Luck” extended the winning streak.
“I’m thankful, but very surprised and grateful,” she said of the awards. “[The soundtrack] was really a fun album to do because it had to be in line with respect to the period that these songs were sung in. So any progressive improvisation that I would do now wouldn’t have fit then, so I kept it like they would have done it in the ’50s.”
Reeves appeared in George Clooney’s Oscar-nominated film that chronicles Edward R. Murrow’s showdown with Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
“His aunt, Rosemary [Clooney], was a fan, and she had always told him about me,” the Detroit native recalled. “He heard my music and when he was doing the film, he thought I would be the right person.
“And it was amazing because they called right away and said, ‘This is what we want you to do,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, OK, that’s cool’; I said, ‘A soundtrack, that’ll be great,’ and I just thought it was going to come up at the end of the credits. And then he sent me a script, and I thought, really? I’m in the movie?
“So I worked with [Clooney]. It was extraordinary because the music is all music that he selected that helps to tell the story; I was kind of like the Greek chorus of the film. It was a brilliant and very intelligent film that he wrote.”
Reeves may or may not sing songs from that soundtrack when she performs with her quartet — pianist Peter Martin, guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Terreon Gully — at 8 p.m. Dec. 8 at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. Tickets range from $10 to $48. Singer-guitarist Raul Midón will open.
“I hope [the audience] feels lifted,” Reeves said. “That’s the biggest thing, that there’s something inside of them that fits in a good way and that the experience that they’ve had with me they know is unique, because every show is different and it’s unique because they’re there.”
Tags: Dianne Reeves, Edward R. Murrow, George Clooney, University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium
