Features

The Ru Report #151

Really Great Presence
Earlier this week, vivacious vocalist Dianne Reeves kicked off a weeklong string of performances at the world's famous Blue Note jazz club in New York City.

Longtime band-members Peter Martin (on piano), Reuben Rogers (on bass), and Gregory Hutchinson (on drums), along with guitarist Romero Lubambo are joining the three-time Grammy Award winning chanteuse for the engagement, which runs through December 5.

"I was so looking forward to being here," Ms. Reeves told "The RU Report" in a recent interview. "I haven't done the Blue Note in a while and I really wanted to do my Christmas record and introduce it here."

It's been nearly five years since the Denver-reared diva graced the small stage of the Greenwich Village landmark. And the old adage "absence makes the heart grow fonder" rings true--she does a brisk business at the box office.

"It's an opportunity to be up close and personal with the audience," she shared about the intimate quarters of the famed jazz venue. "And for me, I felt that it was really good for this record because it's a very comfortable record and even though they are Christmas songs, they are open to interpretation and can change from night to night. And I thought this would be a really great place to perform it."

And the record she's referring to is her very first holiday CD, "Christmas Time Is Here," which arrived in stores last month and have garnered high marks from the critics. The 11-song collection features Ms. Reeves' aforementioned trio and special guests including saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Joe Locke and the Sirius String Quartet. Jazzmatazzmic renditions of yuletide classics such as "Let It Snow," "Little Drummer Boy" and "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" are featured on the set. "I chose songs I really loved," she continued. "Of course there are some standard Christmas songs that we always like to hear on there but I tried to make it so that it will have an atmosphere of comfort and love and kind of a peacefulness. Something you could cook to, something you could stand under the mistletoe to, something you could be with family with, all of those kinds of things. So the words and all of that, ya know, I think were very important to kind of convey the spirit that I think is Christmas."

Ms. Reeves performed the stand-out "I'll Be Home For Christmas" during Jazz At Lincoln Center's Opening Festivities, last month. And she brought the house down. "It was a special night for me," she shared. "My mother was in the audience and I really wanted her to see me perform some Christmas music. It was also my 48th birthday."

On December 18 and 19, she will perform the music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra for a two-night engagement entitled "Home For The Holidays" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2002, Ms. Reeves was appointed Creative Chair for Jazz (then a newly established position) for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In her role, she oversees the scheduling of jazz programming and educational workshops at both the Hollywood Bowl and the heralded Walt Disney Concert Hall.

"I'm only doing these two performances for this record," she revealed. "I didn't really want to tour a lot during Christmas because my mother is not really in the best of health and I wanted to be here [in Denver]."

For Christmas she says she just wants to "chill out and cook." Upon her most recent jaunt to the City Of Lights, she discovered French macaroons by famed Parisian chef Pierre Hermes. "They are just so fabulous," she gushed. "I like them so much that I'm going to try and make them for Christmas. It's the most elegant dessert I have ever had."

And then with the New Year comes plans to tour Asia and Australia for nine days a the beginning of January, and then getting into full swing for the January 29 Jazz Mass concert featuring Terrance Blanchard for the Philharmonic.

Some other great news she shared was plans for her Grammy Award winning live album, "In The Moment" to be immortalized once again on disc--this time via a DVD package--in the near future. "There's nothing like raw, in the moment feelings and trusting those feelings," she said about performing live. "And that's what we are about, that's what we possess--that ability to communicate right here, right now."

Hers is one show not to miss.

To B. Or Not To Be
Lifestyle maven B. Smith is really on a roll. The celebrated restaurateur, author, and entrepreneur has a new iron in the fire--a daily run of her critically acclaimed TV show "B. Smith Style."

Starting December 6, Miss Smith, who also has her own merchandising line with retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, will be seen on the Discovery Channel every single day. Airing weekdays at 10:00 AM ET/PT, each one-hour episode of "B. Smith Style" will explore topics including cooking, healthy living, fashion, beauty, design, home decorating, community involvement and entertaining with style.

"It's a great time for me," said Miss Smith, a former fashion model gone good. "I feel very blessed. All of the hard work and past successes are still leading me to new endeavors."

The show will give viewers a chance to see and experience an expanded version of her highly successful half hour weekly series, which is the only nationally syndicated half-hour lifestyle television series hosted by an African American, for the past eight years.

A few of the celebrity guests scheduled to appear on the show include Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, pioneer rapper Cheryl "Salt" James, Hip-hop mogul Damon Dash and actress Mariel Hemmingway.

Most of "B. Smith Style"'s cooking segments will be taped out of her New York City restaurant in, where she created a whole new kitchen area specifically to showcase her talent behind the stove and in front of the camera.

A restaurateur for almost 20 years, Miss Smith is the owner of three successful B. Smith restaurants located in New York's Times Square theatre district, Washington, D.C.'s historic Union Station, and the scenic Long Island Hampton Village of Sag Harbor, New York. The B. Smith Restaurant Group was formed in May 1998 and is in the process of expanding its holdings. Her first highly popular restaurant launched in New York in 1986 and was based on 8th Avenue for 13 years. It's now a Bennigans. After a power struggle, she relocated the restaurant to New York's Restaurant Row in the 1999.

Born Barbara Smith in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, the brown beauty went on to become one of the fist African American models to break the glass ceiling of mainstream fashion magazines. She's an award-winning author and is working hard to make her B. Smith brand a leading source of lifestyle improvement, advice, skills, guidance and consumer products reaching women and men through television, publishing, restaurants, merchandising and the Internet.

"Everything and more," she described her goal as being.

And what's the driving before behind this wonder woman?

"Well you know what? I stayed with it. I have not taken no for an answer. And along the way I hope I've perfected my craft. Because that's what you have to do."

That's what America's Top Model is supposed to do.

Time For The Rent
Hollywood hot-shot Christopher Columbus is on fire. The "Harry Potter" director is gearing up for his shot at directing his first big movie musical--the screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway show "Rent." The movie is set to start production in March with the exteriors shot in New York City, and the interiors done in San Francisco.

Based on Pucinni's "La Boheme," "Rent" tells the story of one year in the life of Bohemian friends in New York's East Village.

White-hot actress Rosario Dawson has been cast as Mimi Marquez, the HIV-positive drug addicted dancer originally played by Daphne Rubin-Vega in the original Tony Award winning Broadway production. Other original cast members like Taye Diggs and Jesse L. Martin have transcended Hollywood, while Adam Pascal and Idina Menzel went on to win over The Great White Way in critically acclaimed productions of "AIDA" and "Wicked," respectively. According to published reports, they've all signed on to play their original roles in the filmed version, which will be produced by Revolution Studios and distributed by Columbia Tri-Star.

"They're all important," Mr. Columbus commented. "They've tried to recreate it with other cast members and sometimes they are successful, they've taken it on the road, but it's never had the emotional honesty or integrity that it did when those [original cast members] were in it. They bring something to it that you rarely get to see onscreen."

Mr. Columbus, who also directed the blockbuster hits "Home Alone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire," admits that he saw the staged production of the musical 15 times. Therefore he is well-equipped for the challenge of bringing the complex operatic show to the big screen.

"I take "Rent" so personally and I want it to be such a great movie that I am on a one man war against anybody who's going to give us negative publicity…I really believe strongly in this material."

Attached to the project for just a few months now, the "Stepmom" director revealed the project was originally slated to be an NBC television mini-series with directors such as Spike Lee helming it. Because of budgets, ratings and other undisclosed aspects, "Rent" landed in his court.

"I think musicals are great," the 46-year-old father of four continues. "It's important. I've always been obsessed by rock & roll--I always wanted to do movies that were musically based. This is important to me."

But before "Rent" is due, Mr. Columbus wrote and produced the holiday family comedy, "Christmas With The Kranks," starring Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Akroyd. The Joe Roth-directed film, which opened last week, is based on the John Grisham novel "Skipping Christmas."

He also has a "3-D Rock" concert movie--filmed during the 2004 International Underground Garage show featuring Steve Van Zandt, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls, Bo Diddley--that he's trying to get out to the masses. And three other projects were just announced with his name attached to it: the mystery "Slanted and Enchanted," the feel-good "NFL Dad" and the romantic comedy "Will Sebastian."

With all of the work he has going, he can pay a whole lot more than just rent. Ka-Ching!

Stuff
The 16th Annual Ms. Full-Figured USA Pageant will take place on December 5th at Newark's Robert Treat Hotel. Legendary crooner Freddie Jackson and "Def Poetry Jam" poet Faraji Salim are the confirmed entertainers for the festivities, which celebrates diversity in beauty and showcases plus-sized women all vying for cash prizes, modeling assignments, cosmetics, a celebrity outing, tiaras and TV appearances. Founded by Theresa "Sparkle" Randolph of JT Pageant Productions, who is herself a pageant winner and full-figured model, the pageant will feature contestants in two size categories: Ladies size 14-20 and size 22-36.

Wynton Marsalis will premiere his latest commission, Suite for Human Nature, featuring the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, guest performers Boys Choir of Harlem, vocalists Milt Grayson, Alan Harris, Jennifer Sanon, narrator Nancy Giles and director Tom Bullard, December 10-12 at Washington, D.C.'s historic Lincoln Theater. The New York debut and kick off the Jazz at Lincoln Center holiday season at the organization's new home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, with tickets ranging in pricing from $10 to $150. Suite for Human Nature is a collaboration of Mr. Marsalis' music and Diane Charlotte Lampert's lyrics and original satirical fable of the same title. In this libretto, the Four Winds come to the rescue when Mother Nature and Father Time create the world, only to find the troubles of mankind are almost too much to bear.

How about the near-show-stealing performance by Atlanta-based girl group NIA in Jay-Z's much-buzzed-about docu-film "Fade To Black"? The four-member group, comprised of rappers Dara Love and Rashida Porche along with singers Aisha Porche and Tuere Smith were filmed for the movie, which recently opened in limited release, during an impromptu freestyle session on the streets of New York last summer. The excitement over NIA's cameo has been widespread. According to a spokesperson for the group, they are recording songs for their upcoming sophomore release--the follow-up to 2002's "I'm Not The One."

Oscar-nominated actor Morgan Freeman will narrate "Rameses:Wrath Of God Or Man?" on the Discovery Channel on December 5, kicking of the basic cable channel's "Egypt Week" festivities. The two-hour documentary explores the recent findings by world-renowned Egyptologist Kent Weeks who has uncovered four skulls he believes could be the sons of Rameses the Great, including a skull that could be that of his firstborn son. The skull in question shows signs of a violent death, leading experts to ponder, "Could Rameses' son have been killed not by the hand of God ... but by the hand of man?" "The subject matter is both fascinating and important ... that is why I wanted to be involved in this project," said Mr. Freeman, who next stars in the Clint Eastwood-directed "Million Dollar Baby" opening on December 17.

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