"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
Diane Nalini biography:
Singer/songwriter Diane Nalini's latest project puts a uniquely modern spin on the words of William Shakespeare. Her latest CD "Songs of Sweet Fire" is a collection of fifteen sonnets and songs from the plays set to her original jazz, funk, and blues music. "Songs of Sweet Fire" is Diane's third album.
Diane started singing jazz at the age of three. She was born in Montreal, Canada, and is of Belgian and Goan descent. "She captures jazz at its most sophisticated and joyous level," writes Elle Magazine Canada.
In a recent review of "Tales... My Mama Told Me", Irwin Block of the Montreal Gazette wrote: "Diane Nalini has the voice, the phrasing, confidence, clarity and control to make a tune her own and turn it into a nuanced thing of beauty."
Her debut album "After dusk" was described by London's Time Out magazine as "a gorgeous collection, sung with quiet enunciated power". "Her artistry shines through on two wide-ranging albums, After Dusk and the newly released Tales... My Mama Told Me", writes Canada's Globe and Mail.
While breathing new life into jazz standards, she also performs her own compositions, as well as Brazilian songs and French chanson.
She has performed for President Bill Clinton, Sir Paul McCartney, the President of Malta, the Canadian High Commissioner to London, and former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Diane was nominated for the Grand Prix de Jazz General Motors at the 2002 Montreal International Jazz Festival, and was one of two finalists for the UK's Young Jazz Vocalist of the Year awards for 2001.
In October 2005, she opened for legendary 3-time Grammy winning songwriter Jimmy Webb at Guelph's River Run Center. The Kitchener-Waterloo Record wrote: "Nalini made an auspicious Guelph concert debut," calling her "a gifted arranger and vocalist." More recently, she had the pleasure to perform with the wonderful David Knopfler (founder of 'Dire Straits') for the North American launch of his album 'Ship of Dreams'.
Diane studied Chinese watercolour painting and calligraphy for 10 years with the late Virginia Chang. She exhibited and sold paintings with the Montreal-based Ting Sung Group. For her new album, Songs Of Sweet Fire, she painted 16 original watercolour paintings inspired by the mood of the songs. They accompany Shakespeare's lyrics in a full-colour, deluxe 20 page booklet. "I wanted to give something extra to all my wonderful, supportive fans. Something connected to the songs in a unique way."
Diane can be heard regularly on CBC Radio and Espace Musique, and has also been featured on BBC Radio 3, and Danish and Brazilian radio stations.
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