DIANA PANTON: "To Brazil With Love"

Original released on CD eOne DIA-CD-1293

(CANADA 2011, October 4)

Diana's release, "To Brazil With Love", is a tribute to the samba and bossa nova traditions of Brazil. The album features the most adventurous instrumentation to date. Maninho Costa and Silas Silva add Brazilian rhythms on drums and percussion, while Kiki Misumi on cello and Bill McBirnie on flute add colour and texture. Don and Reg are still the mainstay of the trio and provide delightful accompaniment and soloing throughout. The album appeared on a number of Best of 2011 lists, including those of Japan's Jazz Critique Magazine, Tim Perlich, JAZZ, FM's hosts Jaymz Bee and John Devenish. The album also ranked #1 for eight weeks on the jazz sales chart in Greater China and Singapore. All three of Diana's most recent albums appeared simultaneously on the Top Ten jazz sales chart for 12 weeks in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The album was nominated for a JUNO, a Canadian Independent Music Award and an American Independent Music Award. If the expression "the art of interpretation" has ever applied, then it does here. Expressiveness, paired with a voice that is nuanced with top notch jazz inflections, gives us a vocalist that ranks among the greatest young chanteuses of our time. (Volker Doberstein)