Jazz Near and North

VOCAL CHAMELEON: In her time, Dianne Reeves has drawn on her remarkably flexible, chameleonic talents to pay tribute to a range of significant singers who have passed on, from Sarah Vaughan (a tribute heard at the Arlington Theatre a decade ago) to recent respect-paying tributes to Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln, both recently passed. Reeves has the wisdom, the chops, and the range to “go there,” in different directions, but with heart and musical mind intact.

Meanwhile, the real Reeves keeps standing up and delivering on her own unique, defiantly multidirectional terms, appealing to fans of the deep jazz stuff and more R&B and world-music-ish leanings and generally keeping customers satisfied. No doubt, more of that satisfaction will come to pass when Reeves pays a return visit to the Lobero Theatre on Friday, October 19, in the Jazz at the Lobero series. She was last in this jazz-kindly room in 2007, soon after she had made a mainstream jazz splash with her vintage-waxing work on the soundtrack of Good Night, and Good Luck and before her last studio album, When You Know.

On that album, Reeves spins deftly around fresh arrangements of “Just My Imagination” and “Windmills of My Mind,” a tasty pop reread of “Midnight Sun,” a straight-ahead-ish “Social Call,” and the African-flavored intrigue of the title cut. In other words, it’s a little trip through the curious yet confident musical brain of Reeves. Expect that kind of action at the Lobero, along with the sound of one of the finer living jazz singers on the global block.