When You Know - Dark Publications

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Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Great music for growns up. April 16, 2008
60 out of 62 found this review helpful

Acclaimed as one of the prominent jazz vocalists in the world today she is a quadruple Grammy award-winner and her story-telling instinct, sultry vocals and breathtaking virtuosity have won rave reviews across the globe. She has never stopped developing as an artist, yet she's managed to avoid the curse of being just a musician's singer to reach a wide public and winning Grammys galore - she's the only singer to have won three in a row.
The new album is a departure from the classic jazz of George Clooney's film "Good Night, and Good Luck".
"When You Know", seems tailor-made to reach that big, general audience of moviegoers rather than music fanatics or jazz aficionados.
It is a "concept" recording, which is a celebration of the different phases of love in a woman's life.
The structure is a simple one: 10 tracks take us through the different ways a woman regards love, from teenage dreams through mid-life crises to the closing "Today Will Be a Good Day" - a rollicking, washboard-driven tribute to Reeves' gutsy mother, now in her 80s.
It starts with a delightful, mellow version of The Temptation's "Just My Imagination". Minnie Ripperton's "Loving You" is cunningly arranged to move through different key changes. Diane glides through them effortlessly with the grace of a swan through water and teases you by leaving that those famous stratospheric bird call vocals until right at the end. Throughout she's backed by musicians of the highest calibre (like Billy Childs and piano/keyboard maestro George Duke who also signs the splendid production).
On the classic "The Windmills Of MY Mind" Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo conjures up a superb, cunning arrangement which manages to be both tasteful and dramatic. Spurred on, Diane turns the song's cliches into a moving examination of love lost, memories and regret. Lubambo also arranges the title track (he must surely take the credit for those wonderful chords) which is uplifting without being strident but still has real depth and power.
The album ends on an upbeat note with a jaunty country shuffle of "Today Will Be A Good Day".
Far too classy to be filed under 'easy' or 'chill out', "When You Know" is simply great music for grown ups.
"Quite a conundrum, is Dianne Reeves. Technically, the American diva soars above just about all of her rivals - she can sing soul, can swing a la Vaughan - yet her recordings rarely do her justice..An all too smooth collection of standards, including the Temps' "Just My Imagination", Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" and the trusty "Windmills of Your Mind". As ever, the vocals are immaculate, but without a spark of life until the end, when Reeves kicks into old-time gospel-blues mode on Today Will Be a Good Day....her recordings cannot possibly reflect her energy, warmth or the sheer range of her voice".Sunday Times
Some of the most famous jazz cats on the market like Romero Lubambo (acoustic guitar), Russell Malone (electric guitar), Steve Wilson (soprano saxophone), George Duke (piano), Billy Childs (Fender Rhodes piano), and Lenny Castro (percussion) join in.

3 out of 5 stars

Dianne Reeves returns with a mixed bag. April 23, 2008
59 out of 59 found this review helpful

In total contrast with Dianne's last release, the all-jazz soundtrack for the 1950s-set film "Good Night And Good Luck", this album is a rather strange mix of pop, soul, funk, R'n'B and jazz - with the American singer's creamy and elegant vocals the only common thread.
She is such a monumental performer that her powers sometimes overwhelm her material - as if only the most ecstatic, tragic or visionary lyrics can withstand a broadside of this multi Grammy-winner's technique.
"When You Know" reveals a mature, restrained, subtle and dazzlingly musical Reeves, with players and arrangements so good that even the overworn "The Windmills of Your Mind" sounds transformed.
This is an album of love songs, which might not appeal to those for whom lines like "loving you ... is more than just a dream come true" occasion a touch of queasiness. But if anything can win smooth jazz a reprieve, it's this - though it's too full of surprises to warrant the "smooth" label.
There's probably something in here for everyone, but it may struggle to sustain jazz fans' interest, and the rather disconcerting effect is of listening to a radio whose channels are being changed every few minutes.
Album's highlights: "Lovin' You", "Social Call" and 'Midnight Sun".

Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)
Good Night, And Good Luck

5 out of 5 stars

Dianne Ponders the Experience of Love May 22, 2008
37 out of 49 found this review helpful

It was a long five years waiting for a new Dianne Reeves CD. However, after spending this last month listening to WHEN YOU KNOW, over and over again, it was well worth the wait. Beautiful, clear, impeccable, Dianne's voice is one of the finest, and I mean that for all time. Dianne can stand next to Ella, Nina, Billie, Sarah and all the rest of them, and will be remembered as one of greatest vocalists in jazz music.

There is a theme to WHEN YOU KNOW: A woman's perspective of Love in all its stages and its many--and often contradictory--feelings. It's an album celebrating the different phases of love in a woman's life, from giddy naivete to seasoned knowledge.

Produced by George Duke and backed by some of the cream of contemporary jazz (among others, Billy Childs, Geoff Keezer, Steve Wilson, Romero Lubambo, Russell Malone, Antonio Sanchez, Lenny Castro, Karen Briggs), I can't choose one song to highlight, because each showcases Dianne's nuance and phrasing as a vocalist, and all play an integral part in the CD's overarching concept.

In my opinion, this is Dianne Reeve's best work to date. One word suffices to describe this woman and her work, that word is beauty.

5 out of 5 stars

One of her best April 20, 2008
33 out of 46 found this review helpful

It's been a while since I've gotten this excited about one of Dianne Reeves's studio recordings. I've attended her concerts at least once a year and, as so many others have commented, found the experience of hearing her live overshadows her studio sessions completely. Nothing since the album Bridges (1999) has come close to the kind of emotional and musical epiphany of experiencing her live. . . Until now.

There are quite a few live Dianne Reeves recordings available (including Live in Montreal and In the Moment: Live in Concert) which, along with seeing her live, have kept me hooked over the years. But her studio work since Bridges has been, I feel, more mainstream and less personal. "When You Know" harks back to the kind of album Bridges was: an eclectic selection of songs from many genres, with one original song ("Today Will Be a Good Day", inspired by her mother), some soaring straight ahead jazz scat singing, and an emotional flow from the first track to the last that creates the feeling of a story being told.

In fact, if you listen very closely, you'll hear some very sly lyrical references slipped into to certain tracks that link them more closely to each other. This is sort of in the vein of the Frank Sinatra "themed" albums, but much more personal and idiosyncratic.

Her voice continues to get better and better with each passing year, as did one her musical role models, Sarah Vaughan, and the musicians backing her up are all top drawer. They've been playing together long enough to reach the point where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. And while the other musicians have been given less solo space than usual in her studio albums-- and much less space than in her concerts, where she is very generous in allowing her fellow musicians some time in the spotlight-- as wonderful as her musicians are, I think the album flows more evenly with the focus squarely upon her.

During the track "Social Call", Dianne makes reference in her improvised lyrics to not yet having found that one special love, while celebrating all that singing has brought to her life and the widespread success that she has worked so hard for year after year. It's a subtle acknowledgment of the parts of her life that she must have had to sacrifice in order to succeed as a jazz singer.

Ella and Sarah were certainly never able to get their romantic life in order (Ella was only married once, and very briefly, to Ray Brown, and Sarah was married and divorced four times). It's hard to establish a stable romantic relationship when you're spending at least half the year touring the globe. If Dianne Reeves has, as I suspect, chosen to make the same sacrifice-- to devote herself to singing about love to the millions, while not having the time or space to find it herself-- then we are all the lucky beneficiaries.

In a culture where jazz is practically dead from a commercial standpoint, she has triumphed and gained widespread acclaim, despite the complaints of jazz purists who have routinely condemned her attempts to incorporate new sounds and new sources of material. They would prefer that she stick to dredging up the same jazz standards that have been done to death for 50 or 60 years now. They forget how much of Ella's and Sarah's recording material was also completely outside the realm of mainstream jazz, and yet still, like Dianne's, usually approached with a jazz sensibility.

Now, after 8 years of albums that, to my taste, were either too-straight-ahead jazz (A Little Moonlight), too tame (Good Night, and Good Luck.), too overproduced (the overbearing ochestrations in The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan), or too commercially oriented (Christmas Time Is Here), we finally have another masterpiece.

As she sings on this album, "you'll know when you know". When I heard her live for the first time at the Blue Note in NYC 1999, I knew that I knew. . . Dianne Reeves was the real thing, the true successor to the towering giants of jazz singing, Ella, Sarah, Billie and Carmen.

But I've been waiting for years to hear a studio album as inspiring, as uplifting, as musically deep as hearing her live. After listening to "When you Know", I know that I know. . . this album is the one.

5 out of 5 stars

"Creating and Recording This Album Was Not A Labor of Love ... It Was Just Love" May 25, 2008
30 out of 39 found this review helpful

"There is a Gustav Klimt painting I had seen at the Belvedere in Vienna of a young woman moving through life. I remember loving the various depictions of the phases of her life from innocence to increasing maturity. In a similar way, this album progresses through songs which celebrate different phases of love, in much the same way our notions of love change as we move through time." ~ Dianne Reeves ~

Multi-Grammy winner Dianne Reeves latest offering, "When You Know," was released just over a month ago under Blue Note, a prestigious company well-known for its quality and reliable jazz recordings. This adds prestige to the album's marketability among the new releases in the genre of vocal jazz. So you can't go wrong - it is a sure winner.

Some of the finest studio musicians who have impressed me over the years lend support to Ms. Reeves and lovingly combined their creative talents to make this album as equally remarkable as her other albums, and these are guitarists Russell Malone (electric) and Romero Lubambo (acoustic), piano players George Duke and Billy Childs, among many others.

Through the years, Ms. Reeves has proven her sublime artistry through her bestselling albums, some of which has garnered Grammy nominations and awards, and not to mention the steady stream of fans who have supported her body of work.

According to Ms. Reeves, "creating and recording this album was not a labor of love ... it was just love." It truly shows the love and creativity that she injected into the material most especially two of my favorite songs in the Seventies - a beautiful and once-very-popular song from Minnie Riperton, "Lovin' You" and The Temptations' "Just My Imagination." Ditto with a Jobim classic, "Once I Loved," and a timeless and charming standard, "Midnight Sun." She revives and gives new meanings to these songs with her effortless style of singing, thus, making the entire CD a worthy addition to your collection and a potential for Grammy nomination and award.

Wholeheartedly recommended.

P.S. For more Dianne Reeves special treats for your ears, please check these winners out: A Little Moonlight, The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan and The Best of Dianne Reeves.

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