Customer Rating: 
Summary: SmoothJazz.com Review
Comment: Five years is too long a wait for another sparkling set of new material and performances from four-time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves, but, believe me, the pay-off on WHEN YOU KNOW is more than worth it. What a wonderful collection of songs, and what amazing singing from one of my all-time favorite female vocalists. The concept for this project is intriguing, and very much a key element in the uniqueness of the album. Over the past year Dianne's been performing with just two guitarists (Romero Lubambo and Russell Malone), a setting conceived by her manager for Europe's Jazz Baltica Festival, which led to a 25-date European "Strings Attached" tour. The alchemy of musical textures created from Romero's acoustic and Russell's electric guitars, combined with Dianne's stunning voice, was magic, and now we get to hear just how magical that sound is, as this new disc adds the brilliant musicianship of producer/pianist George Duke, pianist Billy Childs, sax man Steve Wilson and others to the mix. The song selections from Ms. Reeves are stunning, the commonality among them being the different waypoints of love. Her interpretations are impeccable, from a dreamy, slightly Latin take on the Temps iconic "Just My Imagination" to an incredibly passionate read on "The Windmills of Your Mind." Dianne Reeves' WHEN YOU KNOW is, hands-down, an absolute must-have for anyone's music collection! ~SCOTT O'BRIEN
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Dianne Reeves returns with a mixed bag.
Comment: In total contrast with Dianne's last release, the all-jazz soundtrack for the 1950s-set film "Good Night And Good Luck", this album is a rather strange mix of pop, soul, funk, R'n'B and jazz - with the American singer's creamy and elegant vocals the only common thread.
She is such a monumental performer that her powers sometimes overwhelm her material - as if only the most ecstatic, tragic or visionary lyrics can withstand a broadside of this multi Grammy-winner's technique.
"When You Know" reveals a mature, restrained, subtle and dazzlingly musical Reeves, with players and arrangements so good that even the overworn "The Windmills of Your Mind" sounds transformed.
This is an album of love songs, which might not appeal to those for whom lines like "loving you ... is more than just a dream come true" occasion a touch of queasiness. But if anything can win smooth jazz a reprieve, it's this - though it's too full of surprises to warrant the "smooth" label.
There's probably something in here for everyone, but it may struggle to sustain jazz fans' interest, and the rather disconcerting effect is of listening to a radio whose channels are being changed every few minutes.
Album's highlights: "Lovin' You", "Social Call" and 'Midnight Sun".
Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)
Good Night, And Good Luck
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of her best
Comment: It's been a while since I've gotten this excited about one of Dianne Reeves's studio recordings. I've attended her concerts at least once a year and, as so many others have commented, found the experience of hearing her live overshadows her studio sessions completely. Nothing since the album Bridges (1999) has come close to the kind of emotional and musical epiphany of experiencing her live. . . Until now.
There are quite a few live Dianne Reeves recordings available (including Live in Montreal and In the Moment: Live in Concert) which, along with seeing her live, have kept me hooked over the years. But her studio work since Bridges has been, I feel, more mainstream and less personal. "When You Know" harks back to the kind of album Bridges was: an eclectic selection of songs from many genres, with one original song ("Today Will Be a Good Day", inspired by her mother), some soaring straight ahead jazz scat singing, and an emotional flow from the first track to the last that creates the feeling of a story being told.
In fact, if you listen very closely, you'll hear some very sly lyrical references slipped into to certain tracks that link them more closely to each other. This is sort of in the vein of the Frank Sinatra "themed" albums, but much more personal and idiosyncratic.
Her voice continues to get better and better with each passing year, as did one her musical role models, Sarah Vaughan, and the musicians backing her up are all top drawer. They've been playing together long enough to reach the point where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. And while the other musicians have been given less solo space than usual in her studio albums-- and much less space than in her concerts, where she is very generous in allowing her fellow musicians some time in the spotlight-- as wonderful as her musicians are, I think the album flows more evenly with the focus squarely upon her.
During the track "Social Call", Dianne makes reference in her improvised lyrics to not yet having found that one special love, while celebrating all that singing has brought to her life and the widespread success that she has worked so hard for year after year. It's a subtle acknowledgment of the parts of her life that she must have had to sacrifice in order to succeed as a jazz singer.
Ella and Sarah were certainly never able to get their romantic life in order (Ella was only married once, and very briefly, to Ray Brown, and Sarah was married and divorced four times). It's hard to establish a stable romantic relationship when you're spending at least half the year touring the globe. If Dianne Reeves has, as I suspect, chosen to make the same sacrifice-- to devote herself to singing about love to the millions, while not having the time or space to find it herself-- then we are all the lucky beneficiaries.
In a culture where jazz is practically dead from a commercial standpoint, she has triumphed and gained widespread acclaim, despite the complaints of jazz purists who have routinely condemned her attempts to incorporate new sounds and new sources of material. They would prefer that she stick to dredging up the same jazz standards that have been done to death for 50 or 60 years now. They forget how much of Ella's and Sarah's recording material was also completely outside the realm of mainstream jazz, and yet still, like Dianne's, usually approached with a jazz sensibility.
Now, after 8 years of albums that, to my taste, were either too-straight-ahead jazz (A Little Moonlight), too tame (Good Night, and Good Luck.), too overproduced (the overbearing ochestrations in The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan), or too commercially oriented (Christmas Time Is Here), we finally have another masterpiece.
As she sings on this album, "you'll know when you know". When I heard her live for the first time at the Blue Note in NYC 1999, I knew that I knew. . . Dianne Reeves was the real thing, the true successor to the towering giants of jazz singing, Ella, Sarah, Billie and Carmen.
But I've been waiting for years to hear a studio album as inspiring, as uplifting, as musically deep as hearing her live. After listening to "When you Know", I know that I know. . . this album is the one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Now We Know!
Comment: Good, raw, vocal talent. That's a rarity these days. "Just my Imagination" and "When you Know" are my favorites. Good project!
Customer Rating:
Summary: WHEN YOU KNOW, what I know
Comment: (and what George Clooney knows - she's his favorite singer) you'll sing Ms Reeves' praises, too. In this day and age of false musical prophets, Dianne is the REAL THING. Just when I thought she couldn't top 'Good Night and Good Luck', here she comes again, sounding better than a person has a right to. Just listen to her song selections. These youngsters could only hope to attain such perfection. Such music to your ears. Out in front of all her peers.
One good turn deserves another. My brother, (K, thank you) introduced me to Ms Reeves and I turned him onto this treasure. Forget trying to pick the next six numbers in the lottery; pick this winner up. Talk about a sure thing. If she doesn't win in every category she's nominated for next year, then what I fear has become true. America's taste is truly all in its mouth.
Here's to Ms Reeves for confirming my faith in the intelligent, discerning, mature, recording industry. If you sing it, we will buy and if you perform it, we will arrive. Girl, you could sing the Yellow Pages and I'd buy it. Thank you. Stay blessed and true to your talent. Good Night, sister girl, 'cause you sure don't need good luck!
|
