A sublime vocalist, Dianne Reeves took the stage at the Rose Theater of Jazz at Lincoln Center, glamorous in blue and aware that this was Oscar weekend.  Having performed her era evoking music for George Clooney’s 2005 Good Night, and Good Luck, his film about Edward R. Murrow, the only other black and white film to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award before The Artist, she has seen the handsome Clooney up close; she offered “and he’s real nice.” Wishing she could be there in L.A. to support him now, she went on to perform a repertoire of standards that included “One for my Baby (and One for the Road),” “Stormy Weather,” “Our Love is Here to Stay,” “Twelfth of Never,” and backed up by a superb ensemble featuring Peter Martin on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, Terreon Gully on drums, and the guitars of Romero Lubambo and Peter Sprague, she scatted a tune inspired by a jet lagged night in Barcelona watching CNN on television. She heard a singer and “this is how she sounded to me,” recounted Reeves as she launched into her tune imitating Spanish.

Reeves also performed Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” and Ani DiFranco’s “32 Flavors,” playfully singing, “I am a poster girl with no poster/ I am 32 flavors and then some,” and emphasized innocence and imagination, ending the set with a message: “Tell your stories. They are better than television or movies. They’re real.”

Regina Weinreich

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