Jazzing Up Christmas

"I love Christmas. I love being with my family during the holiday season, and yet I'm all too often performing out of town during that time of year. This year, I decided I wanted to be in others' hearts and homes, and at the same time, stay at home," said gifted jazz singer Dianne Reeves about her new holiday album "Christmas Time is Here."

The new work features 11 classics like "Little Drummer Boy," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "Let it Snow," some of which she will perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall this weekend in a special Christmas recital.

Reeves was born in Detroit in 1965, and later relocated to Denver with her family at a very young age. Her father died of cancer when she was 2. She grew up in a home filled with music and several relatives took on careers as players. Her uncle, Charles Burrell, played the bass professionally with the Colorado Symphony and her cousin George Duke, a talented keyboardist, composer and arranger, would play a role later in her life as a producer of some of her studio work.

"I used to hear music in the house and it was so much a part of our lives," remembered Reeves. "It was just as much a part of our home as having dinner together. My parents weren't musicians, but they played music, loved really great music and were very supportive of artists."

Reeves, who is a classically trained singer, studied piano as a child. In high school, she traveled to Chicago at the age of 16 with her big band to perform at a conference hosted by the Association of Jazz Educators. It was at this concert where jazz trumpeter Clark Terry discovered her. Terry became the first in a series of legendary artists to mentor Reeves.

Reeves attended the University of Colorado and performed with Terry during the course of her academic career. In 1976, she moved to Los Angeles to try her luck at singing straight-ahead traditional jazz. Unfortunately, the genre during this period was at an all-time commercial low, and this became a crossroads in Reeves' career when she took her talent and applied it to other musical directions. She joined the Latin fusion group Caldera and forged a lasting friendship with keyboardist Eduardo del Barrio, an artist who later became the co-writer on some her most significant compositions. Reeves also linked up with the experimental jazz group Night Flight, founded by pianist Billy Childs.

"There are so many things going on in Los Angeles as far as the jazz scene is concerned these days," said Reeves. "But one thing that is for certain is that there is a very die-hard and hard-core jazz audience that loves the music. While there are not as many clubs as there have been in the past, the ones that do exist people do patronize and appreciate. Along with that, jazz is being presented at UCLA, Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl which means jazz programming has become very broad so it's nice that it's growing."

In 1987, Reeves became the first vocalist to sign to the then-revitalized Blue Note Records label, and later that year released her self-titled debut.

Since then, she has returned to Denver where she still resides.

In 1999, Reeves joined the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra directed by one of the most recognized musicians and bandleaders today, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Reeves was a guest and collaborated for several Duke Ellington projects, celebrating 100 years of the composer and pianist's impact on the jazz community. Earlier this year, Marsalis released his own debut album on Blue Note, "The Magic Hour," after ending a longtime recording relationship with Columbia. On the work, Reeves gave an invigorating vocal performance on Marsalis' original piece, "Feeling of Jazz."

"I've known Wynton for some time and have a good relationship with musicians from LCJO. Some of those musicians were a part of his project," recalled Reeves. "The atmosphere was just straight-out comfort. We all know each other and we are all coming together for the very thing we are passionate about. We all absolutely love music and know we are just going to share it. It's wonderful because everyone knows that everybody's stuff is together, so you just go in there and have an exceptional time."

Beginning in 2000, Reeves received Grammys in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Performance for each of her last three albums prior to her latest record - "In the Moment: Live in Concert," 2001's "The Calling" and "A Little Moonlight" in 2003. Reeves is the only recording artist in any singing category to attain such an achievement.
The first of the three is a live album she recorded after many fans, who have been delighted and touched by her stage presence and musical cunning, requested that she release one.

"I've always felt that the listener is extremely important and I sing songs that are very much a part of what I want to express or project," said Reeves. "I've always tried to make it accessible to the listener. What happens between myself and my band, which is very much steeped in the jazz tradition, is magic, but the real magic happens when the audience is part of it, too."

The second album celebrated the career of singer Sarah Vaughn, which comprised a group of classic standards recorded with a full orchestra and arranged by Childs. She also appeared in the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City and three days later won her second Grammy. In March of that same year, she accepted a rotating position of creative chair with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.

Over the years, Reeves has sung with both small groups like her trio pianist Peter Martin, bassist Rueben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson and big groups, including the Montreal Symphony, Lyon Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony and Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

"We've been together three years," explained Reeves on playing with her trio. "I change bands from time to time and I really love this one. They are all exceptional musicians and they all have their tools in order. It's to the point now that when they play, it's all inspired because all of the tools are there. What I cherish is that they love working with me, I love working with them and we've become an extension of one another's sound. We feel so relaxed with each other, and trust and respect each other so much, that it allows the music to really evolve on stage, and to become something different every night for people. I really enjoy that aspect of working with this band."

She still serves as the association's chair that was created in 2002 with Reeves the first to serve in the role. As the chair, Reeves oversees the scheduling of jazz programs for the association at both the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

"It's been really wonderful and gratifying because it's been an opportunity for me to kind of create a perfect world for a lot of different people," Reeves explained. "The Bowl really allows for a showcase of a broad range of jazz - from Latin, African-influenced musicians who are jazz musicians to a more contemporary style as well as the traditional medium. In the Walt Disney Concert Hall, it's a little more traditional because it's a more intimate setting. The music that we bring in there is predominately acoustic music and it's also an opportunity to blur the lines between the different areas that are represented within the L.A. Philharmonic, meaning classical, world music and jazz. So we have an opportunity to bring in very special kinds of jazz programming that might incorporate the orchestra or some world music artists along with jazz artists."

2002 also brought a December recording session of a personal collection of songs with her trio for "A Little Moonlight," and the awarding of the Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

This year, Reeves released her first Christmas album with Blue Note just in time for the holidays.

"I had the opportunity last year at Disney Hall to perform in a Christmas program," said Reeves on what prompted the recording of her new album. "I had so much fun. I thought. 'Wow, I want to do a Christmas record.' So I did.

"None of the songs were technically challenging in terms of singing but maybe in terms of arranging them. I would say 'A Child is Born' was the most challenging because we changed keys and we wanted it to sound like it was in one place but it actually wasn't. Emotionally speaking, for me I feel that they all resonate such a wonderful spirit of kindness, goodness, fellowship and being a part of something that is greater than you, but that takes you to make it happen. I think that's what happens at Christmas time. Beyond all the gifts that are given, I think the spirit is energizing that part of human beings which is our best part."