Review: Diana Krall - A Night In Paris

Diana Krall in little less than a decade successfully won both fans from the jazz world as well as an adoring mainstream audience. Each time too she gradually seemed to be moving away from the piano chair of her jazz trio into a more refined sultry jazz singer. And where her earlier albums always gathered strong and positive reviews, her less trio-focused works have always been on the ‘politely’ or ‘approvingly’ positive side rather than enthusiastic praise that her first few recordings received.

And so after the politely received and massively selling ‘The Look Of Love’, and a very successful global tour, came Diana Krall’s first live album; ‘A Night In Paris’, recorded over a series of five nights at the prestigious Paris Olympia. Krall comes backed by a great band consisting of guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton, and only on some tracks is she backed by the superb Orchestre Symphonique European. Happily the material is split nicely between the Nat Cole Trio-inspired music that brought her first into the limelight and the later smoother more orchestral work that has made her the favourite of the dinner-party circuit.

Opening with the swinging ‘I Love Being Here With You, from her second album, her superb piano is fully involved, much missed after an almost complete absence from ‘The Look Of Love’. And even better, her singing is more free and impassioned than has been recently witnessed. Of course, to keep the larger fanbase happy, she then switches to the orchestral-backed ‘Let’s Fall In Love’. But very surprisingly, the orchestra doesn’t define the piece; Krall’s piano and Wilson’s guitar lead the way, and they do so flawlessly.

The flow of older, uptempo jazz followed by slower, mellower tunes continues, with ‘Deed I Do’ taken from Krall’s excellent Nat King Cole tribute album ‘All For You’. The quartet really come together and plays fantastically, with the piano well to the fore and sounding brilliant. It is disappointing then that it is immediately followed by her take on ‘The Look Of Love’. Too slow, sounding just like the lumpen studio version, and lacking really any dramatic feel to it, it tries to be a pop song in a jazz style with a bossa nova flair and fails at all three. It does though have the benefit of one of Krall’s beautifully played piano interludes.

‘East Of The Sun’ picks things back up again for the trio setting, while ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ straight after suffers again from too sedentary a tempo. Happily, the final half of the disc is the much better half, with a relaxed bossa ‘S‘Wonderful’ and a superb swinging ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ with some impeccable piano work and vocal phrasing from Krall.

An encore then comes in the form of an excellent Joni Mitchell number ‘A Case Of You’, before needlessly being followed by an unsubtlely tacked on studio track, no doubt for the benefit of the marketing team at Verve. A cover of Billy Joel’s ‘Just The Way You Are’, a song even he wasn’t happy with (hence his refusal to ever play it live), Krall’s version adds nothing, lacks personality and seems to be here solely to provide a hit to promote the album.

A live jazz album can be a truly awesome recording, and if a gig of Krall’s earlier career with just a trio had been recorded, one can only imagine how much more thrilling it would have been. Unfortunately here the swinging fire of the small group is broken up by the slower ballads that pulled in the larger audiences from albums ‘When I Look In Your Eyes’ and ‘The Look Of Love’. Maybe better sequencing might have given a better result, but what we get instead is a stop-start effect that is probably not going to satisfy either the older Krall jazz fans or the newer audience she’s recently attracted.

After ‘The Look Of Love’ many have unfairly made a case against Diana Krall and her music and that she is simply now no longer a jazz musician of any notable standing. Though there is sadly evidence to support that here. There is also amongst the excellent quartet pieces plenty of evidence that suggests just the opposite. ‘A Night In Paris’ is a good recording of both Diana Kralls –  early jazz firebird, and later ballad songstress – but assembled in the way it is here, and with an obvious grab for her new audience in the form of a lack-lustre song performed blandly bolted on to the end, it all just feels ‘messy’. If you like the earlier grittier Krall, you’ll enjoy six of the numbers here and you’ll have an excellent six-track live mini-album. If you like the later candlelit bathroom-esque Krall, you’ll like six of the numbers here and you’ll have almost identical versions of songs you’ll already have, and one pop-jazz tune you won’t want to have. For the most part though, it just feels like a missed opportunity. Disappointing.

**

Review: Diana Krall - All For You

Following fast on the heels of her second album, Diana Krall quickly convened a trio of herself, Russell Malone on guitar and Paul Keller on bass, in order to pay tribute to the Nat Cole Trio. ‘All For You’ then features a number of well-known long-time favourites from the legendary, but the band are able to pay syitable homage by including some of the lesser known of Cole hits, taking in the full range of Cole’s repertoire. Every track though is about the trio. Of course Krall sings on every tune, but more than half of each song is instrumental, with superbly crisp extended soloing on piano and guitar.

Here is perhaps the best example of what Krall’s voice can offer; full, sometimes husky, she is able to sing at fast tempo and slow. Although in truth, she is at her best with her slower pieces, such as on the bluesy ‘Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You’ which she chooses to sing at a slower pace than Cole did. With ‘You Call It Madness’ and ‘I’m Through With Love’, she sings in the whisper that would later, to her detriment, become her trademark. But where that would later epitomise the soul of laid back chill, here it forms a melancholic soul.

The highlights though come in the form of the very different ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ and ‘Hit That Jive Jack’. The latter is a fast moving toe-tapper of a number where everyone involved sings along and sounds like they’re having a whale of a time, whereas ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ is a revelation to anyone who would later write Krall off as having a thin or emotionless voice. Essentially a torch song, the singer pines for love gone by, with the sound of a voice holding back the tears.

Touring together for several months before recording this album, the trio perfected their ensemble, and with strong earthy vocals from Krall, this is easily her best jazz album. But Krall has always been a favourite to introduce people to jazz, and her later major label work with her mellower piano and vocal work is what pulled in the larger audience. To those fans, this will come as a surprise, and the sublime instrumental work may be seen by them as perhaps less important than the vocal work.

Recorded when Krall was still relatively unknown, the piano is more prominent and the number of love songs is less. But the music this smallest of bands makes is perfect, taking in numerous tempos and styles. To make an album of this quality, and with so few musicians, you need to be very good indeed. And they do it. It may not be what you’re looking for if you like the later ‘Look Of Love’ or ‘From This Moment On’, but the lack of instant appeal will mean that this will grow on you each time you play it.

A great recording, this is a fitting tribute to Nat Cole and his trio. And perhaps more importantly, for any Krall dissenters, this is the album which shows her true skill at the piano and the heartfelt emotions she can render with her voice.

****

Review: Diana Krall - Quiet Nights

It was always going to be just a matter of time before Diana Krall would make a bossa nova record. Moving on from her early piano trio days, her work has always moved towards the slower beat, and on ‘The Look Of Love’ she even hired arranger Claus Ogerman, who added a touch of bossa to proceedings.

So here it is; the ‘Diana Krall Does Bossa Nova’ album. But strangely for a bossa nova record, and even stranger given that the title of this recording is named after one of The Maestro’s more famous tunes, there is a surprisingly low number of songs here from Antonio Carlos Jobim. Instead we have three Jobim tunes mixed with a blend of songbook standards and ballads, performed in a bossa style.

‘Quiet Nights’ then is essentially the latest stage in the unjazzing of Diana Krall. Sure, there’s a hint of samba here and there, but mostly Krall operates in the slow and breathy whispery vocals that currently are bringing smiles to record label accountants everywhere with the likes of Melody Gardot and Norah Jones and their huge successes. Not that this would be too much of a problem when tackling bossa nova, but at times her voice becomes so breathy, it becomes lightweight and makes the songs sound simply tired. Worst of all, returning for his first time since ‘The Look Of Love’ Claus Ogerman again manages to cover everything in an anaemic glob.

The result is unpleasant at best. And certainly if you love anything bossa or Jobim related, I’d advise you to stop reading now and simply go and buy another copy of ‘Getz/Gilberto’ or check out anything by Eliane Elias.

‘The Girl From Ipanema’ is re-read in its boy version (always a bad start) and simply plods. Any tune or energy you’ve ever heard from this classic is replaced with sleepy drawling, the song being for some unfathomable reason being slowed down to half-speed as Krall wearily gasps the words out. ‘Quiet Nights’ too suffers the slowing down treatment, but at least retains its melody. Surprisingly, the third Jobim tune ‘Este Seu Olhar’ is actually pretty good, with a subtle arrangement and a silky vocal delivered in some very impassioned Portuguese.

Curiously the non-bossa tunes also suffer the plodding and crawling fate. Having successfully rendered ‘The Look Of Love’ completely uninteresting (a feat in itself) eight years before, attention is turned to another Bacharach/David classic in ‘Walk On By’ – which is then remade into a bloodless apology. ‘Everytime We Say Goodbye’ too is given perhaps its most non-descript treatment ever.

‘I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face’ is one of two songs not done as a bossa number, but instead as a very slow ballad. And again, it’s the slowness that kills it. You’ll be willing for the pace to pick up just a little bit. The other song not in the bossa style is ‘Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry’, and rather pleasingly it feels perfectly paced, with Anthony Wilsons silky and seductive guitar work raising it to an easy album highlight.

Intended as a ‘love letter for my husband’, it sounds more like a (over) production job than a personal and intimate dedication. Aiming for dreamy and sensuous gently swaying cocktail music, it instead – bossa or not – gives us a distinctly unsexy expensively made collection of songs that despite their high calibre, completely fail to engage. Not jazz, not bossa, it is a clutch of outstanding compositions from the background of both reduced to slow balladry, something that you would expect from someone of a much lesser pedigree than Diana Krall.

Obviously going for the romantic and caressing, Diana Kralls ‘Quiet Nights’ is more likely to instill drowsiness and instantly induce narcolepsy. So there you go, this is ‘Diana Krall Does Bossa Coma’.

**

Review: Diana Krall - Stepping Out

Diana Krall is not one of my favoured jazz artists. Her slow woozy lounge jazz singing is good, but doesn't excite me greatly. And yet, if you dig around in her discography, you will find more than a handful of good and even great jazz recordings where you discover the real strength of her voice and just how good a piano player she can be. This is what I think of her little-known debut recording.

Diana Krall has for years been bringing jazz to a new audience, with a combination of sultry vocals, nimble piano skills and - hard to deny – highly photogenic good looks. Her ‘more developed’ recordings however have shown a consistent maturing artist saddled with an ever-growing band size and an increasing persuasion to slow down the pace, which in the eyes of many have moved her solidly into the Smooth/AOR/MOR bracket.

Here though on her 1992 debut, aged just 27, she sings and heads a trio, playing the piano with honesty, subtlety and power. What is truly surprising though for anyone only familiar with her later material is her piano work and skill as an absolutely grade A improviser. Later she would serve more as an occasional accompanist rather than a lead, but here her abilities are shown in equal measure, weaving her dual gifts into one. In a way it’s disappointing that she would be remodelled and pegged as a sultry pin-up babe who sings, and happens to sit at a piano. Here it is her playing at the forefront rather than her voice (and it is a good voice). What is remarkable about her voice here though is the feisty and looser quality it has compared to the laid-back candles-by-the-bath smooth she is primarily known for today.

Easy highlight Duke Ellington’s ‘I’m Just A Lucky So-And-So’ swings, and Krall sings it with a wink of knowing humour, while idol Nat Cole’s ‘Straighten Up And Fly Right’ gets a spirited treatment that Cole himself would have approved of. ‘Body And Soul’ finds Kralls singing intimate and caressing, giving a hint of her later favoured direction, though the songs limited and weak lyrics still do no favours. Something that one wouldn’t find on any other Diana Krall album though is the instrumental ‘Big Foot’. A light touch, her skill at the piano is impressive, and it is a pleasure to appreciate her for once beyond her singing abilities.

There’s a good deal of creativity here too. Heard enough versions of ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’? This one will make you think again. Sticking to the song, but inflecting it with a unique flavour, the small group of three raise the bar and make it one of the very best versions of the song you’ll ever hear.

Diana Krall’s debut displays her full talents as a multi-talented artist, perhaps more so than anything that would follow. More chances are taken here vocally than later as well, and it’s exciting. For anyone who likes jazzy arrangements of the classics, this album comes highly recommended and it gives us a view of where Krall may go later if she chooses to move past the slightly dull glamourpuss-lounge-singer role she seems to have put herself in.

****