Ottawa Sun - Live Review: Diana Krall in Ottawa

[Bud]

Source: http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2005/06/30/1111305.html

Live Review: Diana Krall in Ottawa
Relaxed pianist strikes right note with jazz crowd
By ANN MARIE McQUEEN - Ottawa Sun

OTTAWA - It was a relaxed and wise-cracking Diana Krall who entertained a capacity crowd of more than 5,000 at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival in Confederation Park last night.

At one point early in her show, the Vancouver-born pianist raised her hand and asked if anyone in the audience had a Band-Aid. Jumping up from her piano seat and running up to retrieve it, she laughed to herself.

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me," she said. "So Canadian."

Musically, Krall, who can tend to be awkward and stilted on stage, was reliable magic, if somewhat subdued and entirely low-key. Perhaps when she joked she and her band have been on tour since 1963, that they were actually on the legendary cross-Canada Festival Express, she really meant they're just a little tired.

Krall and quartet clearly came to perform and when they did it together they were in perfect sync.

Then there were the lengthy and generous solos, with guitarist Anthony Wilson showing his stuff on Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Bassist Robert Hurst shone repeatedly.

Krall was best during the haunting title track to her 2004 album The Girl in The Other Room, a tune she wrote with her husband Elvis Costello and "he wrote with his wife."

The highlight, for me, was when Krall played the Louie Armstrong-inspired Janis Joplin tune Little Girl Blue. It was the perfect sort of song for her, for the night, her silky voice weaving gently between her piano's notes. It also gave Hurst several moments to shine.

She cracked wise in between tunes from throughout her career, like the snazzy, "shoo-be-dooby" Deed I Do and the show opener, the tender I Like Being Here With You.

But Krall also had a tendency to resort to an irritating, barely audible mumble between songs.

She went casual for the night, eschewing her little black dress for a summer blouse and rolled up jeans.

Joking about her appearance, she cautioned the crowd when they jeered a set of photographers being led away after the first two songs.

"Be nice to them," she cautioned. "They can make you look like this (she smiled) or like that (contorted her face)."

At one point, Krall mock-ruminated about "enchanted nights" and "motorcycles," referring to a nearby two-wheeled vehicle she'd had to spar with vocally moments before.

"I love to play outside," she said. "I only want to play outside. Well, kinda."

[Coda]

Thanks for the post, Bud. Hey, Scielle, didn't you go to this concert? Can't wait for a report from you, too. By the way, what happened to Diana's hand that she needed a Band-aid?

[scielle]

Indeed, I was there and it was a terrific show, certainly the best of the ones I’ve seen. A very bouncy and chatty Diana, which I haven’t seen before. The show was a full 2-hours; really playful mood and the band shared big bear hugs at the end.

Got to hear the two songs I was really hoping to hear (BOBD and JFOB). And I second those around here who say this version of BOBD must be recorded; it’s got a very rumba-ish sway to it. And JFOB is just plain fun, and she really sang it, all out. Other highlights – My Shining Hour (makes you realize this is really an instrumental quartet with vocals thrown in for good measure), and Little Girl Blue (which I’m beginning to suspect is on that X-Mas CD; yeah so it’s not a Christmas song per se… but it does have that Good King Wenceslas theme). No Departure Bay, but she did change “cottonwood trees” to “arbutus threes” in Don’t Fence Me In (during which she also said “I’m very proud to live in this country… which I still do”, and wished us a happy Canada Day).

Robert was using his bow more than I remember in other shows. Karriem gave an absolute killer solo in Devil May Care, and Anthony was his usual stellar self throughout.
And I think Diana played less runs and more power chords after that little finger injury…
Couldn’t help but notice she was playing a Yamaha, not her customary Steinway, BTW.
Sometime during the first 2 numbers Diana cut her finger and so after TGITOR some guy from the audience gave her a Band-Aid and she ran up to the front to get it and was all cute about it, saying something to the effect of “There’s blood on the piano” (in the silliest of voices). And then went on to say “I stopped drinking so I’m sillier. Gonna start again soon, though.” But yeah, she was very silly. Played the street-crossing signal (you know, that descending major 3rd ding-dong thingy) and said we cross the street in A flat (“well, hopefully not, hopefully you’re upright”)…said to forget the screens and look at “the little people up front…not that I’m self-indulgent”, joked about competing with “sounds of the enchanted night….motorcycles...I like motorcycles, they're sexy” – doesn’t come off so well in writing, but she does have impeccable timing.

Overall, a wonderfully playful show, and people really seemed to enjoy it. It was nice to see a wide demographic cross-section, too; 5 to 95, anything goes. Guess it’s b/c it was an outdoor park show with relatively cheap tickets ($35, as opposed to $75-125 or so in Toronto!), so people brought their entire families, which is really cool in itself.

The play list was a follows:

I Love Being Here With You
Stop This World
The Girl In The Other Room
Boulevard of Broken Dreams (“recorded by Tony Bennett, and Nat Cole, and Green Day – right church, wrong pew – but it’s all good”)
‘Deed I Do
Almost Blue (with some nice reverb thrown in, really haunting)
My Shining Hour (very bop, with Salt Peanuts sprinkled throughout)
I Was Doing Alright
Little Girl Blue (with the street crossing signal thrown in for laughs!)
Jockey Full of Bourbon (very Buena Vista Social Club-like)
East of The Sun, West of The Moon
Narrow Daylight (to great applause, guess it’s what people know form the radio)
I Just Found Out About Love (which was new to me until I heard it done by a certain Emma Love recently - you'll hear about this girl, guaranteed)
(encore - full band)
Don’t Fence Me In (the "straddle my saddle" line delivery was priceless)
Devil May Care

She made the front page of the Ottawa Sun, and the front page of the Review section of Ottawa Citizen. (Funny how the Sun review tells you all about what she wore and said, but so very little about the music…)

Here's the other review (note to journalists: it's time for some new puns)

Crown princess of jazz enthralls crowd: Diana Krall treats 5,000 fans to playful banter and sheer talent

Lynn Saxberg
The Ottawa Citizen
527 words

"Sit down. Shut up. This is Canada. You're supposed to be polite," scolded Diana Krall as she took her seat at the piano at the beginning of last night's mainstage concert at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival.

She was kidding, of course, riffing on a theme inspired by people in the audience ordering each other, in loud voices, to sit down.

Proper etiquette at this festival prohibits extended periods of standing or blocking others' view.

Lawnchairs are set up in neat rows and people wait until songs are over to move around.

Of course, it didn't help that Confederation Park was overflowing with an estimated 5,000 fans who had come to see Canada's crown princess of jazz.

An internationally respected artist who's sold millions of albums and won multiple Grammys and Juno awards, her star power went through the stratosphere with her marriage to British rock legend Elvis Costello.

He was far away (a tour stop in Munich, according to his website) last night, but she mentioned him in her introduction to The Girl in the Other Room, the title track to her latest disc.

"We're going to play a song written by my husband, Elvis Costello, and he wrote this with his wife," she said.

In a flowery blouse and jeans, Krall moaned over a cut finger, and joked about quitting drinking.

"I stopped drinking so I'm sillier," she said. "I'm going to start again soon, though."

Krall showed her mischievous streak between songs -- until it was time to get serious about the music.

"Serious," she said, as if reminding herself she was at one of the country's premier jazz festivals. "This is serious jazz."

Then she dug in to focus on creating the elegant, often arresting, flow of notes on her piano, and, guess what? It was fun, too, a delight to hear her playing bounce off that of her band members, especially the brilliant guitar work of Anthony Wilson.

Last night's concert also gave the audience the opportunity to discover another candidate in the increasingly crowded world of Sinatra-influenced male crooners. Toronto-based singer-pianist Denzal Sinclaire, who recently signed to a deal with the respected jazz label Verve Records, gave a relaxed, but mostly polished, performance in front of the thousands of Krall fans who had probably never heard of him before his name popped up in the program.

Dressed casually in T-shirt and khakis, and wearing a sailor hat to shield his eyes from the setting sun, Sinclaire immediately won over the audience with the soulful blues of You Treat Me So Good, and the caress of his rich, warm voice.

[Coda]

Thanks for the great review, scielle! I liked reading that the crowd had such a great age range. How else will younger people get interested in jazz if they aren't exposed to it? Sounds as if Diana was having a great time playing the music and interacting with the audience.

The review was nice, too. (I wonder if the writer had the hots for the guy singing at the end, noticing the choice of words....) But, yes, the "enthralls" verb is so cliche now. PLEASE, headline writers: think of a different verb!!! Pull out the Roget's thesaurus. Write some verbs on a poster board and throw darts at it. Rip out a page of a dictionary (but not in the "E" section) and find a verb that seems to fit. Anything but "enthralls" again!

[imnoangel1975]

Thank god she's quit drinking! Not really, I'm just kidding. I just like her silliness. I like 'Goofy Diana' a lot more than 'Serious Diana', and had a great time at the Sonoma Jazz Fest (where she was silly and seemed to have a lot of fun).

[scielle]

More pictures here: http://www.ottawajazzfestival.com/en/2005/artists/artistDetail.asp?artistID=419

[Rémi]

Scielle, check the gallery. I have recently uploaded those photos in the live section.

[Victoria]

"We're going to play a song written by my husband, Elvis Costello, and he wrote this with his wife," she said. [/quote]

Funny! she said the exact same chatty comment in the Buenos Aires concert I went to. And I'm also positively sure I heard her say the same in yet another concert ... mhmhm. I adore the girl all the same ...

By the by.. COOOOL SUNGLASSES, DK!!!!