Articles

Christmas In My Soul

By Mary Foster Conklin

Includes more Christmas songs penned by women, with holiday recordings by Dave Stryker, Laila Biali, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Rebecca Angel, plus new releases by Youn Sun Nah, Chloe Perrier, Fostina Dixon, and Elena Gilliam, with birthday shout outs to Bob Dorough, Sue Maskaleris, Diane Schuur, Sean Harkness, Edith Piaf, Camille Thurman and Kaylé Brecher, among others. Playlist Dave Stryker “This Christmas" from Eight Track Christmas (Strikezone Records) 00:00 Deanna Witkowski “Love Came Down" ...

Diane Schuur at Birdland

By Tyran Grillo

Diane Schuur Birdland New York, NY November 14, 2017 In the fall of 2017, Diane Schuur returned to New York City for a highly anticipated residency at Birdland. Bringing saxophonist Joel Frahm, bassist Roger Hines, and drummer Willie Jones III along for the ride, the singer and pianist showed us that being a class act on the bandstand means knowing how to balance life off it with honest reflection and joyful response. This ...

Diane Schuur: I Remember You (With Love to Stan and Frank)

By Victor L. Schermer

Diane Schuur is that rare songbird who is equally competent as a jazz singer and a pops entertainer. While some vocalists go with more lucrative popular music and some take the road of the jazz artist in the pure sense, Schuur is able to straddle the two careers. Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole had a superb grasp of the jazz idiom, but they made the decisive choice to become entertainers. By contrast, Chris Connor, Betty Carter, and Johnny Hartman ...

Diane Schuur with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops at Kimmel Center

By Victor L. Schermer

"88 Keys, a Big Band, and a Voice"Celebrating 30 years of Peter Nero with the Philly PopsThe Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Philadelphia, PA April 24, 2009 On this night, one of five performances of the same concert event, conductor-pianist Peter Nero welcomed Diane Schuur to the stage as “the most outstanding jazz vocalist of our time." While there may be other candidates for the top spot in this category, and while such ...

Diane Schuur: Some Other Time

By Woodrow Wilkins

Deedles never really left her jazz roots. However, the two-time Grammy-winning vocalist says Some Other Time is her way of getting back to the basics. Nicknamed “Deedles" at a young age, Diane Schuur has had her feet firmly planted in two worlds: pop and jazz. Many of her releases combined elements of both, particularly during her years with GRP Records.Schuur scored two Grammy Awards, with Timeless (GRP, 1986) and Diane Schuur and the Count Basie Orchestra (GRP, 1987). ...

Diane Schuur: Some Other Time

By C. Michael Bailey

One listen to any Diane Schuur recording and it's clear that “Deedles has a musical personality as big as a universe. Schuur's expansive and expressive voice does not mince words or techniques. She sings a straight-ahead, no-nonsense brand of jazz that brims with brio and leaves no misunderstanding what the composers intended for the Great American Songbook.

Some Other Time is Schuur's tribute to the previous generation's music; her Mother's music. The recital is arranged by Schuur's pianist ...

Diane Schuur: Live in London

By Vincent Stephens

Does Diane Schuur still matter? Though the vocalist has been performing actively on the national jazz scene since her 1984 GRP debut, Deedles, came out, and she has won two Grammies, critical interest in her work has waned since the early 1990s. Many critics have lauded her powerful voice and stylistic versatility but lamented her tendency toward histrionics and emotional blandness.

Live in London, recorded at Ronnie Scott's, might reassert her potential in the vocal pantheon. The disc is a ...