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Jazz singer will share her
rare artistry with Pops

I must admit, as a classical musician, I don't pay enough attention to other kinds of music. When you're studying or performing music all day long, you tend not to take time to listen to anything else. But listening to the music of the next Honolulu Symphony Pops performer compelled me to want to learn more.

Dianne Reeves With the Honolulu Symphony: In concert: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday Place: Blaisdell Concert Hall Tickets: $25, $35, $45, $55 and $70, including service fees Call: 792-2000 or Ticketmaster at 877-750-4400

Dianne Reeves represents a type of artistry that is rare. In today's musical climate of conformity and sameness, she has remained focused on her uniqueness while maintaining a link to the past. Her voice and musicianship have taken time to develop and have been maturing for some time now. Let's take a look at her past and get an understanding of how she's become the most successful living jazz singer of our time.

Raised in Denver, Reeves was discovered by jazz trumpeter Clark Terry while singing with a high school band at a National Association of Jazz Educators Conference in Chicago. She moved to Los Angeles to become a full-time musician, performing with Terry and many others.

What I find fascinating about her story is that she paid her dues and moved up the ranks slowly. All artists and musicians hope and pray for that big break, but we also hope that break comes when we're ready. Reeves was ready. She had worked long and hard on her craft when, in 1987, Blue Note Records President Bruce Lundvall spotted her at an "Echoes of Ellington" concert in Los Angeles. He wasted no time in setting up her first major session.

Blue Note was created in 1939 and became legendary for recording promising jazz artists such as Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Miles Davis. Being signed to Blue Note is the kind of endorsement that causes the public to take notice.

Reeves' star has been rising ever since. In 2002 she performed at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. She also received the Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, released a career-spanning compilation CD on Blue Note, "The Best of Dianne Reeves," and sang on the season finale of HBO's "Sex & the City." She was also appointed creative chairwoman for jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In this role, Reeves oversees the scheduling of jazz programming and educational workshops at the Hollywood Bowl and the heralded Walt Disney Concert Hall.

With the Honolulu Symphony Pops, Reeves will be performing songs from her album "The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan." It takes a tremendous amount of skill and courage to produce a tribute album, especially to someone as heralded and beloved as Vaughan, who sang with the great jazz masters such as Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. "The Calling" catches the many moods of the singer, delving into songs such as "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Send in the Clowns."

OPENING FOR Reeves will be Honolulu resident Noel Okimoto, who has been playing professionally since age 10 and is now considered one of the best drummers in Hawaii.

Okimoto has performed in the islands, on the mainland and internationally with such artists as Freddie Hubbard, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson, Riche Cole, Bill Watrous, Ernie Watts, Bud Shank, Barney Kessel, Lew Tabackin, Sadao Watanabe, Wynton Marsalis and Ronnie Cuber. He was also a member of the Gabe Baltazar group for five years.

Okimoto's debut album, "Ohana," released in November 2003, won the Hawaii Music Award and the Na Hoku Hanohano award for jazz album of the year. The album also received a four-star review from Down Beat magazine.

As if that weren't enough, Okimoto is also an accomplished orchestral percussionist, vibraphonist, composer and clinician. He has played percussion with many luminaries, including Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Steve Allen, Natalie Cole, Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page and Dionne Warwick.

This will truly be an unforgettable concert experience.

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