In the Moment: Live in Concert

1	Morning Has Broken 9:20
2	Afro Blue 5:48
3	The First Five Chapters 7:16
4	Triste 4:40
5	Bridges 5:35
6	Love for Sale 7:31
7	Come In 7:44
8	The Best Times (Grandma's Song) 8:38
9	Testify 5:56
10	Suzanne 5:24
11	Mista 5:59

Barnes & Noble

Dianne Reeves can do it all, and then some. Wrapping her gorgeous pipes around material by everyone from Cole Porter, Leonard Cohen, Mongo Santameria, to Cat Stevens, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Milton Nascimento, Reeves unites all this diversity with her exquisite taste and extravagant artistry. Confidently leading a full-charged five-piece ensemble through a program that makes dazzling use of jazz, funk, pop, and Latin elements, Reeves also sounds just as comfortable in stripped-down duets with her guitarist Romero Lubamo on intimate versions of Jobim's "Triste" and Nascimento's "Bridges," and with pianist George Duke (Reeve's producer and cousin) on the introduction to "Come In." The breadth of her vocal talent is wide and assured: She scats, she improvises with words, chords and melody, she sings straight from the heart with unadorned passion. A brilliant interpreter of songs by others, Reeves is also a fine composer. Her "Come In," "Testify," "The Best Times (Grandma's Song)," and "Mista" stand confidently beside the more familiar fare. William Pearl

All Music Guide

Dianne Reeves struck the high point of the first day of the 1999 Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, finding a groove and running with it toward a swinging, stomping climax. Naturally then, anticipation ran high about this live recording, made only seven months later in the same city with the same Afro-Latin-accented backup band. What we get, though, is a different -- and mixed -- bag, an intimate, more musically varied concert before only 300 or 400 invited listeners in Los Angeles's S.I.R. Sound Stage instead of 17,600 party animals in the Bowl. Reeves is in commanding, assured voice throughout the session, roaming from genre to genre without a hint of unease. There is a lot of autobiography here ("The First Five Chapters," "The Best Times"), where Reeves sounds as if she is making the stories up on the spot; she isn't, but the illusion of spontaneity is convincing if you play along with her. While Reeves' cousin George Duke kicked the Playboy gig into an even higher gear, here he makes only a single appearance on acoustic piano in the ballad "Come In" -- and it's a rather mild-mannered cameo, alas. There is a Brazilian set where she looks back to her days touring with Sergio Mendes with a freely-phrased "Triste" and a very intimate rendition of Milton Nascimento's "Bridges" with solo guitar. The following track - a hot Brazilian-flavored "Love For Sale" - does recapture a good deal of that mighty groove as heard in the Bowl, but "Afro-Blue" and the closing "Mista" don't come close. Make no mistake, this is a very good recording, but it had the ingredients to be a great one. Richard S. Ginell