HAMILTON, ONTARIO – Today, two-time JUNO Award-winning jazz vocalist Diana Panton releases "The Trouble with Hello is Goodbye," the second single from her upcoming tenth album, blue.
"The Trouble with Hello is Goodbye" may be streamed or downloaded HERE.
This wistful song from 1972 by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, and Dave Grusin underlines the risks of falling in love. Diana's lustrous, evocative vocals are backed by the artistry of four longtime musical colleagues who made significant contributions to the beauty and passion of her JUNO-winning RED album. The four include three Order of Canada honourees: tenor saxophonist Phil Dwyer C.M., guitarist Reg Schwager C.M., and pianist/arranger Don Thompson O.C., plus first-call bassist Jim Vivian. Also showcased on "The Trouble with Hello is Goodbye" are the extraordinary talents of the Penderecki String Quartet, who acquired their name in 1986 upon the invitation of the great Polish composer himself.
Set for release on October 28, blue represents the culminating gesture in a musical narrative about romance that began with pink (Silver Disc Award winner in Japan), followed by RED (2015 JUNO winner). With release dates spanning more than a decade, this trilogy charts the emotional arc of an ill-fated romantic relationship. The eponymous colours symbolically suggest content: pink is the infatuation of first-time love, RED, the passion of true love, and blue, the heartbreak and mystery of love lost.
“The release dates were deliberately spread over a decade from the first to the final album in the trilogy in order for the music to better reflect different stages in a relationship,” says Diana Panton. “I knew that my voice and perspective would be more mature if I waited to record the blue album a little later in my life.”
ABOUT DIANA PANTON:
In command of a keen aesthetic sense, Diana Panton has attracted the attention of some of the jazz world’s most respected masters. When legendary multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson first heard the nineteen-year-old Diana sing, with unabashed enthusiasm he urged her to audition for the renowned Banff Centre for the Arts Jazz Workshop. It was there that she studied under Norma Winstone, and, in subsequent visits, with Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton. When the time arrived for her to go into the recording studio, award-winning guitarist Reg Schwager was invited to join Don Thompson in laying down a collaborative sound that has proved to be, on all of her albums, the perfect setting for the delicate nuance of Diana’s pure vocals. The late, great jazz critic Len Dobin called the product of that first session, …yesterday perhaps, one of the finest debut albums he had heard in years.
Since the release of that first album in 2005, Diana Panton’s career has gathered astounding momentum, drawing international acclaim for her nine albums and the impressive variety and quality of her catalogue of songs. The numerous honours garnered include JUNO Awards for RED in 2015 and I Believe in Little Things in 2017, two Silver Disc Awards in Japan, seven JUNO nominations, nine Hamilton Music Awards, and a host of National Jazz Award nominations and Canadian and American independent music award nominations. I Believe in Little Things charted simultaneously on Billboard’s Jazz and Children’s Music charts and went to #1 on Amazon’s “Movers and Shakers” chart, following an interview on NPR. The album received a four-star review in DownBeat magazine and was one of their Best Albums of 2016. Panton’s albums have made the year-end lists of ICI Musique, NOW Magazine, Jazz Critique Magazine, The Montreal Mirror, and DownBeat, among others, and, in addition to reaching #1 on Amazon and iTunes in Canada and the US, have made bestseller lists in Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan