Dianne Reeves - when you know / SHM-CD

Dianne Reeves (recently featured as the coolly swinging jazz singer in George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck) is such a monumental performer that her powers sometimes overwhelm her material - as if only the most ecstatic, tragic or visionary lyrics can withstand a broadside of this multi Grammy-winner's technique. When You Know, however, reveals a mature, restrained, subtle and dazzlingly musical Reeves, with players and arrangements so good that even The Windmills of Your Mind - a song I've always cordially hated - sounds transformed.

This is an album of love songs, which might not appeal to those for whom lines like "loving you ... is more than just a dream come true" occasion a touch of queasiness. But if anything can win smooth jazz a reprieve, it's this - though it's too full of surprises to warrant the "smooth" label. Reeves is as pure yet understated as Dionne Warwick, and as agile as the best improvising jazz vocalists, following circuitous triplet-packed routes down to postponed resolving notes that make you jump. Midnight Sun is a standout, while the rolling, George Duke piano vamp under The Windmills of Your Mind, the African feel and childrens'-choir backing of the title track, and the unexpectedly rocking gospel-blues tribute to her mother are all examples of how a potentially cheesy venture wound up a triumph.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/18/jazz.johnfordham