Denver’s Dianne Reeves talks about winning her fifth Grammy Award for her latest album, “Beautiful Life.”
has some shelves in the office of her Denver home where she proudly displays four gilded gramophones. And when she got home from L.A. on Monday morning after attending the Grammy Awards the prior evening, Reeves needed to make space for one more trophy.
for her 2014 release, “Beautiful Life.” This marked the singer’s fifth time winning the award since 2000 — an experience that she still hasn’t gotten used to.
“It’s new every time because every project is different, every project is another kind of expression,” said Reeves shortly after arriving back in Denver as she waited for friends and family to come over and celebrate. “To have people recognize it is pretty amazing.”
Reeves’ “Beautiful Life” is a collection of gracefully reworked jazz, pop and contemporary songs from Fleetwood Mac to Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Ani DiFranco and more. As one of the most renowned modern jazz vocalists, Reeves balances the lines of the traditional genre and contemporary music with a list of guest instrumentalists that includes Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding and her late cousin George Duke.
“This is the first record that I’ve ever done that’s been collaborative, an effort between me and a lot of young musicians and they all brought amazing stuff to the record,” Reeves said. “It was more like a beautiful life experience.”
Her album was nominated alongside Billy Childs’ “Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro,” Rene Marie’s “I Wanna Be Evil: With Love to Eartha Kitt,” Gretchen Parlato’s “Live in NYC” and Tierney Sutton’s “Paris Sessions.”
“I own all the other albums and I love them. Everybody’s records were great,” Reeves said. “Billy Childs’ record, I was actually on his record, and his record had Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, it had everyone on it. We’re all in this together.”
But if you’re wondering why you missed Reeves take the stage to accept her award during the Grammys telecast, that’s because she’s among the dozens of artists honored during the night’s early ceremony. Only nine awards were given out during the Grammys’ evening telecast on Feb. 8, while Reeves’ honor, along with categories including best alternative music album, best rap album, best R&B album and best folk album, are awarded during a non-televised event.
“I like it because it’s a big party, it’s a big celebration,” said Reeves, who attended the non-televised ceremony with her longtime friend Terri Lynne Carrinton, who produced “Beautiful Life.” “People have a little bit longer to talk, which is really really nice. It’s open seating and everyone goes and cheers each other. It has a lot of dignity and love and graciousness.”
After the early event Reeves had tickets to the televised ceremony that night, but decided to just go to dinner and celebrate with her record company, Concord Records.
The next morning Reeves woke up early to catch a flight back to Denver to find her phone inundated with congratulations.
“My phone has just been going crazy. It’s just been non-stop. I woke up this morning at six and I had 150 tweets,” Reeves said on Feb. 9. “It’s just overwhelming and wonderful and I appreciate it. That’s what makes you feel good is the family the friends the fans.”
Reeves said with another Grammy win to her name she’s looking ahead to touring and her next project (which she said will be a lot different) all while enjoying home life in Denver.
Denver is where she’s called home for about two decades and for each of her five Grammy wins.
“Denver has an incredible artist community and I’m glad to be a part of it,” she said. “I go and see other artists all the time and we’re all just out here and trying to make it happen. Everybody’s celebrating their own unique way of looking at things.”
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