Monday, June 17, 2013

Diane Schuur

Now listening. Working hard to come up with questions for singer and pianist Diane Schuur, a musician was gigging before she was a teenager, that she hasn't been asked a thousand times before. Here's a musician who definitely had to battle her demons and came through the fire stronger than ever. She most definitely wears her heart on her sleeve both when she's singing and in the interviews I've watched online. I'm very honored to be interviewing her for the Women In Jazz book project.

This 1987 album Diane did with the Count Basie Orchestra (pictured below) is excellent, by the way. Beautifully arranged, played, and of course sung and beautifully recorded. The energy level is so high, and that energy isn't easy to capture on a recording. It remained 33 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard jazz charts and won a Grammy.