Krall, Diana

▪ 2001

      The golden girl of jazz at the 2000 Grammy Awards was Diana Krall, whose CD When I Look in Your Eyes not only won the prize for best jazz vocal performance but also received the first Album of the Year nomination for a jazz album in many years. Singer-pianist-arranger Krall's album, her sixth, was understated compared with most contemporary hits. In an era of song-belting pop divas, pounding rhythms, electric instruments, and busy, high-volume productions, she sang in an unforced contralto voice that was often sultry and always swinging. She did not scat or offer virtuoso displays of vocal technique or drama. Her accompaniment was spare—a cool jazz rhythm section featuring her own piano, occasionally augmented by discreet string-orchestra backgrounds. The settings were perfect for her intimate portrayals of the subtleties of romantic feelings and for her whimsical humour, too. The songs she interpreted were notable for their intelligence and subtlety—crafty love songs by old masters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter and witty modern tunes such as “Popsicle Toes” by Michael Franks and Nat King Cole's version of “Frim Fram Sauce.” Krall's charm worked on pop as well as jazz record buyers, and shortly after her Grammy, the album zoomed up Billboard's Hot 100 chart. In March she bagged the Canadian Juno Award for best vocal jazz album.

      Krall was performing on a special millennium cruise to Antarctica when her double Grammy nomination was announced; the cruise and the honours were the two latest triumphs in a career that began to skyrocket in the mid-1990s. Krall was born on Nov. 16, 1964, in Nanaimo, B.C. She frequently credited her musical family for stimulating her career, and in girlhood she began playing classical piano, singing in a church choir, and learning to play and sing the Fats Waller songs in her father's record collection. She began playing piano professionally at age 15 and used scholarships to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston and privately with jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles; it was Rowles who urged her to emphasize her singing skills. Years of performing on the U.S. East and West coasts and in Toronto preceded her first recording in 1993. There was a period when, according to Krall, “I wasn't really able to pay my rent,” but in 1995 she recorded the album that was her breakthrough to jazz fame: All for You, a tribute to an earlier singer-pianist, Nat King Cole; it spent over a year on the jazz best-seller lists. As Krall's 1997 album Love Scenes was selling a half million copies worldwide, the New York glamour magazines and Hollywood were noticing the tall and slender blonde beauty. She appeared in photo spreads in Vanity Fair and Glamour, and the covers and inside liners of When I Look in Your Eyes featured photos of Krall in DKNY and Donna Karan designer clothing. While most jazz stars never appear on American television or in movies, Krall sang on episodes of Melrose Place and in three films by Clint Eastwood, who directed the video for her song “Why Should I Care?” Her glamorous image went with the sophisticated songs she chose for her repertoire. Yet perhaps because of her fashion photos and her hobnobbing with Hollywood stars, the response from jazz critics to Krall was mixed. The singer, however, insisted on the purity of her motives: “I'm excited about the music. I play it with integrity and I don't compromise my vision. I approach it from an artistic perspective.”

John Litweiler

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▪ Canadian musician and singer

born November 16, 1964, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

      Canadian jazz musician who achieved crossover success with her sultry, unforced contralto voice and her piano playing.

      As a child Krall played classical piano, sang in a church choir, and learned to play and sing the Fats Waller songs in her father's record collection. She began playing piano professionally at age 15 and later studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and privately with jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles. Performing in the United States and Canada, she developed a repertoire that included subtle, sophisticated songs and spare accompaniment—a cool jazz rhythm section featuring her own piano, occasionally augmented by discreet string-orchestra backgrounds.

      Krall's first album, Stepping Out, was released in 1993, and her breakthrough came three years later with All for You, a tribute to Nat King Cole that spent more than a year on the jazz best-seller lists. She gained a wider audience with When I Look in Your Eyes (1999), for which she also received her first Grammy Award. Later albums include The Look of Love (2001) and the concert recording Live in Paris (2002). On The Girl in the Other Room (2004) Krall for the first time included some of her own compositions as well as songs written or cowritten by British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello (Costello, Elvis), whom she had married in 2003.

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