Diane Schuur is a little country, but still a lot of jazz.
She has a new album coming out June 7, "The Gathering." It is a compilation of 10 country hits that have been popular for a long time.
Next Friday Schuur will be in Tucson to sing a couple of songs from "The Gathering."
But jazz is still in her soul.
"I'm not giving up jazz or anything, I just wanted to go in a different direction for this one," said Schuur on the phone from her home in Dana Point, Calif. "It's like when Ray Charles did his country album."
"There's no twang in it. This isn't that kind of country," confirmed Schuur's manager Jack White. "There's some bend to it. It's more jazzy."
For proof, he emailed a clip of Schuur singing Merle Haggard/Bonnie Owens' "Today I Started Loving You Again."
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There is absolutely, positively no twang on it. Actually, Schuur may be the first singer to include some scat singing in a country music recording.
And even though all the tracks were recorded in Nashville, jazz artists Kirk Whalum and Larry Carlton stopped by the studio to add a few of those bendy notes, along with contributions from guitarist Mark Knopfler as well as guest singers Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Carmella Ramsey.
"An artist with vision should be allowed to go her own way," said pianist Jeff Daniel, calling in from the road to add his support. "Remember what happened when Linda Ronstadt recorded 'What's New' with the Nelson Riddle orchestra? Now every rock star is recording an album of standards.
"This could be like that. I know there will be a few eyebrows raised (with 'The Gathering'), but I find it adventurous. I wish her the best."
In some respects, Diane Schuur's recording career is coming full circle. It was exactly 40 years ago when 17-year-old Schuur - already called Deedles by all her friends and family - made her first recording. Jimmy Wakely was the producer for her Decca Records single, "Dear Mommy and Daddy" backed with "The Sun Is Shining."
Schuur has become a popular jazz singer who received five Grammy Award nominations (winning two), sang twice at the White House with Ronald Reagan in office, and recorded 18 albums.
But in Tucson she is still known as that girl who sang every night at the Jazz Showcase on Grant Road with Daniel's band back in the late 1970s. It would be several more years before she became famous, but everyone who heard her then agreed she deserved it.
Those nights and that music will get most of the attention in Friday's concert at the Fox Theatre. As has become her custom, Schuur will be accompanied by many of the same musicians she worked with at the Jazz Showcase.
Most of those players have stayed in Tucson. Only Daniel, a graduate of Canyon del Oro High School in 1970, left for the coast along with Schuur in 1979. Also coming onstage for the gig are Fred Hayes, drums, percussion; Howard Wooten, guitars; Gary Love, saxes, percussion; Craig Faltin, upright and electric bass.
"We've got a whole set list worked out," said Schuur. "It includes a lot of songs we did back there in the 1970s. Some of them are 'She' that Emmylou Harris wrote, and 'I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Free' by Nina Simone.
"One that I wrote is 'Pilot of My Destiny'. We're doing two songs from the new recording, too," she said
Those two will be Willie Nelson's "Healing Hands of Time" and the Merle Haggard cut with Schuur's scatting improv.
If You Go
Jazz singer Diane Schuur co-headlining with the Jeff Daniel Group
• When: 8 p.m. next Friday
• Where: Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.
• Tickets: $24-$70.
• Information/reservations: www.tucsonjazz.org, or 903-1265.
Chuck Graham has written about the Tucson arts scene for more than 35 years. Read more of his arts coverage at "Let the Show Begin," www.tucsonstage.com
