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AND ALL THAT JAZZ

Federico MONSALVE
10 April 2005
Sunday Star-Times

Diana Krall's artistic change of direction hasn't pleased everyone, but Mrs Elvis Costello has absolutely no regrets, writes Federico Monsalve.

Having found fame as a beautiful interpreter of jazz standards, singer Diana Krall has changed direction with her latest album, The Girl in the Other Room--and it seems some fans are not amused.

"She sounds like a housewife auditioning to be an exotic dancer," huffed an offended fan on Amazon.com while another despaired at the new album's "superficiality".

Her crime? After years of crooning standards from the American songbooks, Krall has had the audacity to write her own songs. And if her fans don't like it: tough.

"Why would I want to stay static?" she asks, followed by a long pause, when asked about the mixed reception her change in direction has received. "You have to be a career artist who keeps moving and believe in what you need to do and to be honest that is the only way you can do it. I always make records that belong in a particular time and place and that entail a specific period of my life. And this album is exactly that."

The Girl in the Other Room is a departure from Krall's previous recording of standards; a breaking out of sorts that has seen Krall record her own arrangements in a similar style to Norah Jones and other jazz crossover artists. And the catalyst for it? Her 2003 marriage to pop music icon Elvis Costello.

Their relationship, which began as a musical collaboration, has served as a springboard for Krall to make the jump from traditional jazz to a more collaborative affair, a la John and Yoko.

Seven out of 12 songs in her Girl in the Other Room album are co-written with her husband. Tunes so inherently speckled with Costello poetics that the line where Krall begins and Costello ends is increasingly blurry, yet delineated by a distinct streak of tenderness.

"But who knew when I started, that I would find a love and bring him home," she says in the very intimate "Departure Bay". Costello replied to her new direction with his heavily jazz-influenced album North with lines such as: "All the words you say to me have music in them." Clearly, the honeymoon period isn't over.

"He is so great," she says of Costello. "I remember when we used to date and . . . you know when I go out I don't have any of the typical annoyances that celebrities have to deal with; hell, every time I go to the supermarket in my hometown it always seems like the first (visit)! But one day when he and I were dating he said `Darling, tomorrow it will be different, I will dress different, a little more incognito, something less recognisable,' and next thing I know he turns up in a perfect suit, with a flashy hat, looking incredibly Humphrey Bogart . . . he is so adorable, he just can't hide!"

From early in our conversation it becomes clear that the Canadian jazz princess has a potty mouth. Her carefully manicured image has had many a journalist comparing her looks to Sharon Stone, but from her hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, the tall blonde with strong features and a slightly crooked nose sounds more like a tomboy tugging at her ice hockey mask asking for a tougher slapball.

So, has this media fascination with Kralls' looks fast-tracked the singer into places she otherwise wouldn't have ended up?

"Oh that is such an old topic," she says brusquely. "People aren't stupid, they know when something isn't right with the music they listen to, and looks have nothing to do with that. If I go up (on stage) wearing Dolce & Gabbana, it doesn't have anything to do with the way I interpret Cole Porter. Wearing high heels doesn't affect my sense of swing."

That touch of barefoot swing, coupled with her photogenic looks, saw her breakout to mainstream success when her album When I Look Into Your Eyes was nominated for best album at the 2000 Grammys. Krall was nominated twice before in the jazz categories, but being nominated for best album meant her music had crossed enough label execs coffeehouses to be deemed accessible--and hence marketable--to a wider audience.

When I Look Into Your Eyes came close to reaching double platinum sales figures in New Zealand, a level The Girl in the Other Room is also close to reaching.

"I don't think I have been catapulted into the spotlight exactly, I was catapulted into touring 300 days out of the year and with people I was dreaming of playing with since I was 16. Suddenly in my 30s we are bigger, I can tour with an orchestra. I can call on people like Jeff Hamilton, John Cleaton and expand my creative environment."

Before The Girl in the Other Room, Krall seemed content with the idea of being an acoustic trained musician re-telling the standards; a mix of Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee and Cassandra Wilson with a good measure of Joni Mitchell thrown in.

"People think that because I was doing standards it is all smoky, sultry, romantic. It's bullshit . . . it is deeper than that, you have to understand the story, you have to retell the story, your job is to make people feel like you would in a play, making them feel swing, or joyful. It's about finding that sacred place . . . and sure, you can sit there and analyse it and say `Oh, it's made of a B-flat minor substitution,' and whatever, but that doesn't mean shit."

But is this new marriage of pop and jazz really an evolution or a slight dumbing down of the genre?

"I don't like analysing it," she says. "It would be a pity if being a jazz musician suddenly becomes popular and fashionable and you get a lot of kids not doing their homework.

"Jazz, in whatever form, is an improvisational art form, it's very interactive and needs years of hard work to understand your instrument. I, personally, just play and am better for it," she admits. "Music is my Prozac."