Reeves sings tonight at Lincoln

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Every one of the historic Lincoln Theatre's 1,237 seats has been sold for Dianne Reeves' concert tonight, according to the spokeswoman for the Washington Performing Arts Society, which is co-presenting the event with the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival (which takes place in September and won't have Miss Reeves on its bill).

The WPAS last hosted the multiple Grammy-winner in 1994, but Miss Reeves hasn't exactly been a stranger to the District in the intervening years. There have been annual performances at the Kennedy Center, including 2005's "Billie & Me," a musical tribute to the late Billie Holiday, which also featured Rita Coolidge, Joan Osborne, Niki Haris and Rokia Traore.

"I always love playing in D.C.," Miss Reeves says during a phone chat from her Denver home, one of several interviews squeezed into a jam-packed schedule.

Amid all the activity, the star, who turned 50 last fall, doesn't seem to have a handler or flack fielding her calls. She's manning the phones herself, running errands and tending to her small barking dog.

Tonight's Lincoln Theatre date (where she'll be accompanied by pianist Geoffrey Keezer, bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Gregory Hutchinson) is part of a rigorous tour schedule that began earlier this month and continues through mid-November.

Set for a fall release is an album featuring new works from the celebrated vocalist for the first time in six years. "Can't talk about it, though," she coyly says in her familiar warm contralto.

Music lovers, of course, have been fascinated with Miss Reeves' vocal agility since long before her days as a headliner or her recent turn as -- what else? -- a jazz chanteuse in the acclaimed 2005 film, "Good Night, and Good Luck." Her work on the soundtrack (which includes Duke Ellington's classic "Solitude" and the novelty tunes "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "TV Is the Thing This Year") earned Miss Reeves her fourth Grammy, this time for best jazz vocal album.

In 1987, she became one of the few jazz vocalists to find commercial success on the pop charts with "Better Days," a touching ballad of childhood memories, family ties and the wisdom of elders from her self-titled LP.

" 'Better Days' is a song that I wrote from a very real place," Miss Reeves says. "It's great to have a hit on the pop charts, but jazz was always my love."

Miss Reeves came to that realization early on, "although I listened to all kinds of music while growing up," she says. "Motown, the Supremes, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Carmen McRae: You name it, I listened to it."