JAZZ : ALBUM REVIEWS : DIANE SCHUUR “Pure Schuur” GRP Records ***

Schuur’s first recording since her well-publicized weight loss and change of musical image is a wildly eclectic outing. Producer Andre Fischer seems to have changed his mind about how to approach Schuur’s highly malleable style on virtually every track.

The worst examples--”I Could Get Used To This” is a particularly unhappy illustration--are those that squeeze her into inappropriate contemporary rhythm & blues settings.

Schuur is far better, more mellow and less strident than she has been in the past, on ballads like “You Don’t Remember Me,” “What a Difference a Day Makes” and a vigorous rhythm collaboration with Joe Williams on “Deed I Do.” But the real emergence of the mature Schuur will have to await a production that responds to her musical character without trying to reinvent it.