Interview in July on NPR's Morning Edition

[Bud]

At least, according to these tweets! Sounds like something to look forward to...

vanwilliamson: Steve Inskeep interview with Diana Krall yesterday: superlative doesn't cover it. Piece coming on Morning Edition in July.

vanwilliamson: On my way to Baltimore to listen to Diana Krall's soundcheck at Meyerhoff Sym. Hall. Tomorrow Steve Inskeep interviews her for Morning Ed.

[scielle]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2009/06/300_grand_14000_records_diana_1.html?ft=1&f=104014555

--Defending Diana Krall: Or less defending than acknowledging her less-than-stellar reputation among certain jazz crowds, and then giving her an honest appraisal of a Carnegie Hall performance -- which happened to be good. So says Nate Chinen at The Gig, as does Stephen Holden for the Times. There's something that could be read as backhanded about both reviews; it's the technique of saying "well, she isn't one of the greats, but she does these certain things competently, if not pleasantly." ("On one level, Ms. Krall is a middle-of-the-road pop-jazz diva," Holden writes; "She isn't at all a bad piano player, in a retrograde fashion," quoth Chinen.) In other words, the insult of diminished expectations. I don't think Holden and Chinen meant it that way, though; I think they genuinely enjoyed the performance and found interesting things happening in the music. But are Krall's enjoyable qualities relevant and important things to what jazz is and should be? That's not necessarily a fair question for a reviewer, though I'm still left frustrated that it's left incompletely explored.

Anyway, I've recently learned that host Steve Inskeep of Morning Edition just taped an interview with Krall while she came through the D.C. area. Makes me curious what sort of insights we'll get from her; we jazz people tend to view everything about her from our own biased perspectives. I'll be working on producing an extended cut for the Web -- I'm told it was "good tape," as we say here. So look for that -- or look to ignore that, if you aren't convinced of her artistic worth.

[Bud]

http://www.wysu.org/ reports via Twitter that the interview will air on Thursday, 23 July

[Bud]

A Method Actress, Trapped In A Jazz Singer

Nice interview, and there are lots of additional audio clips on the page..

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =106899902

[Coda]

Love the transcript AND the comments afterward. (Some future members of the fan forum, perhaps?)

[Bud]

Agree, those are some fun comments. Sounds like she picked up a few new fans!

[Bud]

NPR coverage continues, this time on the blog A Jazz Supreme/NPR Jazz

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2 ... ump_1.html

The Weekend Link Dump

--A Long Diana Krall Interview: I'll confess that I'm a recovering Diana Krall doubter. But it's hard for me to argue with enthusiasm such as that which is displayed in the comment section of Steve Inskeep's Morning Edition interview with Krall. (She plays and sings a fair amount too, and the Web page, which I built myself, has an exclusive concert recording and several extended interview clips.) I mean, any jazz musician who can make listeners who have never heard of her stand up and buy her music in only seven minutes is doing something right. Even my old man, who doesn't regularly listen to any sort of music, once raved to me about a Diana Krall special on PBS. And after this, you can't say that she doesn't think about and refine what she attempts on stage. She is, dare I say it, good at interpreting others' music gracefully.

Ok, so because this is a jazz blog, I'm sure there are readers out there will who maintain their objections. There are plenty, and in the course of my jazz fandom, I think I've come to many of them myself. But think about this: from the days of Paul Whiteman on, the stars of "jazz" have always been those who managed to cross over to a wide audience. They're the ones who carried the burden of making jazz a thing that the general public thought was worth supporting, or even thinking about. So wouldn't it be more productive if we who liked this jazz stuff at large instead say, "If you like Diana Krall, check out ___ too?" What do you think? And who are those fill-in-the-blanks?

[Coda]

I really like Diana's radio version of "Every Time We Say Goodbye." I think it's even better than the version on the QN album.

And from the other sound clips, I think it's clear how much Diana enjoys giving interviews on the radio.