In Tribute

by

Diane Schuur

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Selecting material for this album was the easy part, selecting materal that would end up on the resulting album, very difficult. Diane recorded not only what ended up as the released tracks, she recorded enough to fill a two disc set, each disc buldging at seventy-plus minutes. The cream of that crop is here, and not one track is out of place with the theme. That theme is a tribute to all her absolute favorite female singers, and that singers signature song. Diane covers these songs in her style, she does not copy these songs note for note which makes this album so refreshing.

Diane's voice is captured her at its peak. Her perfect pitch is complimented by her warm contralto. There are various styles of music arrangement ranging from full string sections to trio style to trio style with a horn section. Case in point is the opening track "Them There Eyes." This opening romp finds Diane in a fun, festive mood and it swings. The arrangement is simple. "The Man I Love" is a total turn, cinematic in it's arrangement. "Sweet Georgia Brown" is another simple arrangement making you whistle along like the Harlem Globetrotters theme song does. "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry" is so emotional it's almost uncomfortable to listen to. Diane was single at the time of this recording and during sessions for this song, she broke up with her steady and during the end of this song, she's so involved with the lyric, she literally begins to cry. I think they got this song in one take, they'd have to in order to capture the crack in her voice toward the last verse. Try not to be moved. This is the caliber of material on this album. Each song is the perfect tribute to the person that first made it famous. In some cases, the song is an improvement over the original, but the effort here was not to outdo the original, but to compliment. The engineering of this album is excellent, the sound is so big and open, the mastering excellent.