An best evening with Dianne Reeves at Tbilisi Jazz festival 2022: Video, Photos

Republic of Georgia is a hospitable country, the capital of Tbilisi in particular, and when jazz evenings are added to it in the form of Tbilisi Jazz Festival 2022, then a miracle in this country becomes perfect.

On July 7-9, we were hosted at the Tbilisi Jazz Festival, where we enjoyed the concerts of Dianne Reeves and Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Zakir Hussain and Vijey Iyer trio. This time we present an overview of the singer’s concert, and about the concerts of jazz legends and Iyer, as well as the features of the Tbilisi Jazz Festival and local jazzmen, wait for the near future.

Guitarist Romero Lubambo opened the piece, his flourishes on acoustic guitar establishing an aura of intimacy that was all too rare in this evening. When Reeves joined in with exquisitely crafted wordless vocals, there was no question that two top-flight improvisers were showing how it’s done.

Rhythms coursed through parts of this performance, but this was Reeves-style, the singer conjuring more heft of sound and fervor of delivery than one typically associates with this Brazilian idiom. The cultural traditions of two continents merged poetically in this moment, and what a pleasure to hear Reeves without sonic distraction.

The duet with guitarist Romero Lubambo, a longtime Reeves collaborator who always heightens her impact. But the classic song enabled listeners to savor what Reeves can do when unencumbered by trivial accompaniment.

The best work by far, happens to be a Reeves original and it sounded comparably gripping in concert. Reeves’ opening solo amounted to a vocal tour de force, her slow tempo enabling her to pack more melodic embellishments into a single phrase than one might have thought possible. Once the band began to play, Reeves rode its rhythms with ease, lingering behind the beat one moment, pushing ahead the next.

Reeves sang, scatted and swung her way through a guided tour of backing her. Inventing melodies, riffing on names, describing her musicians’ gifts via vocal lines that danced up and down the scale, Reeves reaffirmed her stature as one of the most creative and technically accomplished female vocalists.

No doubt Reeves deserves credit for trying to search out new modes of expression after a long career before the public. But the soupy, radio-friendly arrangements often competed with her luxuriant voice instead of supporting it. The carefully scripted instrumentals, meanwhile, hemmed Reeves in rhythmically, even though she sounds best when she’s free to soar – as in her loosely improvised solo introducing the band.

So though one could admire the vocal prowess and beauty of tone behind most every note Reeves delivered, the effects of her work unfortunately were diminished by the nature of this repertoire and its far-too-slick instrumentals.

This concert truly felt like was so fresh and new. Reeves has a voice we can only describe as a cello. There is a depth to her tone that settles so beautifully in her lower range, but has such control that even in her higher register, the weight to her voice isn’t sacrificed, similar to the way a cello’s velvet vibrancy spans its octaves.

Dianne Reeves certainly strayed from your typical jazz standards. And other tunes on which Reeves shines. Though, wcouldn’t help but hope from something a little more nostalgic to my own jazz experiences.

This may sound strange, but the most spectacular singing Dianne Reeves when she was introducing the band.

With climaxes flattened and the underlying harmonies reconceived, the piece was drained of most of its surging dramatic power. You could marvel at Reeves’ throaty low notes and stratospheric high ones without being very much moved by them.

That came toward the end of the show, and Reeves sang, scatted and swung her way through a guided tour of the large ensemble backing her. Inventing melodies, riffing on names, describing her musicians’ gifts via vocal lines that danced up and down the scale, Reeves reaffirmed her stature as one of the most creative and technically accomplished female vocalists working today.

In addition to her, pianist John Beaslet, guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Itaiguara Brandao and drummer Terreon Gully also performed at Diana Reeves’ concert. Among them, Pianist John Beasley is familiar to our readers from CD reviews and interviews of his new albums dedicated to Thelonious Monk.

Here was the essence of jazz!!!

By Simon Sargsyan

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