Jazz Artists Dianne Reeves and Gregory Porter Head to Segerstrom Center Tonight

Two superb jazz singers will share the stage at Segerstrom Center as four-time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves and rising vocalist and Grammy winner Gregory Porter perform tonight, January 16 in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. This will also be Porter's Center debut, while Reeves last appeared at the Center during the 2004 - 2005 season along with Terence Blanchard.

Tickets for Dianne Reeves and Gregory Porter start at $29 and will go on sale Sunday, October 12 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets will be available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket savings for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236. The TTY number is (714) 556-2746.

Dianne Reeves, a four-time Grammy winner, has recorded and performed extensively with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis, who said of Reeves, "She has one of the most powerful, purposeful and accurate voices of this or any time." Reeves has also recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim and was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition, she was the first creative chair for jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the first singer to perform at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Reeves worked with legendary producer Arif Mardin (Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin) on the Grammy- winning A Little Moonlight, an intimate collection of standards. When Reeves' holiday collection Christmas Time is Here was released, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times raved, "Ms. Reeves, a jazz singer of frequently astonishing skill, takes the assignment seriously; this is one of the best jazz Christmas CD's I've heard."

More recently, Reeves has toured the world in a variety of contexts including a program titled Sing the Truth, a musical celebration of Nina Simone in which Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo were also featured.

In what has been a storied and extraordinary career, Reeves' first studio album in five years, Beautiful Life, features some of the most engaging songs Reeves has ever offered. "Even in a world with much sadness," says Reeves, "at its essence, life is beautiful and I wanted to celebrate that which can be easily overlooked." Most certainly, among those things not to be overlooked is Beautiful Life.

Beautiful Life, which was released in February 2014, is comprised of 12 songs that have touched Reeves' spirit in different ways and are rendered in such a way that will appeal to jazz and non-jazz fans alike. Mixing in her love of collaboration, the revered vocalist has now teamed up with a stunning array of peers including Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper, George Duke, Gregory Porter, Gerald Clayton, Lalah Hathaway, Richard Bona and her producer Terri Lyne Carrington.

Raised in California, Grammy winner Gregory Porter first found musical inspiration from his minister mother's Nat King Cole record collection. Porter started singing in small jazz clubs in San Diego while attending San Diego State University on a football scholarship where he played outside linebacker. Eventually it was music that Porter chose to pursue full-time after a sports injury derailed his football career. It was during this time when he met saxophonist, composer and pianist Kamau Kenyatta who became Porter's mentor.

Kenyatta invited Porter to visit him in the studio in Los Angeles where he was producing flutist Hubert Laws' album, Hubert Laws Remembers the Unforgettable Nat "King" Cole. When Laws overheard Porter singing along while he was tracking the Charlie Chaplin song "Smile," he was so impressed with the young singer that he decided to include Porter on the album.

Another fortunate twist of fate was the presence that day of Laws' sister, Eloise, a singer who was soon to join the cast of a new musical theater production It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues. Porter had minimal theatrical experience but was cast in one of the show's lead roles when the play opened in Denver, and he eventually followed it to Off-Broadway and then Broadway, where The New York Times, in its 1999 rave review, mentioned Porter among the show's "powerhouse line-up of singers." It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues went on to earn both Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations that year.

Porter moved to Brooklyn and in 2010 released his debut album Water, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. His sophomore album Be Good followed in 2012 and earned him his second Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Performance. His third album, Liquid Spirit, garnered him a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album in 2014.

Having recorded or shared the stage with the likes of Van Morrison, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Nicola Conte and David Murray, Porter remains grounded and humbled by all the new accolades. "Sometimes I haven't had a chance to absorb and enjoy some of the audiences that I've been in front of, especially some of the icons of the music like Wynton and Herbie," Porter says, "And they give me so much open-arm love; I couldn't fathom that two years ago." With the release of Liquid Spirit, Porter's soaring career will surely ascend even higher.

To learn more about Segerstrom Center's Jazz Series, visit: www.scfta.org/jazz.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is unique as both an acclaimed arts institution and as a multi- disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages, offering unsurpassed experiences, and engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of inspiring programs.

Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center traces its roots back to the late 1960s when a dedicated group of community leaders decided Orange County should have its own world-class performing arts venue.

As Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization, Segerstrom Center for the Arts owns and operates the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall and intimate 250-seat Founders Hall, which opened in 1986, and the 2,000-seat Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006 and also houses the 500-seat Samueli Theater, the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center's studio performance space and Boeing Education Lab. A spacious arts plaza anchors Segerstrom Center for the Arts and is home to numerous free performances throughout the year as part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' ongoing Free for All series.

The Center presents a broad range of programming each season for audiences of all ages from throughout Orange County and beyond, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events. It offers many education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. These programs reach hundreds of thousands of students of all ages with vital arts-in-education programs, enhancing their studies and enriching their lives well into the future.

In addition to the presenting and producing institution Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the 14-acre campus also embraces the facilities of two independent acclaimed organizations: Tony Award® -winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is also proud to serve as the artistic home to three of the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale, who contribute greatly to the artistic life of the region with annual seasons at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Photo Credit: Jerris Madison

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