Diane Schuur is a remarkable multi Grammy-winning jazz singer and pianist. This weekend, I was asked by Ann Ruckert, a client of mine in the music business, to photograph Schuur as she spoke to a group of Ann's students and performed in her Upper West Side apartment.
Hearing my clicking camera behind her, Diane jokingly interrupts the discussion to make sure I'm getting her best profile.
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Schuur, blind since childhood, is a very feisty lady. She told the students in an off-the-record discussion of the huge adversity she has overcome in her life. She shared every detail in a frank, highly personal talk. She took every problem and turned it around, blaming no one else. It was an inspiring, yet chilling, life story.
Then Schuur moved to the living room, sat at a “perfectly tuned” Steinway piano, and began to sing. Being only four feet away from her, was a big thrill for me. Wow, can this lady sing! Wannabees, move over.
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The next night, in the last of a weeklong gig at the Blue Note jazz club in Greenwich Village, Schuur asked the students to join her on stage to sing. She made sure that each got her new CD -- Some Other Time. It was a generosity that one rarely sees anymore. Diane Schuur impressed me on many levels.
