Knight-Ridder: Older, wiser Krall offers original work...

[Bud]

Older, wiser Krall offers original work with promise

THE GIRL IN THE OTHER ROOM
Diana Krall
Verve

Long before there was a Norah Jones being piped into every Barnes & Noble and Starbucks, there was Diana Krall.

Granted, Krall has serious jazz chops and Jones only records for a jazz label, but both women have crafted elegant, mellow adult music and have managed that tricky detour into mass appealsville.

On Krall's noirish The Girl in the Other Room, her voice has turned sultrier, huskier. She purposely recorded her vocals while at her post-tour weariest to reflect her mood. Life-altering events -- the death of her mother followed by her marriage to Elvis Costello -- influenced her reshaping.

As a result, the dog-eared-from-overuse Great American Songbook has refreshingly been placed back on the shelf, in favor of newer material from the likes of Tom Waits (the sexy and sly single, Temptation), Joni Mitchell (Black Crow), Costello (Almost Blue) and Mose Allison's Stop This World.

The biggest departure from Krall's previous cool and calm approach is her take on Chris Smither's Love Me Like a Man. This rendition borrows Bonnie Raitt's bawdy '70s blues arrangement and features some nimble piano work from Krall, something that has been largely missing from her recent studio work. Vocally, though, Krall lacks the brazen sexuality of Raitt's version.

Nevertheless, The Girl in the Other Room offers more variety in tempo and ditches the lush strings for a leaner jazz combo. That's a good thing. Girl sounds jazzier than her recent pop-leaning studio CDs, The Look of Love and When I Look In Your Eyes.

Additionally, Krall has gone from being an interpreter of others' songs to composer of her own, penning half the set with Costello. The six new Krall-Costello cuts are evocative and serve as a revealing snapshot into Krall's life, and yet there's the impression something even better is bound to come as these two continue playing to each others' strengths.

Overall, Girl gives us an older, wiser, slightly bruised Krall and we like what we hear.

-- Howard Cohen

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Source: Akron Beacon Journal

[wanderer]

Nice review... Very good actually...

[jazzygal karla]

There. Now that's what I call a polite, honest, review. (Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that it was a positive one!)

One can tell this person appreciates Diana's efforts that have been released over the years.

I give that review 4 stars out of 5.