Concert Review: Dianne Reeves

by Mark-Brian Sonna of of MBS Productions

Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughn, and now Dianne Reeves, every generation has their great living female Jazz artist. Dianne Reeves entered the music scene in the early 80’s with a 5 octave voice and intensity in performance that wowed audiences and thoroughly confused critics. She always stated that she saw herself as a jazz singer, yet the music she was producing frequently had soul, gospel, Caribbean, and other eclectic world beats that fell out of the range of what was considered Jazz. It’s a testament to her talent that she kept to her guns and the American Jazz world came to her instead of her adapting to it. Now we accept Jazz as being a fusion of other world beats. This said, she is still able to push the boundaries in fusing discordant time changes – one musician is playing in one time signature while another is playing in a different one- and yet keep it all palatable. This new rhythm convention peppers her newest music yet it surprisingly remains accessible.

Dressed in a simple white pant suit, she delivered her vocal riffs and prolonged holds with a greatest of intensity and at the same time ease. Besides the amazing vocal range, she is pitch perfect and is able to slide up and down the scales then do long sustains, throw in a vibrato, then create a sound as smooth as glass, with great fluidity. This said, there is an emotional connection so raw to every note that she transports the audience. In one song she can have the audience ready to jump up for joy (some did) and moments later break down and cry. Though she only sang a handful of songs, her concert lasted nearly two and half hours. She explores every nuance, feeling, thought making each tune feel as complete as a small symphonic piece. She is also able to pepper in moments of commentary as she did in “It Was Just My Imagination.” The song no longer was a tune about a crush, but an entire reveal of her brief relationship with a 15 year old boy back in high school, her running into him as a 40 year old man, and how we cling to the illusions of our past and of what we want from people, and what that says about us. Serious? Yes, but also highly comical.

Another thing that sets Ms. Reeves apart from most of her contemporaries is her ability to improvise. She is also partnered with a quartet of some of the most talented Jazz artists alive today: Peter Martin at the piano, Romero Lubambo on the guitar, Reginald Veal at the bass and drummer Kendrick Scott. Each one of these artists has had their own successful solo careers. Together the 5 of them are able to take the level of Jazz improvisation to the highest level. At one point Ms. Reeves commented that for the audience we “came to see a concert, for us this is like playing in a sandbox.” Their playfulness creates moments of sublime beauty as they pass the musical torch back and forth, expounding on a sound one of them created, a rhythm, or a melody line. With a quick head nod, hand gesture, or a glance they could be seen saying “tag” you’re it for this next portion. What makes this group of 5 so extraordinary is that not once was there a flat note, an odd sound, or an incomplete phrase. The performance could have been recorded and no editing would have been required. At one point an audience member got so carried away she squawked a sound out of sheer excitement. A minute later Ms. Reeves incorporated that sound into the scat, and it sounded perfect!

She encored with her famous song “Better Days” which she wrote in honor of her Grandmother. What made this version the most unique ever is that near the end she proceeded to pull her microphone away. She set the microphone down and walked out towards the audience still singing. Her un-amplified voice is just as miraculous as that which we had heard from the speaker, if not more so. It is easy to see why she has become a legend in her lifetime, and everyone felt lucky to be present in the face of such great artistry.