DianaKrallfans.com

by **gundy516** on 23 Sep 2006, 20:03

This was a really nice interview. Some new insite I think too. thanks!

by **Coda** on 24 Sep 2006, 02:07

Thanks, scielle. I enjoyed reading it...and I would suspect that other musical moms who tour would be on Diana's call list!

by **tetwilson** on 24 Sep 2006, 04:05

Thanks Scielle, nice interview.

Evonne

by **Bud** on 25 Sep 2006, 02:28

Source: FTMO

RECORDINGS Quick Spins

Sunday, September 24, 2006; Page N02

FROM THIS MOMENT ON

Diana Krall

Shortly after announcing that she and hubby Elvis Costello were expecting their first child, jazz vocalist-pianist Diana Krall attributed her new album's sunny glow to "the joy that I have in my marriage and family, and hopefully in the future."

Apparently arranger John Clayton was feeling the joy, too. What distinguishes "From This Moment On," after all -- setting it apart not just from the ever-growing glut of pop standards collections but also from Krall's previous releases -- is Clayton's delightfully evocative big-band charts. Although the two have collaborated before, this is Krall's most engagingly expansive album yet, buoyed by Clayton's inspired handiwork and the presence of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra on seven of the album's 11 tracks.

Many of the vintage melodies and lyrics here are pretty hard to resist in their own right, beginning with "It Could Happen to You," the album's colorfully orchestrated opener. But with her dusky tone, sultry phrasing and limited vocal range, Krall could have sounded marooned in this large ensemble setting had it not been for Clayton's consistently flattering arrangements.

The entwined legacies of Frank Sinatra and Count Basie play a significant role on the album. Sinatra inspires Krall's insouciant interpretation of "Isn't This a Lovely Day," while Basie is evoked by her pecking, blues-tinted solos and the emphasis that Clayton places on dramatic shifts in dynamics and friction-free swing. As for the close-knit quartet performances featuring guitarist Anthony Wilson, none proves more charming or emblematic than the Gershwins' "I Was Doing Alright."

-- Mike Joyce

DOWNLOAD THESE: "It Could Happen to You," "Isn't This a Lovely Day," "I Was Doing Alright"

by **Bud** on 27 Sep 2006, 02:37

Whatever - an interesting tidbit or two but a mixed review...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=6146045

Here's some info about the author:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Was

by **scielle** on 27 Sep 2006, 03:31

JazzTimes Magazine review:

DIANA KRALL
From This Moment On (Verve)

What is the principal lesson to be learned from Diana Krall’s latest? Don’t judge a Krall album by its track listing. Following as it does close on the heels of Krall’s 2004 foray in bold directions with the deeply, sometimes darkly introspective The Girl In the Other Room, this collection of standards, none less than four decades old, could easily be misinterpreted as a retreat to the safety and comfort of the Great American Songbook. Not so. Dismissing From This Moment On as mere reversion to the territory Krall mined in her mega-selling The Look of Love is like suggesting that Sinatra’s career-resuscitating Songs for Young Lovers and his cocksure Swing Along with Me of a half-decade later are interchangeable because both are built around classic Tin Pan Alley tunes. While Moment’s personnel is familiar—exemplary as always accompaniment from bassist John Clayton, guitarist Anthony Wilson and drummer Jeff Hamilton (expanded to the superbly muscular Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra on select tracks), with Tommy LiPuma and Krall sharing producer duties—the ambiance is entirely fresh and exhilarating. Krall has always sounded impressively rich and unfailingly polished. Never before, though, have her vocals or her playing evoked such profound contentment and easy self-assurance. Nor has any previous Krall standards set displayed such tremendous stylistic breadth. From the flirty playfulness of “Come Dance with Me” and big-band bounce of “Day In, Day Out” to the heartbreaking reflection of “How Insensitive” and searing pain of “Willow Weep for Me,” Moment is consistently magnificent in its diversity. Each of the 11 tracks is a gem, though none quite as priceless as the title track, shot through with film-noir intensity that echoes husband Elvis Costello’s brilliantly sinister “That’s How You Got Killed Before” on his recent concert disc, My Flame Burns Blue. When Krall suggests, as she has in recent interviews, that the album’s title is prophetic, she’s entirely correct. Here, everything old is new again as she moves steadily forward with no backward glances.

by **Coda** on 27 Sep 2006, 17:32

Hi, Bud and scielle:

Thanks for the two reviews. An interesting juxtaposition, I think. Okay, I know I'm a fan of Diana Krall, but I do think that David Was was unjustifiably harsh in his critique of Diana's vocals. I smell the presence of the Jazz Police! He has a couple new anecdotes, but to me they just show a difference of opinion in how to sing a song. I would hope that jazz would have room for a variety of styles and freedom of expression.

by **gundy516** on 27 Sep 2006, 17:49

I think the JazzTimes review really hits the spot as how many of us feel about FTMO. I've listened to it repeatedly now and it does get better and better.

by **Bud** on 28 Sep 2006, 04:16

gundy516 wrote:I think the JazzTimes review really hits the spot as how many of us feel about FTMO. I've listened to it repeatedly now and it does get better and better.

I'll admit that I haven't always been instantly taken with all of Diana's albums - they take time to grow on me. FTMO is no exception. The more I listen to it the more I like it.

by **jazzygal karla** on 28 Sep 2006, 06:35

Wow. JazzTimes is even more enthusiastic than I am about FTMO!

I totally agree that the standout song is 'From This Moment On' - and, in support of my pet theory, it sits in track listing #5. (My 'pet theory', of course, is that in almost any given album, the track I tend to like best is #5).

'Willow Weep For Me' is the dark horse track. It's slowly, but surely sneaking up on me and getting under my skin.

Thanks for sharing those reviews, bud and scielle!

by **scielle** on 30 Sep 2006, 03:33

From Toronto's Now Magazine (that's the Toronto Village Voice wannabe)

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-09-28/music_feature5.php

Krall's space
Jazz pin-up faces challenges of motherhood
By SARAH LISS

Diving into a Diana Krall interview is a daunting proposition - the most common epithet associated with the woman is "ice queen."

It's hard to know precisely how Krall's developed a rep for being so aloof. Is it her technically slick, detached delivery of neo-trad tunes? Her Narnia-regent-worthy appearance and ramrod-straight bearing? Her tendency to grumble when asked personal questions?

Due to a label miscommunication, I've kept Krall waiting a half-hour after the clipped British accent of her office assistant wakes me up at 6:45 am for our skedded interview (Universal forgot to take the UK time difference into account), and I'm terrified. Who knows what fury hath a woman delayed?

"Man, it's 7 in the morning there? Oh, god! I'm so sorry," moans a genuinely apologetic Krall over the phone. "And you sound like you were out late smoking and drinking. That's such a drag! Jeez, I'm sorry. I haven't had that feeling for... oh, about five months now, but I can sympathize."

Some ice queen. As we try to extricate ourselves from an apology death match, I start to wonder whether Krall is just misunderstood. She seems like a woman caught up in a fame bubble (one that's grown since her marriage to Elvis Costello) who's jonesing for nice, normal friends... or at least some decent conversation.

Not that she suffers fools gladly.

"I'm doing these interviews with people from all different cultures and countries, and you never know what to expect. The Italian interviewers say things like, "Diana, you're doing a duet with Tony Bennett.... Why ?' They keep asking " Why ?', and it makes me feel like I've done something terrible! What are you, six years old?

"People have different ideas about what's appropriate. This morning I had three different interviews where they asked, "What is going to be the name of your child?' Are you kidding me? It's so un-Canadian. I was shocked. They'll even ask the sex of the child."

That child, for the record, is the one Krall's expecting. Her initial comment about five months spent sans hangovers refers to the length of her pregnancy so far. Krall claims the biggest bummer about being knocked up on the road is trading her customary post-show wine for chocolate something she's grown increasingly strict about since accidentally consuming port in a melon soup in Portugal left her arms numb.

"I'm never one to admit...," she begins, then trails off. "I have incredible stamina, and I've been known to go when everyone else is dropping, but now, today, I'm starting to feel really tired. Boy oh boy.

"If you go solid for six weeks away from home without a break, any human, pregnant or not, is gonna start feeling drained."

Krall is in the middle of launching her new album, From This Moment On (Verve/Universal), a collection of generally upbeat (think the Gershwins and Cole Porter) standards backed by a swingin' band. It's less Norah Jones than Frank Sinatra, but thanks to Krall's characteristic languorous delivery and percussive piano-pounding, even the bouncier tunes resonate with a restrained version of the curious bittersweet quality the singer/pianist musters on slow-burning ballads like Rodgers and Hart's Little Girl Blue.

Krall claims those layered emotional nuances come from years spent thinking about and analyzing each song on the album, as well as her insistence on a "closed creative environment" into which she only allows her collaborating musicians and producer Tommy LiPuma.

And though it's nice to see Krall break away from the ice queen stereotype and stretch her vocal interpretation muscles to imbue heart-squeezing chestnuts like Willow Weep For Me with pathos, the most impressive thing about From This Moment On is her superlative band, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

"It's important to have a sense of collaboration, so the songs don't become all about you," offers Krall. "Instead of thinking "I hope my solos sound great,' you make it about nothing except the music. The people I play with are not just backing up a singer. We're all listening to each other.

"With a song like Exactly Like You, it sounds so honest and sweet, a true musical conversation. It's jazz. We're not overplaying solos or overdoing things for the sake of ego. With the great albums Oscar Peterson, Fred Astaire, Nat King Cole you relax into the songs and enjoy them. It takes you out of your own self-involvement."

by **jazzygal karla** on 30 Sep 2006, 05:32

Thanks for digging up another gem of an interview for us, scielle!

I, too, am often baffled by the 'ice queen' label. Never once got that impression from her. The earliest interview I saw of Diana was on CBC ten years ago when AFY had just been released. I'd been listening to her music for a year by then, maybe. In the interview, she struck me as being shy, self-effacing, sweet and a bit self-conscious about the extent to which she was talking about her own life.

But 'Ice Queen' ?

No way.

by **Coda** on 30 Sep 2006, 18:31

Thanks, scielle, for the article. I thought it was interesting, and showed a nice, sincere, human level of interaction between the interviewer and interviewee.

By the way, I've been listening more to the album, and, among many gems, I really like "Exactly Like You." I really think Diana does well with songs with heavy percussion (a la "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") and, frankly, the song reminded me a little of a 1960s' coffee house with jazzy beatniks! I love the groove on the song -- it's stuck in my head right now.

by **Bud** on 04 Oct 2006, 03:08

Boston Herald: 10 top-selling CDs in the nation

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNe ... &srvc=edge

by **johnfoyle** on 08 Oct 2006, 10:53

Translation , anyone?

http://www.liberation.fr/culture/sortir/209104.FR.php

Sortir

Disques. Jazz
Diana Krall Classe standards

Par Serge LOUPIEN

QUOTIDIEN : Samedi 7 octobre 2006 - 06:00

Diana Krall From This Moment On (Verve/Universal Jazz)

Qu'elle ait enchaîné un disque «transitoire» comme The Girl on the Other Room (constitué pour partie de compositions co-signées par Elvis Costello, son bien aimé, et pour partie de reprises de Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell ou Chris Smither), puis un Christmas Songs anecdotique (le «Christmas album» est un exercice strictement anglo-saxon Beach Boys, Jackson Five, Jethro Tull même s'y sont essayés que les Chaussettes noires ont vainement tenté d'importer via leur burlesque Twist du Père Noël) , aurait bien sûr de quoi faire sourciller ses fans les mieux disposés. Encore qu'à chaque fois, fidèle à sa réputation d'artiste «imprévisible», Diana Krall ait pris soin de déborder du cadre qui lui était attribué, «jazzifiant» ainsi spontanément des thèmes parfois patauds ( Almost Blue de Costello), ou transformant des rossignols de réveillons liturgiques ( White Christmas ) en cathédrale de swing. Car, encensée pour ses performances vocales, la Canadienne, on ne le répétera jamais assez, est avant tout musicienne. Capable, derrière son piano, de tenir la dragée haute aux improvisateurs les plus chevronnés. Après deux parenthèses (on l'a vu) tronquées, avec From This Moment On, son nouveau CD, Diana Krall revient donc naturellement à la case standard, assumant avec éclat (grâce à l'apport du Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra) et sérénité, son statut d'héritière de Chris Connor et June Christy. Deux chanteuses souvent citées par Clint Eastwood, amateur éclairé et son soutien le plus dévoué.

by **Bud** on 14 Oct 2006, 15:20

Did anyone buy the iTunes version with the "interactive booklet?" If so, what is it? I can't get mine to do anything!

The file is a Quicktime movie...

by **jazzanddianafan** on 15 Oct 2006, 22:52

I noticed that too... the file is only listed as 9 seconds long and when I click on it this picture appears in the bottom left corner of my itunes screen in a area marked 'now playing'.....

I get the feeling that there are more pictures that are suppose to scroll thru, but all i get is this one......

so I guess maybe the 'interactive booklet' is just this picture ????

by **Bud** on 15 Oct 2006, 23:47

I get the same behavior, with the nine second bit, but the picture I see is the CD cover photo...

by **jazzanddianafan** on 16 Oct 2006, 20:05

When any other song plays from that CD, I get the cover photo.... but when I actually click on that 'interactive booklet' I get this other picture.... that's kind of why I thought there might be more pictures there if I could figure out how to get to them......

by **Bud** on 17 Oct 2006, 04:42

Hey Greg -- Try this:

http://www.skeeyinteractive.com/portfol ... tshelp.asp

Worked for me. Enabled Flash, then restarted iTunes...

DianaKrallfans.com

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NPR - Diana Krall: 'From This Moment On'

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