A Conversation with Dianne Reeves – HuffPost 1.28.11

Mike Ragogna: Dianne, where are you right now?

Dianne Reeves: I’m in Berlin, Germany.

MR: What are you up to there?

DR: I’m getting ready to start doing some concerts here, I’m only touring in Germany. I’m excited about it because I love it. I’m here with my band and we’re getting ready to do it.

MR: One of the main reasons we are talking to you today is because you sang at the White House when the Chinese delegation visited.

DR: Yes, that’s correct. It was amazing. First of all, it was an honor to be asked. I told a few of my friends and they asked me if I was excited but I had to keep it cool. A couple of days before, I kind of lost it. It’s something that, during this administration, I’ve wanted to be a part of whatever is going on in there, and I was very thankful to be asked.

MR: Can you give us a few words on how you think President Obama’s doing?

DR: I’m in the mind that I would vote for him again. Our country was in a lot of trouble before he came in and this is a big task. It’s like trying to keep your fingers in a dam to keep it from totally exploding. I think he’s working really hard to do that, there are a lot of things going on in this country and in the world, and he’s there trying to take care of business. I know this kind of thing is going to take time because it took time for it to get here.

MR: An interesting thing happened during the performance. You spoke directly to the Chinese delegation in Mandarin, right?

DR: Yes, I did. I worked on it for a week. I have to tell you something…you need to have really strong jaw and mouth muscles to be able to speak it! I love how the language sounds because it sounds like music, and to say those things is really difficult, but I got through it okay.

MR: When you were speaking mandarin, apparently, officials were a little worried about what was being communicated.

DR: Yeah, they were worried. All I was saying to them was I had the pleasure to play in China many times and I have the honor to play for you tonight. I worked with somebody to really help me say it. They understood what I said and it was right, but I guess nobody knew I was going to do it so it wasn’t cleared. So, they were like, “Uh-oh!”

MR: Can you remember what you sang that night?

DR: Yeah, the first song I performed was “Lullaby of Birdland.” And in lieu of what was going on that evening–and I’m really thankful that I did–I sang “What A Wonderful World” because the children were there and it was really nice to sing to them.

MR: Obviously, it was a beautiful moment?

DR: Yeah, it was really cool because we are just people in these countries, and…it’s hard times for the most part. We are with our families and doing the things we love and the world is wonderful. So, I guess I was just stressing that we just wanna have a life of love and dignity as well.

MR: So, what do you think have been the biggest personal changes since you started your career?

DR: I think that when I started singing, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I only knew what I didn’t want to do. Now I’m in a place where I’ve lived a lot, I’ve seen a lot, and I’m in a place where I know what I want to do and what I want to say–that’s to continue to stay on this path of being able to be ready. My mother would say, “Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.” I spent a lot of my early years preparing for beautiful moments that have unfolded in my life so far.

MR: What was the experience like working on the Good Night and Good Luck soundtrack with George Clooney?

DR: It was wonderful because he really respects musicians. When we first got in there, I thought we were going to have to put this music down and I’m going to have to learn and lip sync. He said, “No I want you to deliver your lines just like the actor in the film.” I thought that was incredible, I was singing lines in a film and I thought that was the best way to present jazz music. It was great, he was great. He had a lot of stories, told me a lot of things about his Aunt Rosemary (Clooney). It was the best two days I’ve had in a long time. He’s not hard to look at either.

MR: (laughs) When you have a role in a film and you watch yourself on the screen, knowing that all of that hard work has gone into it, can you loose yourself and look at yourself as a part of the movie?

DR: Eventually I did, but at first I didn’t. I remember the first time seeing it. We were at the premiere in New York. I was sitting next to (George) and I hadn’t seen the film. There is a place in the film where I do “How High The Moon,” and he touched my arm and said, “Wait ’til you see this.” And all of a sudden, I was filling the entire screen. For an actor this is their work and this is what they’ve done. But for me, it was amazing, it was pretty incredible, and he picked some pretty great songs. He picked the entire repertoire for the movie.

MR: Some of your favorites artists were Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughan…

DR: I loved Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, Nina Simone… And I love most of the artists that came out on Motown. I came from a home that was filled with music. My dad was a lover of jazz music, and there were a lot of musicians in my family. Also my sister and cousins were playing the music of the day.

MR: So, you were on tour with Harry Belafonte before your album deal right?

DR: Oh yeah way back in the early ’80s, that was my first major world tour.

MR: Was that how you got your record deal?

DR: No, actually, that was several years later. I happened to find out that Bruce Lundvall was going to be the head of Blue Note records and they were going to bring the label back. I had always heard amazing stories about him, I thought he would be the best person to work under because he really respects artists and he’s an artist himself. So, I had a concert in Los Angeles and I knew he was in town. I went to his hotel to meet him, and I told him how much he needed me on his label and he said, “Okay, I will do it.” I told him, “Not ’til you hear me sing.” He came down–that was in 1987–and I started recording right after that performance.

MR: That was such a great record too. I ran out to the store right after hearing its opening track, “Sky Island.”

DR: Thank you so much. It’s funny because that’s the second time I’ve recorded “Sky Island.” I had been doing a lot of things. But with that first Diane Reeves Blue Note record, I wanted people to know where I came from. So, I did everything I was doing in the past, then wrote some things for it as well.

MR: Was there a certain point where you knew you wanted to be a vocalist, specifically, a jazz vocalist?

DR: I think very early on. When I was in junior high school, I knew I really wanted to sing. Even early on, I knew I had a voice, but I never really experienced it. When we started doing a lot of singing in school, kind of like a glee club, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed how it made me feel. It seemed like something that was mine and I loved how it made people respond. My uncle was a really fine jazz bassist, and I would do performances with him and he would give me records. I love jazz music and that’s where I decided where I wanted to go.

MR: And you were rewarded pretty nicely by the Grammy’s. In 2001 you were awarded your first of four for your live album. What was that like?

DR: That was amazing. It’s funny, every time–with the exception of the last Grammy–I wasn’t even around. I had been nominated before and I wasn’t able to go because I was on the road. When I heard my name being called, I was thinking, “Whaaat?” I will never forget, it was Erykah Badu and Tony Bennet. I was like, “Why couldn’t I have been there!”

MR: How did you approach recording an album of Sarah Vaughan material?

DR: I had a lot of video of her. I’ve met her, I’ve been around her musicians, I’ve seen her live. She’s always somebody that I loved. She had this broad instrument and she understood how it worked and made it work in different ways all the time. When I got together with George Duke and Billy Childs who did the arrangements, we were talking about it, and I said I wanted to do this tribute record. It was something that I’ve actually wanted to do for many years, but I didn’t want to sound like her, I wanted to present her music and show how she was an inspiration to me as well. We went about finding all of these different songs. In the records, there are certain things that she did that I really tried to incorporate into the songs–the way she would phrase things, the way she would improvise, and the colors that she used in her voice. I wanted it to be very colorful and rich in terms of harmony, just be a record that every time I go out and perform, it would be different every time. We did it live in the studio with the orchestra, and we did it in three days once we got it together. It took us eighteen months to put it together.

MR: What went into creating your Best Of collection?

DR: Oh my goodness. We had to go through everything and sometimes you don’t want to leave out certain things. Bruce Lundvall had his favorites, I had mine, and I had a few people that I really trusted. We just sat down and figured out what should be on it. The music kind of represents a lot of different things. We took from everything and put them in there.

MR: Do you have any advice for new artists?

DR: The biggest thing is, when I was coming up, the thing that made you wonderful was your uniqueness, people celebrated that. You could have all of these different artists on Motown and none of them sounded alike. That’s the thing that I really love about the time I grew up in, that was celebrating that one thing that you have that is different in all the world and that is your unique way of approaching something. So, I always tell young people to find and refine that. Just keep coming with who you are and your unique self. We are in an age right now where you hear something and you want to sound like it. You have something else to give, so do that. Do that because you love it and you’re passionate about it.

MR: Got anything else?

DR: You didn’t ask me this but I wanted to say I was standing there up close and personal and Michelle Obama was stunning! She took my breath away and everybody that was standing there. I have been hearing all of this stuff about her dress–her dress was fabulous, it was the perfect thing to pick out. She just looked amazing in it.

MR: Did you strike up a friendship with Michelle?

DR: Well I don’t know that it’s a friendship because she must meet 9 million people a day. But she was very sincere in her thanking us for being there. She was the most gracious person, she was gracious and warm.

MR: She comes off as such a wonderful human.

DR: Oh my God, she was just so amazing. We (also) loved meeting President Obama, but he was icing on the cake for all of us.

MR: By the way, who designed the dress?

DR: Alexander McQueen.