DianaKrallfans.com

http://blogs.timesunion.com/reviews/?p=26

Costello shows jazz also within his grasp

By GREG HAYMES
Staff writer

LENOX, Mass. … You might think that an 88-year-old jazz pianist and a 52-year-old rocker might have little in common. But if you were at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival on Saturday afternoon for the live concert taping of Marian McPartland’s long-running “Piano Jazz'’ radio show with guest Elvis Costello, then you already know how wrong you would have been.

Costello is pop’s greatest musical chameleon, having collaborated with opera singer Anne Sofie Von Otter, pop maestro Burt Bacharach, country music great George Jones, the Brodsky String Quartet, the Beatles’ Paul McCartney and New Orleans R&B legend Allen Toussaint, to name just a few.

He previously performed on National Public Radio’s “Piano Jazz'’ in 2003, and in the short three years since then, he’s recorded no fewer than five albums … a song cycle of ballads (“North'’), a ballet score (“Il Sogno'’), rock `n’ roll (“The Delivery Man'’), orchestral jazz (“My Flame Burns Blue'’) and rhythm ‘n’ blues (“The River in Reverse'’).

So no one really knew just which Elvis Costello would show up at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall on Saturday. As it turned out, it was Elvis Costello, torch singer of intimate jazz standards.

“The last time I was on your show, I made a rather rash promise that I’d return and sing only songs that I’d never performed onstage before,'’ he confided to McPartland, and he came pretty close to keeping that promise.

With McPartland quite ably accompanying him on the Steinway grand piano, Costello crooned his way through the Vernon Duke-Ira Gershwin unrequited love ballad “I Can’t Get Started'’ to open the show. In a warm, surprisingly supple voice, he served up an
engaging collection of vintage ballads, both well known (“Blame It on My Youth'’ and the aching “My Funny Valentine'’) and more obscure (Cy Coleman’s darkly humorous “Why Try to Change Me Now?'’ and Rodgers and Hart’s “Dancing On the Ceiling'’ with a bluesy bent).

On a few songs it seemed as though Costello wanted to push the tempo a bit faster, but the only time the duo broke out of the languid was with a semi-jaunty rendition of Neal Hefti-Jon Hendricks’ “Lil’ Darlin’,'’ with Costello supplying some finger-snapping
percussion.

Although he was doing fine simply as a singer, Costello did pick up an acoustic guitar for one offbeat tune … a solo version of the old Rudy Vallee novelty song, “Let’s Turn Out the Lights and Go to Bed.'’

Costello the songwriter made only a brief appearance … only as a lyricist … adding words to Billy Strayhorn’s melancholy “Blood Count,'’ which Costello re-named “My Flame Burns Blue.'’ He also premiered a beautiful new piece, in which he wrote wistfully nostalgic
lyrics for one of McPartland’s signature compositions, “Threnody.'’ In her solo spot, McPartland returned the favor, offering up a rich, nimble, improvisational “musical portrait'’ of her musical partner of the day. “That’s Elvis as I know him,'’ she said afterward.

Costello had one more surprise up his sleeve, however, turning the stage over to his wife, jazz singer Diana Krall, for a pair of songs with McPartland … the yearning “If I Had You'’ and a jazz-blues take on the classic “Body and Soul.'’ “I can’t cross my legs anymore,'’ the very pregnant Krall bemoaned as she sat on the stool. But she sure can sing.

The hoped-for Krall and Costello duet never materialized, but Costello wrapped up the afternoon with a final croon through “At Last'’ … leaning much more toward the Glenn Miller version than the later hit rendition by Etta James … staring into Krall’s eyes as
she sat in the stage right box seats.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living ... sed_to_be/

Everything it was supposed to be
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | September 5, 2006

Things kept happening at the 2006 Tanglewood Jazz Festival that weren't supposed to. Luckily, most of them -- in particular the surprise guest appearance of Diana Krall at her husband's taping of ``Piano Jazz" -- only made for a better show.

The weather, alas, wasn't as near-perfect as it's been in previous years, driving attendance down to 13,000 from last year's peak of 17,000, with Saturday night's chilly, rain- threatened double bill of Wynton Marsalis and Dr. John by far the hardest hit. The weather wasn't responsible, but Marsalis showed up with a quintet instead of his advertised septet, and Dr. John was missing his promised all-star horn trio as well.

Some things went off as planned, however. It's become a tradition for the festival to open Friday night with hot Latin jazz, and this year it was provided by two terrific orchestras: the Spanish Harlem Orchestra led by Oscar Hernandez and the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra , the latter roaring through the music of Machito , Tito Puente , and Tito Rodriguez under the direction of co-leaders Machito Jr. and Tito Rodriguez Jr. and musical director (and Puente veteran) Jose Madera Jr.

Saturday afternoon was, for the fifth year in a row, given over to a live taping of Marian McPartland's ``Piano Jazz." This year's guest was Elvis Costello , who charmingly bantered with McPartland in between his earnest crooning of lesser-known gems by giants such as Ira Gershwin and Glenn Miller , and his own lyrics to Billy Strayhorn's ``Blood Count" and McPartland's ``Threnody." He then brought out his very pregnant wife and exited the stage. Krall gamely clambered onto a stool and sang versions of ``If I Had You" and ``Body & Soul," making it clear that, when it comes to singing standards, she is very much Costello's better half.


http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ct ... ines-local

Saturday's afternoon concert featured a singer who has mastered an even wider array of vocal stylings: Elvis Costello. Although he has tackled many forms of music since his angry-young-rocker days, Costello is still viewed with suspicion by many in the jazz community. Not by piano great Marian McPartland, however. She invited Costello to a live taping of her "Piano Jazz" National Public Radio program at Tanglewood, the second time she's had him on her show.

Costello quickly won over the audience with his wit, sincerity and skill. With McPartland's adept accompaniment, he explored material from the Great American Songbook as well as standard jazz repertoire. And he added his own insightful lyrics to Billy Strayhorn's "Bloodcount" (retitled "My Flame Burns Blue") and to McPartland's "Threnody."

Their ballad-heavy set had to compete with storm Ernesto's winds, which no doubt created challenges for the NPR sound crew. But the winds' noise was dwarfed by the ovation that greeted an unannounced appearance by Costello's wife, Diana Krall. Krall, who has a new CD (and a baby) coming soon, sang "If I Had You" and "Body and Soul" to conclude the performance.

Awww....

I hope they release a proper recording of this, as they did with EC's first Piano Jazz program several years ago.



http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/09/06/costello_mcpartland_make_a_melodic_pair/

Costello, McPartland make a melodic pair
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff | September 6, 2006

LENOX -- It was a great afternoon for Elvis Costello and Marian McPartland when they taped their second ``Piano Jazz" program together for NPR Saturday. And Costello's wife, Diana Krall, seated in a box at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall, made a surprise onstage appearance at the end to sing a couple of tunes with McPartland. Ernesto was present, too, which meant there was a lot of howling wind, and Costello made a little joke about the lawn crowd ``waving their little blue hands out there in the distance."

This is the 28th season of ``Piano Jazz," and its peerless hostess has now reached the pianistically canonical age of 88. McPartland's little joke was about her arthritis and a recent fall, which left her, she said, ``without a leg to stand on." Her journey to the piano bench was slow and careful, but once there, she was in her element, bantering with Costello and caressing the keys. Age may have diminished her speed and volume, but she never was the interfering, showoff sort of accompanist, and she still plays with unrival ed beauty of tone and a knack for creating harmonic movement that is both surprising and inevitable.

Costello was in a nostalgic mood, focusing on the kind of music he grew up with; his father, Ross MacManus, was a big-band and club singer in England, and his mother ran a record store. In fact, one of the most memorable moments was a song associated with Nat ``King" Cole that Costello's father also recorded, ``At Last." Other period pieces included ``I Can't Get Started With You," ``Blame It on My Youth," ``My Funny Valentine" (which is becoming a Costello anthem), and ``I Know Why (And So Do You) . " He said he was performing some of these in public for the first time.

Perhaps his most emotional singing came in the words he supplied for Billy Strayhorn's last instrumental, ``Blood Count." Costello's lyric, ``My Flame Burns Blue," poignantly encapsulates Strayhorn's closeted life awaiting his ``confidential friend."

Despite his years of rock singing, Costello can also pull back and sing in the classic ballad style, with a baritone legato that recalls Sinatra. He sings the full value of every note in an intriguing mixture of straight tone and vibrato and never ``talks" a word. A velvet fog envelops his low register the way it did with Mel Torme, but his tenor-y high notes are all his own. Occasionally he is a little short-breathed and has to break up musical or verbal phrases, and more often he sings a little bit out of tune, but like all good singers he can make limitations sound like virtues: The shortness of breath can lend urgency, and the lapses of intonation make him sound endearingly sincere.

The pair exchanged compliments. Costello provided lyrics to one of McPartland's melodies, ``Threnody," and sang it, difficult though the melody is (``I feel I've sung an opera by Richard Strauss," Costello said). And McPartland provided an improvised portrait of her guest, modal in a way that suggested Irish music, solid, but also sad and wistful in character.

Krall, introduced by her husband as ``the love of my life," is now advanced in pregnancy and took a precarious position on a high stool to sing, impromptu, ``If I Had You" and ``Body and Soul" in caramel-colored tones ricocheting around the melody, while Costello beamed approval and led the applause.

Scielle tells a Costello forum -

Marian's show with EC airs in April:

Elvis Costello
04/07/2007 -- Repeats 04/09 at 10:00 p.m. on WNSC
It was an unseasonably cool day at the 2006 Tanglewood Jazz Festival, as McPartland was joined by the unquestionably cool vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Elvis Costello. He sang standards he'd never performed before, and debuted new lyrics to Strayhorn's Blood Count and McPartland's Threnody. A surprise guest appearance from Costello's most significant collaborator, Diana Krall, rounds out this amazing concert.


A preview (about 15 min) can be heard on Piano Jazz Shorts:
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr ... 171957.mp3

can't wait to listen to the whole thing!!!

that was a treat.

EC's concert with Marian (in his second PJ appearance) is now up for streaming at the Piano Jazz site (though it appears to be a faulty audio link - hopefully they'll get that fixed soon)

http://www.npr.org/programs/pianojazz/previousguests/spring2007/costello.html

Set List for Elvis Costello on Piano Jazz:

I Can't Get Started (V. Duke, I. Gershwin)
Dancing On The Ceiling (Hart, Rodgers)
Blame It On My Youth (Heyman, Levant)
Blood Count (Strayhorn, lyrics by Costello)
Threnody (McPartland, lyrics by Costello)
Portrait of Elvis Costello (McPartland)
Lets Put Out The Lights and Go To Bed (Hupfeld)
My Funny Valentine (Hart, Rodgers)
If I Had You (Campbell, Connelly, Shapiro) - DK

The show is being torrented here -

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... ?id=141819