Ranee Lee presents jazz reinterpretations of Céline Dion songs on new album
Lee enlisted pianist and producer Taurey Butler to work on the new arrangements. She’s joined by her other regular bandmates, bassist Dave Watts and drummer Jim Doxas, who have appeared on Lee’s previous albums including 2014’s What’s Going On. However, it’s Lee’s first album without her husband, guitarist Richard Ring, who died of cancer in 2018.
“It was a strength to feel his presence,” Lee says. “He would have told us to follow this path. Each piece that I approached paid homage to him. He was there in my thoughts, in my vision of the song.”
The album features the additional talents of guitarist Carlos Jiménez, trumpeter Ron DiLauro, saxophonist Richard Beaudet, trombonist Muhammed Abdul Al Khabyyr, violinists Kate Bevan-Baker and Émilie Brûlé, and cellist Amanda Keesmaat.
For more than 40 years, Lee has enjoyed a career as one of Canada’s most popular jazz vocalists, an award-winning actress, a songwriter, and an author of children’s books. Since 1984, she has recorded 13 albums for Justin Time, including multiple collaborations with legendary Montreal pianist Oliver Jones.
Lee won a Dora Mavor Moore Award in the late ’80s for her starring role as Billie Holiday in the stage musical Lady Day. She won a Juno Award in 2010 for her album Renee Lives Upstairs. She was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2006.
Here’s the track listing:
- My Heart Will Go On
- I’m Alive
- Tale as Old as Time
- All By Myself
- House of the Rising Sun / Je Crois Toi
- Nature Boy
- Because You Loved Me
- The Power of Love
- The Prayer
Ranee Lee’s Because You Loved Me is out May 13, 2022 via Justin Time.