Monday, March 06, 2017

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Diane Schuur

Artist:Diane Schuur
Song:Love Dance
Album:Collection





Diane Schuur is a jazz singer who had her greatest success when she first recorded in the 80s. She's still around but she's just not as popular as she once was. She was born Dec. 10, 1953 in Tacoma, WA. Due to a hospital error, Diane was blind at birth. She would eventually receive a financial settlement from the hospital. She attended the Washington School for the Blind. Diane began singing as a child. Her mom was a Duke Ellington fan. Diane's idols were Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington. As a teen, she performed in local clubs. In 1975, she auditioned for Tonight Show drummer Ed Shaughnessy. He was in Seattle touring with Doc Severinsen. Shaughnessy hired her for his band Energy Force and he wanted to hire her to sing with The Tonight Show band. But Severinsen didn't like Diane as she tended to oversing and he didn't like that. But touring with Shaugnessy got her to the 1979 Monterey Jazz Festival. And that's where jazz legend Stan Getz heard Diane. Things started to pick up. For one thing, he got her to stop oversinging. Less is more he told her. Getz appeared on Diane's 1981 debut album Pilot of my Destiny for a Seattle label Great American. Then he invited her to sing at The White House in 1982. GRP Records owner Larry Rosen saw Diane on TV and his partner Dave Grusin contacted Getz. Diane signed with GRP. Love Dance is from Diane's second album Schuur Thing in 1985. Grusin produced and arranged the album and played keyboards. Other musicians are Lee Ritenour on guitar, Abraham Laboriel on bass, Carlos Vega on drums and Paulinho Da Costa on percussion. Larry Williams played sax on most of the album but Stan Getz played on Love Dance. Jose Feliciano sang on two songs. Love Dance was written by Brazilian Ivan Lins and the English lyrics were written by Incognito bassist Paul "Tubbs" Williams. The album reached #10 on the jazz charts and this began a long run for Diane. She performed on the Grammys and also won a couple. This comp was released in 1989 and it covers Diane's early albums. Diane recorded for GRP until 1997 and then she recorded for Concord until 2008. He latest album was released in 2014 but she still tours regularly. Here's Diane Schuur with the GRP All Stars featuring Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Abraham Laboriel, Carlos Vega, Dave Valentin and Larry Williams at The Record Plant in Los Angeles 1985. This was released on DVD but is now out of print.

No comments:

Post a Comment