Yoshi's

[imnoangel1975]

Great write up, mapache. Sounds like you had just as much fun as we did! Wasn't she great?!

We'll be at the Hollywood Bowl concerts too! We have tickets for both nights. I'm excited about these shows, having never seen a concert at the Bowl before, but somehow I doubt it'll be as good as seeing Diana at Yoshi's. But I remain optimistic.

[scielle]

Hey, thanks for that account! So where are the Canadian dates on this tour, eh?!
I'm a bit disappointed she's not playing anything from GITOR, as that's still my favourite. Still, nice to hear that the transition back to the stage appears to have been a smooth one so far.
I take it the Krallstello family tour bus is on its way to Vegas now!
I believe I read somewhere (this was back when the LV concert was supposed to take place back in the fall; pre-baby news) that the Hilton shows are being recorded for a live DVD. I wonder if that's still the case. These are the few dates on the tour she's playing with the full big band, so here's hoping that those of us not able to attend will be able to buy a disk in a few months.

[Coda]

Thanks for a great review, mapache! You did a great job deciphering your notes. Sounds like a great experience.

[surfy]

Scielle,

Not Canada, but you can try the CMAC show on July 9. Easy three hour drive from Toronto.

[mapache61]

Andrea, Many thanks for the photo link. That's exactly how close we were to DK. I could've taken those shots from my seat. But I'm guessing they were shot from the back of the house on a tripod.

imnoangel, Maybe we'll see you at the Bowl. So far, we have tickets for Fri night. I love the Bowl. Have seen many shows there over the years, but the venue has one big problem: it's BIG. I mean, huge. I have no doubt the Vegas and Bowl shows will be the highlights of the tour. But I hear ya on Yoshi's.

scielle, I remember reading something about a possible live DVD, too. That would be sweet.

In the meantime, I'm hoping a Yoshi's bootleg surfaces.

[Bud]

Thanks for the great report, mapache61! You've set the bar high! I think you made the right choice of seats.

Can't wait to see how this tour goes. Interesting that she seems to be deemphasizing GITOR...

[Bud]

The Mercury News review: http://www.mercurynews.com/eyeheadlines ... ck_check=1

Jazz diva Krall swings again
BACK IN THE GROOVE AFTER CHILDBIRTH HIATUS
By Andrew Gilbert
Special to the Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:06/14/2007 01:36:36 AM PDT

Diana Krall was looking to get comfortable.

It had been at least six months since she was last on stage, she said, a hiatus because of the birth of her twins. So her two-night stand at Yoshi's last weekend served as a shake-off-the-rust run at an intimate venue, before she started a national tour that brings her to Saratoga's Mountain Winery on Wednesday and next Thursday.

With her doting husband, Elvis Costello, nodding his head appreciatively from a center booth, Krall played a crowd-pleasing set of blues and standards (though she resisted several insistently shouted entreaties for "Peel Me a Grape"). While her 2004 album "The Girl in the Other Room" seemed to signal a turn to emotionally nuanced contemporary material by Costello, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits, Krall's show on Friday owed far more to last year's CD "From This Moment On," an elegant, hard-charging American Songbook session featuring the swaggering Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

Krall seemed particularly reassured by her accompanists, who included said orchestra leaders, drummer Jeff Hamilton and bassist John Clayton. The lock-step rhythm-section partners have been playing together with power and precision ever since they joined the Monty Alexander Trio in 1975. Considering that Hamilton, Clayton and the late bass legend Ray Brown took Krall under their wings some 20 years ago, when she was an unknown pianist from British Columbia, her description of them as family rang with sincerity.

With ace guitarist Anthony Wilson rounding out her quartet, Krall opened the sold-out second set with Peggy Lee's jubilant "I Love Being Here With You," a tune she's turned into her trademark greeting. As her full-steam locomotive piano chords occasionally overran her vocals, Krall sounded a little out of control at first, but she gained her equilibrium on the second piece, a lovely, easy strollin' rendition of Harry Warren and Al Dubin's little-heard gem "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me." With its fresh, suggestive lyric ("Ev'ry kiss, ev'ry hug/ Seems to act just like a drug"), the song felt like it could have been written for Krall, though it premiered in the hit 1933 musical "Forty-Second Street."

As a pianist, Krall balances elegance and earthiness. Her solos can punctuate a tune like a two-fisted exclamation point or offer telegraphic commentary like an ellipsis. Always generous with her sidemen, she often sat out, twisting around on the piano bench to watch Wilson play a perfectly constructed solo.

Krall is at her best singing insinuating blues, for instance turning "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You" into a sweat-inducing seduction. Her sly, self-mocking sense of humor hasn't been dampened by motherhood. After mentioning her upcoming gig in Las Vegas, she said she was looking forward to putting on her sparkly sequined gown. "That's why I became a girl singer," she added.

Throughout the set, Krall made it clear that much of her music has been inspired by post-war jazz's most brilliant and successful pianist/vocalists, Nat "King" Cole and Shirley Horn. But the overwrought romantic ballad "A Blossom Fell," a hit for Cole in the mid-1950s, just didn't suit her husky contralto, despite an exaggerated Cole-ish enunciation that turned "lied" into a two-syllable word.

Krall's voice isn't made for swooning, but she's a master at interpreting songs that trade in the sardonic and mock the naive. Her voice is too worldly and knowing to be believed when she sings the ingenue anthem "I Just Found Out About Love," but when she adds, "and I like it, I like it," Krall is utterly convincing.

She offered another Shirley Horn hat tip with "Come Dance With Me," a song that revels in the sheer joy of swinging. But the set's emotional high point was a ravishing, poured-molasses slow rendition of Rodgers and Hart's "Little Girl Blue," featuring Clayton's burnished bow work. She closed the set with a romp through "Deed I Do," and for her inevitable encore offered a soothing bossa nova arrangement of the Gershwins' "'S Wonderful" that conjured the Brazilian master Joa~o Gilberto. After six months away, Krall was clearly back in the groove.

Krall also performs June 19 at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, Aug. 15 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on and Sept. 22 at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Diana Krall

mercurynews

Where: Mountain Winery, 14831 Pierce Road, Saratoga

When : 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and June 21

Tickets: $55, $97

Call: (408) 998-8497, or see www.ticketmaster.com

[Wiscy]

Her rendition of A Blossom Fell at the 10:00 show on Saturday at Yoshi's was, in a word, sublime. So I disagree with the San Jose reviewer.

See the 'Setlists!!!!' thread for my best guess at the 10:00 Sat. Yoshi's setlist. I welcome any corrections.

[mapache61]

Thanks for the San Jose Merc review. I'm not complaining or anything, but damn, it looks like the Fri-8pm show was the only one that didn't feature You're Getting To Be a Habit With Me.

Don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to seeing a Vegas setlist. With the orchestra, I wonder how much the set will change from night to night.