AMG Review of When You Know

Michael G. Nastos
All Music Guide

Dianne Reeves has deservedly been hoisted on high as one of the top five jazz voices in the decade of the 2000s. Her four Grammy Awards and her music from the movie soundtrack Good Night, and Good Luck solidified Reeves' upper-echelon placement. When You Know showcases languid and lush pop songs, with producer George Duke doing more than his share to give Reeves an orchestrated backdrop to sing songs she likes, including a string quartet and the guitar of Romero Lubambo. Her most impressive straight jazz cover, "Social Call" sports a second-chorus extrapolated lyric over the Wes Montgomery-styled electric guitar of Russell Malone. There's nothing phony or pretentious about this one. "Windmills of Your Mind" has an interesting modal arrangement within a waltz framework, and "Once I Loved" is also done nicely. Lubambo is the shining light of the session, heard on nine tracks in his own inimitable, passionate, classy manner.