Chateau Ste. Michelle review

[scielle]

From what I've read in reviews of these shows and heard via bootlegs - she's been quite the comedienne lately!

http://www.genestout.com/index.php/concert-review-diana-krall-at-chateau-ste-michelle/

The title of Diana’s Krall’s current album is “Quiet Nights,” a phrase that also describes her two-night stand at Chateau Ste. Michelle.

The second show Sunday night was a low-key but very classy affair featuring the jazz singer and pianist and her talented band — drummer Jeff Hamilton, bassist Robert Hurst and guitarist Anthony Wilson — on a selection of standards and pop classics.

The set included such tunes as “A Case of You” (the 1971 Joni Mitchell song that always sounds great at a winery concert), as well as “I Love Being Here With You,” “Let’s Fall in Love” and “Walk On By,” the Burt Bacharach song made famous by Dionne Warwick.

A sunny summer evening turned cool but remained comfortable as a three-quarter moon rose over the amphitheater.

“I love this time of year,” Krall, in a bouyant mood, told the crowd. “It’s my favorite.”

Krall, whose husband, Elvis Costello, performed at the winery a week ago, joked that the couple’s twin boys were back at the hotel “smoking cigars and playing gin rummy.”

Krall quipped that a picture of Costello in her dressing room was covered with lipstick kisses. “Well, they aren’t all mine,” she said.

It was the last night of a “million-year-old tour,” she said, “and we’re all playing without our underwear.”

Joking aside, Krall and her crew performed exquisitely. Krall was impressive on a breathy, melancholy rendition of “Walk on By” that countered the subtle optimism of Warwick’s original in the ’60s.

It has been a great year for Krall, who produced Barbra Streisand’s upcoming album and sang a duet with Willie Nelson (”If I Had You”) on his current album, “American Classic.”

Mixing jazz, pop and bossa nova, Krall was dryly serious one moment, whimsical the next. Her renditions of “Frim Fram Sauce,” the nonsensical tune made famous by the Nat King Cole Trio, and Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’ ” were especially fun.

Krall and company took a bow at 9:30, then returned for a single-song encore of “The Boy From Ipanema,” Krall’s new version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic, “The Girl From Ipanema.” To read more about Krall’s new album, visit her Web site.

Opening the show was the John Stowell Trio. The next concert in the winery’s summer concert series is Chris Isaak on Friday.

[scielle]

http://jazz24.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/a-music-lovers-compulsion-listening-notes-on-diana-krall/

(excerpt)

"“How’ve you been?” she asked as the sun was setting in a picture perfect clear blue sky, complete with brightly colored hot air balloons circling overhead. “The weather’s been good, aye?”

She told us how much she loved this corner of the continent (she’s from Nanaimo, BC, which at one point she described as “just up the street” from Woodinville, eliciting lots of laughs). She added that the end of summer is her favorite time of year. Then someone I couldn’t hear, in the expensive seats up close, seemed to have yelled out a question. Krall, who gave birth to twins three ago in December (12/6/06,) responded with as much mischievous soul as she plays the piano.

“How are my boys?!” They’re good, thanks for asking,” she replied. “They’re back at the hotel smoking cigars and playing gin rummy.”

Someone else yelled something and she said: “How’s Elvis?” (That would be Elvis Costello, her husband of six years, who was also touring this summer and played the winery just a week earlier.) She said she didn’t know; she wasn’t even sure where he was that night: “I think he’s in Austin?” she guessed, adding, “I have a picture of him in my dressing room with lipstick kisses all over it – most of them are mine.” And she said something about throwing lingerie on stage at him when she heard him play earlier this summer. As much fun as she’s been having on tour, she was happy that this was the last night.

Later in the concert, (I think it was after she sang “Walk on By” by composer Burt Bacharach, who she called “a great person with fabulous hair” and said she thinks he’s as great as Gershwin,) she mentioned that her twins had started talking recently. That’s been great, she said, but it’s meant not getting a lot of sleep at night, especially in the wee hours – and for different reasons than at other points in her life. Someone yelled out another question and somehow, the subject again turned to lingerie: would she please toss some of hers into the crowd? She said she would if she could, but she had run out on this long tour.

“Honey, I would, but, I’m a mother of twins now. We’re all up here performing without underwear.”

I’m guessing the band members were all blushing. That’s the image that remains in my mind – even though I couldn’t actually see it."