Jazz great Dianne Reeves Jazz Fest show will include her take on Brazilian jazz

After more than a year off the road, would her voice do its thing?

“It’s one thing to keep your instrument and everything in order, trying to stay stronger. But it’s not the same as working consistently,” the 65-year-old five-time Grammy winning singer said from home in Denver in January, weeks before her concert that was originally scheduled Jan. 23 was reschedule for Friday, May 13. “For me it was like I didn’t even want to get off the stage. It was like medicine; I really needed it.”

Reeves has done a few concerts since and has several on the books for 2022, including her show at Leo Rich Theater that is part of the HSL Properties Tucson Jazz Festival — her first Tucson concert in seven years.

“I’m really excited to come back with my band,” she said. “When I saw that this one came up I was like, ‘Ah, great. We’re going back to Tucson’.”

Reeves comes here with a star-studded band that includes Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo, Grammy-winning jazz pianist John Beasley, Caribbean bass player Reuben Rogers and drummer Terreon Gully.

In addition to her vast repertoire of jazz hit, she’s playing new music from a forthcoming Brazilian jazz album that she hopes to release next year. Although she has recorded Brazilian jazz cuts in the past, she’s never devoted an album to the music.

The album will be the first new record for Reeves since she released “Light Up The Night — Live In Marciac” in 2017.

“It’s been a minute,” she joked, “but you gotta live in between. And just so many things have changed. Just trying to live in between all of this.”

“All of this” was largely centered around the pandemic, she explained, a time that offered Reeves a moment to breathe and reflect.

“There was a point where I was working so much that I didn’t have time to sit down and gather my thoughts. And I will say that that’s a positive thing that came out of 2020. .. I realized I hadn’t been off like that in 40 years,” she said. “It was really good because it made me understand that balance for all of us is really important.”

Reeves said her show will include plenty of storytelling between songs, many of which will have the audience rocking in their seats and wanting to dance in the aisles. 

“Music is always a place where you can release a lot of stuff and people are really happy,” Reeves said. “It really feels good. We can help each other in this arena and that part feels really, really good. I try to leave my audiences feeling uplifted and hopeful.”