By Danny R. Johnson
LOS ANGELES – Nina Simone, the late great human rights activist, humanitarian, music producer, and singer whose distinctively emotional style blended elements of jazz, funk, soul, gospel, blues, European art song and other World Music influences, was most often characterized as a jazz singer who usually performed with a rhythm section and always accompanied herself on piano, was almost impossible to classify. “If I had to be called something,” she wrote in 1991 in her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, “it should have been a folk singer because there was more folk and blues than jazz in my playing.”
Indeed like her great musical influencer, Nina Simone, who could not be classified into a one singing style, four-time GRAMMY® winner and Concord Records artist Dianne Reeves once again bewilders music critics and boldly declares in her first album in over five years, the February 11, 2014 release of Beautiful Life, Reeves’ unique mixture of jazz, gospel-funk, World Music, soul and jazz essentially never went out of fashion.
Beautiful Life is one of Reeves’ BEST albums, which was masterfully produced by two-time GRAMMY® winner Terri Lyne Carrington, since her 1996 debut album, The Grand Encounter. Beautiful Life lineup of musical guests includes a band of old-timers who have been around and newcomers including GRAMMY® winning bassist Esperanza Spalding and Richard Bona, vocalists Gregory Porter and GRAMMY® winner Lalah Hathaway, pianists Robert Glasper and Gerald Clayton, World Music harmonica player Grégoire Maret, and trumpeter Sean Jones; percussionist Sheila E is briefly featured, as well as vocal trumpeter Raul Midon, soprano saxophonist Tineke Postma, background vocals and acoustic guitarist Nadia Washington, and Reeves’ cousin and frequent longtime collaborator the late legendary keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres, George Duke.
Beautiful Life is comprised of 12 songs that have touched Reeves’ spirit in different ways and are rendered in such a way that will appeal to jazz and non-jazz fans alike.
The album opens with an attention-grabbing makeover of the Marvin Gaye classic, I Want You [written by Leon Ware and Arthur Ross], the 13th studio album by American soul musician Marvin Gaye, released March 16, 1976, on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Reeves’ voicings and the Sean Jones arrangements convey not only mood but time, place and image. Reeves is talking about “dreamed of you this morning.” It’s crazy! The other thing about Dianne and the song is she always, no matter what she is singing, how many risks she would take — she and Terri Lyne Carrington are radical traditionalist and always held onto the original doo-wop spirit of Marvin Gaye’s original interpretation of this classic song.
The 57 year-old Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit and raised in Denver, and was surrounded by strong female role models, including her mother the late Mrs. Vada Swanson who once played trumpet and was a professional nurse, the grandmother she often later sang about, and all kinds of aunties. “They are all divine and amazing people,” She told me in a telephone interview from her home in Denver.
Reeves revealed that her original musical DNA really came from her father’s side of the family. Reeves’ father died when she was two years-old. Her father sang, her uncle, Mr. Charles Burrell, a bass player with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, introduced her to the music of jazz singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday. She was especially impressed by Sarah Vaughan; and her cousin, George Duke, was a mover and shaker in the music world.
It is through this rich tapestry of family support and unconditional love, Reeves manages to translate over to the Beautiful Life album. Each one of the songs on this album has a special meaning to her – but none is more personal than the Unconditional Love and Long Road Ahead tracks.
Music composer, arranger, jazz educator and pianist Geri Allen’s Unconditional Love (For You) appeared on Carrington’s 2012 GRAMMY®-winning Mosaic Project — in which Reeves also participated — and Reeves fell in love with the song. “I loved the title as well as the music and was inspired to write lyrics about providing guidance and abiding love for all children growing up in a difficult world,” she stated. Unconditional Love is a comparatively faithful reinterpretation: Carrington and Reeves took the ideas from the Mosaic Project and simply did them better. Again and again, Reeves substantively rewrote the melodies and even the harmonies of the song. Reeves’ vocal lines rarely strays far from the written melody but the few small changes she does make are perfectly placed and clearly demonstrate the extent to which she was attuned to Geri’s original concept for the song. And I doubt that Geri Allen would complain. This is indeed the hallmark of a true seasoned song stylist.
Reeves use Long Road Ahead as the centerpiece of an extended meditation on life and love, in which she reflects on the lessons her mother and grandmother taught her over the decades. With beautiful harmonica accompaniment by Grégoire Maret, Reeves brilliantly and lovingly sings the last phase with a softness that fades with a final sweet blow from the harmonica; In essence Reeves gives us a snapshot of her autobiographical narrative if you can grasp the deep message of the song.
George Duke once stated that the “point of writing music is to communicate something to someone.” What Dianne Reeves’ Beautiful Life does is that it gives her the opportunity with the assistance of some exceptional musicians, to let the world know that we may be at times so preoccupied today with what is, that we have lost sight of what can be? The message of this album is to step back and see the bigger picture of what a Beautiful Life we really have.
Danny R. Johnson is San Diego County News’ Jazz and Pop Music Critic
