Tribute to Dianne Reeves

TRIBUTE TO DIANNE REEVES -- (Extensions of Remarks - March 29, 2006)

SPEECH OF
HON. DIANA DeGETTE
OF COLORADO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2006

* Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of a remarkable woman in the 1st Congressional District of Colorado. It is both fitting and proper that we recognize Dianne Reeves for her preeminent artistic achievement and her excellence in numerous creative endeavors.

* Dianne Reeves has used her talent, skill and energy to create an inimitable musical and artistic presence for which she has received international acclaim. She came to our community from Detroit, Michigan where she and her sister Sharon were raised by their grandmother. Dianne inherited a love of music from her parents and as a child, took piano lessons and sang at every opportunity. While singing with the George Washington High School big band, she was spotted by jazz trumpeter Clark Terry at the National Association of Jazz Educators Conference in Chicago where the band took first place in the 1974 jazz festival. She studied music at the University of Denver before moving to Los Angeles in 1976. Dianne experimented with various musical genres including Latin American music and toured with Eduardo Del Barrio's group ``Caldera.'' She sang with the Billie Child's ``Night Flights'' jazz band and later toured with both Sergio Mendez and Harry Belafonte as his lead singer.

* In 1987, Reeves was the first vocalist signed to the reactivated Blue Note/EMI label. Reeves has recorded with Daniel Barenboin and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic and she has also recorded and performed extensively with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Over the course of numerous recordings and hundreds of live performances, Dianne Reeves has burnished a reputation as a versatile and vivacious singer who has been compared to such masters of jazz as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughn.

* Dianne Reeves is in a class by herself. She won her fourth Best Jazz Vocal Grammy Award for the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed Good Night, And Good Luck, which chronicles Edward R. Murrow's confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Dianne is the only artist to have three consecutive recordings win in the jazz vocal category--A Little Moonlight, The Calling: A Tribute to Sarah Vaughn and In the Moment, She is an Ella Fitzgerald Award recipient and was awarded the Denver Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. She was the first Creative Chair for Jazz of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed throughout Europe and Asia. Reeves is the first internationally renowned jazz artist to perform in Qatar and recently, she was the featured performer at UNICEF's Annual Gala in New York City.

* We are indeed fortunate to have an artist of such consummate reputation and international acclaim in our community. She has mastered a wide range of styles and interpretation, all of which reflect both a perceptive and unique artistic ability and skill. Her artistic sensibilities are set apart by a fidelity to the spirit of various compositions and renderings of notable artists; by an intimate expression of mood and emotion and a style of singular elegance, sophistication and grace.

* We owe much to our artists as they have the unique ability to distill our cultural essence from our collective experience. Please join me in commending Dianne Reeves, a distinguished artist. Her gifts enhance our culture and her contributions have enriched the American Experience.

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