Dianne Elizabeth Reeves (born October 23, 1956) is an American jazz singer.
Early life and education
Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a musical family. Her father sang, her mother played trumpet, her uncle is bassist Charles Burrell, and her cousin is George Duke. Her father died when she was two years old, and she was raised in Denver, Colorado, by her mother, Vada Swanson, and maternal family.[1] Reeves was raised Catholic and attended Cure D'Ars Catholic School in Denver for much of her early schooling.[2][1]
Career
In 1971, she started singing and playing piano.[3] She was a member of her high-school band, and while performing at a convention in Chicago was noticed by trumpeter Clark Terry, who invited her to sing with him. "He had these amazing all-star bands, but I had no idea who they all were! The thing I loved about it was the way they interacted with each other – the kind of intimate exchange that I wasn't part of. For a young singer, it was fertile soil."[4] She studied classical voice at the University of Colorado.[5]
Reeves moved to Los Angeles, where she sang and recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Lenny White, and Billy Childs.[6] She recorded with the band Caldera,[7] then founded the band Night Flight with Billy Childs, with whom she would collaborate again in the 1990s. She moved to New York City and from 1983 to 1986 toured with Harry Belafonte.[3]
^ abFrederickson, Scott; Kennedy, Gary (2002). Kernfeld, Barry (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. p. 390. ISBN1-56159-284-6.
