Dianne Reeves' new CD draws from personal inspirations

Jet, July 7, 2008 by Clarence Waldron

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When Dianne Reeves sings Today Will Be A Good Day, you find yourself humming along--and believing every word.

The tune featured on the new jazz- and R&B-flavored CD When You Know was written by the four-time Grammy Award winner after a conversation she had with her mother.

"I wanted to pay tribute to her because she holds my sky up," Reeves says. "She's a great storyteller. She is 84 years old and she drives her own car. She's out there doing things. I am so thankful I have her as my example of living in grace."

Her mother told her" 'I don't entertain illness, boredom or depression. It doesn't mean I don't get them, I just don't entertain them. Live your best life right here and right now,'" Reeves says.

Her mother, Vada Swanson, who has cancer, says she loves the tune. '3 feel good about it because it says all of my feelings. That's the way I start my day. I am enjoying old age.

"I do make it a good day and she was so thoughtful to think of me in that way. I take all the days I can get," she laughs. "There are so many things to be thankful for. When I leave this house, I know it's a good day." She just turned 84 in June. "People say what do you want for your birthday? I say 'another birthday.'"

Reeves got her big break when she toured as a lead singer with Harry Belafonte in the early '80s. Her breakthrough tune was Better Days, a song about her grandmother's love in 1987.

On When You Know. she pays tribute to two of her favorite icons, The Temptations with Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) and Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You. Her cousin George Duke, who worked on two of her Grammy-winning albums, 2001's In the Moment and 2002's The Calling, produced the CD.

The 51-year-old vocalist says the songs are part of "the soundtrack" of her life.

"I love The Temptations and (Just My Imagination) was the kind of song-you heard it twice and you just knew it. It's dreamy; that time in high school when you're looking at the cute guy on the other side of the classroom, lost in the daydreams of a life together."

And with Lovin' You, she notes, "There's always a sweetness and power to the things that she would sing. Minnie Riperton was very courageous. She sang all kinds of music. I wanted to do it my way."