The following is courtesy of Reuters. I've been a Dianne Reeves fan for over 20 years and it's always nice to see someone that good get some mainstream recognition. Instead of wasting your money on flavour of the month jazz singers, invest your time & money with someone as reliable as Dianne Reeves. You can't go wrong with great talent.
Close, but no Globe, for jazz singer Dianne Reeves
By Steve James
14 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jazz singer Dianne Reeves wonGrammys' for her last three albums. Unfortunately, she won't be setting a Golden Globe on her mantlepiece soon.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. recognizes only original songs, and Reeves performs jazz standards on screen throughout George Clooney's film "Good Night, and Good Luck," which just picked up four Golden Globe nominations.
Her renditions of tunes like Nat "King" Cole's "Staighten Up and Fly Right" and Cole Porter's "I've Got My Eyes on You," are used by director/actor Clooney to punctuate scenes and add pointed commentary to his film about TV newsman Edward R. Murrow's ideological battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1950's red-baiting America.
"I can't complain," says Reeves of the lack of Golden Globe recognition for her performances, in which she performs in 50's-style dresses with a jazz combo in smoke-filled clubs.
After all, the film has given new visibility to a singer who has been around for years, but recognized little outside a coterie of traditional jazz purists.
"I got a call from George Clooney's office asking for a video of me signing 'How High the Moon,"' she told Reuters in a recent telephone interview. "I then left for Asia and when I came back I had the job."
Working with Clooney was intriguing, she said, not least because he is the nephew of Rosemary Clooney, a singer whom Reeves has long admired. "George adored his aunt, and during the whole recording he told us stories about her.
"I did an event with her one time, she was a nice woman. Apparently she told George she liked the way I sang.
"She was one I looked up to as a singer who had the ability to be a great story-teller,' said Reeves. "In recent years I have looked for material with stories. I am inspired by that."
This is not Reeves' first movie appearance. She was in 1991's "Guilty by Suspicion" with
Robert De Niro but sang only one song, "Easy Come, Easy Go."
However on "Good Night, and Good Luck," there is a whole CD's worth of songs -- chosen by Clooney -- which have now been released as a soundtrack album by Concord Records.
"George Clooney is so bright and intelligent but down-to-earth and has that Kentucky spirit that makes it fun," said Reeves, of the 2-1/2 days she spent working on the movie set.
One thing Reeves wants people to know is that although she was born in Detroit and was influenced by the Motown sound, she is not related to Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas.
"I get asked that all the time," she said, adding however that jazz funk keyboardist George Duke is a cousin and her uncle, Charles Burrell, a double bass player, was one of the first blacks to play with the San Francisco Symphony.
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