Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Diana Krall live, tonight, in Winnipeg

After the two days off to rest a little, Diana Krall does tonight, April 22, at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the sixth concert of the Canadian leg of her acclaimed "Quiet Nights" tour.
Try your luck at last minute tickets at ticketmaster.

The set list for tonight:
1. I Love Being Here With You
2. Do it Again
3. Let's Fall in Love
4. Where or When
5. I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face
6. 'Deed I Do
7. Exactly Like You
8. But Not For Me
9. Devil May Care
10. Quiet Nights
11. Love Letters
12. Pick Yourself Up
13. Walk on By
14. I Don't Know Enough About You
Encore:
15. The Look of Love
And don't miss the cover story about Diana in the May issue of DownBeat magazine.
The cover pic is by Robert Maxwell.
Here's an excerpt of the "Depths of Her Heart" article by writer Dan Ouellette:

"Ten years ago, Diana Krall won Female Vocalist of the Year in DownBeat’s Readers Poll. At the time, the singer–pianist’s star was ascending thanks to her 1999 Johnny Mandel-arranged album, When I Look In Your Eyes (Verve), which earned her a Grammy for Jazz Vocal Performance and a rare jazz nomination for Album of the Year.

Yet Krall seemed uncomfortable with the DownBeat award. “It’s a great honor, and of course I’m happy,” she said in ’99.

But then, while noting how much respect she had for Cassandra Wilson, Nnenna Freelon and Dee Dee Bridgewater, she wondered aloud if she was a bona fide jazz vocalist. Krall even consulted her pianist friend Alan Broadbent, who assured her that she was. Even so, she favored the song stylist tag, à lá Tony Bennett.

A decade later, Krall laughed at the recollection and the insecure girl-next-door image she exuded. Today, she’s not only an established vocalist, but also a burgeoning producer, helping Barbra Streisand put together an album. But it’s her new CD, the intimate, bossa nova-inspired Quiet Nights (Verve), that shows how far she has matured as an artist. Whereas past albums have shown Krall’s polish and a coy mix of spunk, cool, grace, mirth and romance with a wink, her new outing stands as her most personal, sensual and assured recording—and without a wink in sight.

Relaxed and sipping on a cappuccino at the Bowery Hotel in New York’s East Village in late February, Krall enthused about the fun she had making Quiet Nights. “It reflects who I am today,” she said. “It’s like having a big mirror held up to who I am. In the past, I was feeling, searching and apologizing for things, but now I’m older and I’m happy with what I’m doing.”

Her first full album of new material in three years, Quiet Nights is a sublime beauty that Krall characterizes as a collection of tunes lovers can whisper in each other’s ears at night. She sings with a hushed contralto, with a sexy appeal on such tunes as the title track (Jobim’s “Corcovado” rendered in English), heartfelt soul on Johnny Mercer’s “Too Marvelous For Words,” playful longing on the samba “So Nice” and chilled seduction on “You’re My Thrill.” Krall keeps the low-lights spirit flickering with single-note piano breaks on every song.

Her support team includes Anthony Wilson, who has been Krall’s go-to guitarist since her 2002 Live In Paris, and the bass–drum team John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton, mentors who were on board for her debut album, Stepping Out, in 1993. Also on board are Tommy LiPuma, who serves as Krall’s producer for the 10th time, long-time engineer Al Schmitt and arranger Claus Ogerman, who brings the same lush swell of woodwinds and strings to the fore as he did on the singer’s 2001 breakout hit, The Look Of Love. Also in the mix is Brazilian percussionist Paulinho Da Costa.

Krall’s 2008 concerts in Brazil provided the impetus to take on a project like Quiet Nights, which she will tour with a full orchestra this spring in Canada and summer across the United States. Two days after she finished last year’s road shows, she assembled her quartet in the studio and recorded Quiet Nights in six days. “I had a clear idea about what I wanted to do,” she said. “It’s about finding that right mood and tempo.”

Ogerman’s arrangements place an emphasis on a darker flavor. “Claus is a great arranger for me,” Krall said. “He thinks cinematically, and there’s always an element of noir to what he arranges. I tend toward the melancholy.”

Krall cites the version of the Hal David–Burt Bacharach hit “Walk On By” as an example of where Ogerman drops the orchestration out of the mix. “He doesn’t feel he has to fill every space,” she said. “He leaves you exposed, which I love. There was some pressure to fill the space on that tune with piano, but I thought, let’s leave it be. I don’t have anything else to say.”

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