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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 ...

Live From Zanzibar Blue: Diane Schuur

By Victor L. Schermer

Zanzibar Blue Philadelphia, PA December 11th, 2003 Second Set | 9:30PM

This is one in a series of reviews that we will be doing from the “catbird seat” at Zanzibar Blue, Philadelphia’s premiere jazz club, located at Broad and Walnut Streets in Center City. We are grateful to the Zanzibar management for their generosity and cooperation in this new venture.

Diane Schuur, twice a Grammy winner, has already earned herself a place as one ...

Diane Schuur: Midnight

By J. Robert Bragonier

Diane Schuur has been singing for an adoring public since the age of nine. Those who have praised and supported her talent include Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, Stan Getz and Leonard Feather. She has been nominated five times for Grammy Awards and has received two, for Timeless in 1986 and Diane Schuur with the Count Basie Orchestra in 1987. Midnight is a video-enhanced CD, Schuur’s third release for Concord Records and her first under the ...

Diane Schuur: Midnight

By C. Michael Bailey

Diane Schuur has always been a durable presence on the music scene. She has skirted the periphery of the jazz genre, never fully making her way in due to her penchant for popular music. Her Basie album was prime Schuur to be sure and should be taken seriously. She is above all a great performer. On Midnight, Ms. Schuur joins forces with Barry Manilow, who interestingly enough recently joined the ranks of Concord Jazz. Mr. Manilow fielded the compositional and ...

Diane Schuur: Friends for Schuur

By Dave Hughes

Diane Schuur had joined the flood of refugees from other labels (GRP especially) that are converging to strengthen Concord's standing as one of the premiere labels in jazz. And her Concord debut is an auspicious one, indeed. While Deedles can certainly turn in impressive performances on her own, she seems to rise to an even higher level when collaborating with other equally talented artists. Her choice of collaborators on this CD also demonstrates her proficiency in a variety of genres, ...

Diane Schuur: Friends For Schuur

By AAJ Staff

It seems that Diane Schuur, never one to pull any punches in expressing happiness, and Concord Jazz are overjoyed about their new partnership. The first album in what is expected to be a long relationship is Friends For Schuur --a canny blend of studio recordings, live performances and digital interactivity that would have been unlikely, if not impossible, pre- Unforgettable.The never-really-happened--but sure enough, technologically created--teaming of Schuur and Stan Getz on “Easy Living” serves as a reminder that ...

Diane Schuur: The Best of Diane Schuur

By Robert Spencer

Big band, big sound, big brass, big voice-"All Right, OK, You Win, (I'm in Love with You)." Smaller band, but voice still big and way up front: “Try a Little Tenderness." The Best of Diane Schuur shows off the singer's large charms as first displayed on nine GRP discs. She sings beautifully up and down in her range -- she can pierce your heart with that huge wail (as on “Try a Little Tenderness") and then meet the Diana Krall ...