Dianne Reeves Kicks Off Edmonds Center for the Arts Season on Friday

Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves will kick off the Edmonds Center for the Arts' 2012-2013 season Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The season is ECA's sixth.

Growing up in a musical family and influenced by an especially inspiring music teacher, Reeve’s love with music began at age 11. After singing in her high school jazz band at George Washington High School in Denver and studying music at the University of Colorado, she moved to Los Angeles, where she became interested in Latin-style music and toured with Brazilian jazz funk master Sergio Mendes.

She later toured with singer Harry Belafonte for three years before joining trumpet maestro Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra for several Duke Ellington projects in celebration of Ellington’s Centennial.

In 2000, Reeves received the first of her four successive Grammy awards for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, and in 2002 her musical world exploded with a performance at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the Ella Fitzgerald Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, a compilation CD release on Blue Note, and an appearance on the season finale of HBO's “Sex & the City.”

Other career highlights include her first Christmas album in 2004, her appearance in (and Grammy for the soundtrack of) 2005’s “Good Night and Good Luck,” the George Clooney film about newsman Edward R.Murrow and her performance in the 2007 award-winning documentary about composer, singer, and Ellington contemporary Billy Strayhorn.

Reeves' most recent CD is "When You Knew."

Dianne Reeves performs Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Edmonds Center for the Arts. Tickets are $40-$50, $15 for youth and available through the ECA box office at (425) 275-9595 or online at www.ec4arts.org. Additional service charges may apply.