DIANNE REEVES QUINTET

Programme

Beautiful Life

About this event

Dianne Reeves’ powerful, expressive voice has made her into the best female jazz singer active today. Heard live, the effect is that of a force of nature. On her first appearance at the Jazz Festival L'Estartit, she will demonstrate her talent at fusing elements of rhythm and blues, pop and Latin music – the content of her latest CD, Beautiful Life, in which she sings versions of tunes by Bob Marley, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, Ani Di Franco and others. This disc won Reeves her fifth Grammy Award.

Biography

DIANNE REEVES, singer

Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan and is one of the greatest female jazz singers active today. She was discovered when still a schoolgirl by the trumpeter Clark Terry, and began her career in Los Angeles in 1976. In California, she moved into studio recording, and has made discs with Lenny White, Stanley Turrentine, Alphonso Johnson and The Latin Ensemble.

Between 1978 and 1980, she met Billy Childs and their artistic relationship lasted ten years. She joined the group Night Flight on the American “beach circuit" and soon became known throughout Southern California.

In 1986, Reeves settled in New York, where she worked for three years with Phil Moore and Harry Belafonte, recording For Every Heart in 1985. Back in California in 1986, she formed a trio with Billy Childs and signed a contract with the label Blue Note, leading to her 1987 disc, Dianne Reeves, which includes an arrangement of Duke Ellington’s tune, Better Days, which became a great hit. Subsequent recordings are Never too far (1989), I Remember (1990), Art and Survival (1993) and Quiet After the Storm (1994).

The Grand Encounter (1996) was another great hit, with the participation of great names in jazz such as Joe Williams, Clark Terry, Harry Sweets Edison, James Moody, Phil Woods, Toots Thielemans and Kenny Barron. In the Moment (2001) brought Reeves her first Grammy Award, and three more were to come with The Calling (2002), A Little Moonlight (2003) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). Her fifth Grammy Award was for Beautiful life (2014), her latest disc.

Reeves has recorded with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and also with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. She has performed as a soloist with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. From 2002 to 2006 she was artistic director in charge of jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.