Diane Nalini - After Dusk (2000)

"Half-Belgian, half-Goan vocalist from Montreal, Canada - now there's a muticultural petri dish - leads this modern jazz quintet performing standards, bossa nova and original material ... A recent album, 'After dusk' is a gorgeous collection of standards sung with quiet, enunciated power."TIME OUT MAGAZINE, UK

"... Rendering songbook standards as well as French chanson, Brazilian classics, her own compositions, and settings of poems by Shakespeare and Tennyson, Nalini consistently displays bell-clear tone, meticulous enunciation, playfulness and subtle swing."THE GLOBE AND MAIL

"Diane presents a mixed package of such standards as Stars Fell on Alabama, My Funny Valentine, Everytime We Say Goodbye and How Long Has This Been Going On, as well as interpretations of some familiar French melodies, including La Mer, and La Maison Sous Les Arbres. We head south for Chico Buarque's lovely Carolina, and the vocalist delivers beautifully two of her own compositions, the title song and The Portrait On The Wall... her unaffected little girl charm, not relying on vocal gymnastics, is a delight to the ears."JAZZ CANADIANA

"Maybe it's her mixed parentage - a Belgian father, a Goan mother - or maybe it's having spent most of her life in cosmopolitan Montreal. Whatever it is, Diane Nalini possesses a musical curiosity (not to mention a trilingual fluency) that immediately sets her apart from most fledgling jazz songstresses. Sure she covers the usual American songbook giants - Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Cole Porter. (If you think you never need to hear another version of My Funny Valentine, think again).

But she proves herself equally at home with the continental chanson tradition, singing an incandescent version of the late Charles Trenet's La Mer. What's more, her take on Chico Buarque's Carolina whets the appetite for further dips into the bottomless Brazilian well. (A little Caetano Veloso, perhaps?) Nalini's own compositions more than hold their own in such stellar company. The album's title song, co-written with guitarist Mike Rud, has an irresistible melancholy allure.

Not given to a lot of showboating or melodic filigree, Nalini relies on a pure tone and sensitive lyric interpretation for her impact. Choosing to be backed by only guitar and bass further adds to her no-safety-net approach. Happily, it all works wonderfully. Full marks must go also to the aforementioned Rud and to bassist Dave Watts. Both products of the Jazz performance program at McGill, they provide suitably intimate accompaniment, even the occasional gentle nudge. Rud, in particular, is able to step forward with consistently surprising solos without ever distracting from the song."PLANET JAZZ MAGAZINE.