Philippine Star: The quiet sound of Diana Krall

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The quiet sound of Diana Krall
SOUNDS FAMILIAR By Baby A. Gil Updated May 25, 2009 12:00 AM

The weekend was a time of peace and quiet, thanks to Quiet Nights, the new CD by Diana Krall. You really long for the intimate mood her singing sets after getting into The View and the All-American Rejects last week. And you have to admit that the lovely Mrs. Elvis Costello can truly deliver the goods as far as this sort of music is concerned.

She does more in Quiet Nights. The latest from the smoky-voiced chanteuse from Nanaimo in B.C. is a delightful collection of standards arranged in the Latin jazz style and sung with the lazy warmth of balmy summer evenings. And admit it, you may or may not like what Diana does this time around, but the effect of this music on one’s mind after a busy week can be very refreshing.

Now, the term has been so dreadfully overused of late that I initially did not want to call Quiet Nights a bossa nova album. That was why I said Latin jazz. But it can’t be helped. This is really bossa and it looks like Diana went out of her way to make it very special. So accept the fact. Quiet Nights is bossa nova. Diana made it as such. Just make sure that you don’t lump it together with the recent pathetic attempts at the genre.

The arranger is the 80-year-old Claus Ogerman. He was also the arranger of the iconic Sinatra album composed of duets with bossa creator Antonio Carlos Jobim. Then Krall played down her usual jazz timber to go all breathy and soft-toned like Astrud Gilberto. Just the right vocals for bossa. Much thought also went into the sequence of the songs. The CD opens with the American standards, Where or When, Too Marvelous for Words and I’ve Grown Accustomed to His Face, which usually make up Diana’s repertoire.

These are set in the Latin mood and make the transition to bossa unobtrusively flawless. It is only when the listener gets to Este Seu Olhar that he realizes he has not been listening to Diana’s usual jazz stuff but to a real bossa production. By that time, he has already gone through and enjoyed Diana’s version of Walk on By, You’re My Thrill and The Boy from Ipanema and these were all, of course, in bossa nova tempo.

So Nice and Quiet Nights come next. Then to close, there is Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry. This song signals a return to the standards that opened the CD and tones down the Latin beat. With that it provides again another easy transition to the bonus tracks How Can You Mend a Broken Heart and Every Time We Say Goodbye. These songs are the real clinchers for me. These are not as bossa as the others but these are two of my all-time favorites and Diana sings them beautifully.

Incidentally Quiet Nights has been the No. 1 selling jazz album in the US for over a month. The other titles on the Billboard jazz chart this week are: Live at the Meadowlands by Frank Sinatra; My One and Only Thrill by Melody Gardot; Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love, again by The Voice; The Bright Mississippi by Allen Toussaint; Five Peace Band: Live by Chick Corea & John McLaughlin; Bare Bones by Madeleine Peyroux; Worrisome Heart also by Gardot; Skylark by Renee Olstead; and Metamorphosen by Branford Marsalis Quartet.