by scielle on 23 Apr 2005, 02:10
THE CRESCENDO OF KRALL
Lindsay DAVIS
22 April 2005
Dominion Post
Fairfax New Zealand Limited
Diana Krall breathes life into those sultry, sexy songs. But that sweet voice can swear and scream when she's practising, writes Lindsay Davis.
DIANA Krall sounds dog tired. Her soft Canadian tone is not so much a drawl as a dawdle as she apologies profusely, which is something you don't expect from this fiery blonde who has a reputation as a tough nut to crack. But today, Krall is all charm as she explains she had an extremely late night in Kuala Lumpur, where she's just performed a tsunami benefit concert before the Malaysian Grand Prix.
"We were up very late because it's linked in with this Formula 1 thing. But a benefit concert for the tsunami victims is such a wonderful thing to do. I have my own charities that I support and do a lot of work for leukaemia.
"I think it's important that artists do those sorts of things," says the multi Grammy winner.
Life for Krall has never been rosier since the release of When I Look in Your Eyes in 1999. It was the first jazz album to be given a Best Album nomination in more than 20 years and spent a whopping 52 weeks as No 1 in the Billboard charts -- selling more than one million copies in the United States alone -- and won her her first Grammy award, marking the transformation of the well-known jazz singer into the superstar realm.
"I suppose it meant that I was able to pay my rent. That was nice," she laughs. "But in all seriousness, it meant I was able to play the music I loved as often as I liked in interesting places. It also meant I could call upon any musicians and tour with them."
So does she have a trophy cabinet? "No, but a Grammy is an excellent doorstop as they are so heavy." And then she pauses: "I have a very dry sense of humour that doesn't go to print easily. I am proud of the awards. I keep one in New York on my piano and the other in my home in Vancouver Island, but I don't dwell on them. They are not the reason why I got into this business."
The other reason there's such a renewed interest in Krall is her celebrity marriage to Elvis Costello in December 2003. The marriage isn't something she likes to discuss. It was a private affair in Sir Elton John's mansion in Surrey, England -- with "just" 150 family and friends and guests like Sir Paul McCartney.
More importantly for fans, with the marriage came a shift to a new home in New York and a collaborative album with Costello -- so it's not a subject easily avoided.
The two met, funnily enough, at the 2002 Grammy awards, where they talked about music and the writing process before exchanging e-mails. So was she a fan of his music before they were married?
"I had heard some of the early stuff but I really loved the Burt Bacharach album (Painted from Memory). I used to drive around in my car listening to it."
On her latest album, Girl in the Other Room, she even does a cover of Costello's Almost Blue, but says that she had learnt that years ago, "before Elvis became my husband".
So will Costello be joining her on tour? "No, he's in Oklahoma. We should work in cruise ships and then we could be together. But we both understand what we have to do and it takes a special person to understand what you have to do to be an artist. "When I leave home and Elvis, it's painful. But when we are together, it's fantastic and I celebrate what he's doing."
KRALL grew up in Nanaimo, British Columbia, just down the road from Vancouver where she began playing piano at age four.
"I suppose I did have an idyllic upbringing. I had a dedicated father and mother. It was a normal middle-class upbringing where you went skiing and rode horses. My mother was an ambitious and driven woman who got her masters degree when she was 50. My dad was a chartered accountant who loved old movies, John Cleese and music."
In fact, Krall was raised on jazz thanks to her father, who fed her a steady diet of Fats Waller, Earl Hines and Nat King Cole.
"Everybody in my family played piano. It was what you did. It was a musical upbringing and in our small community, we had a thriving music scene so that if you wanted to learn jazz, there was someone to teach Mingus or whatever."
Krall won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston where New Zealander Alan Broadbent, now a Berklee professor, became her piano tutor. "Nowadays, Alan does some of my orchestral arrangements and when I see Alan conducting, I don't know if I'm playing for him or the audience because I just want to please him."
After Boston, she moved to Los Angeles where she was given a lot of encouragement by a group of jazz heavyweights, including the late bassist Ray Brown who played on many of her early albums throughout the 90s.
"When Ray Brown died, it was very painful for me and I'm still working through the grief. Now I'm really listening to his work and it's just so wonderful, I wish he was here so we could discuss it."
Throughout the 90s, Krall built a strong reputation for her albums of jazz covers, even drawing comparisons with Sarah McLachlan. So what is it about other people's work that draws her to rework it?
"I like the illusion of romanticism that some songs have. Those sultry, sexy love songs where if you peel back the layers, those singers are conveying something deep, that they are going through tough times, and I'm drawn to those kind of songs. I couldn't do a doormat song."
And though her latest album, Girl in the Other Room, does include some covers -- notably Tom Waits' Temptation and Joni Mitchell's Black Crowe -- it marks another turning point for Krall in that it is her first album to include original compositions, thanks to Costello, who encouraged his new wife to take up the pen and write her own material.
"I wrote the music and Elvis wrote the lyrics and then we would tinker with it. It's representative of a time in my life. There's no formula to my writing. I write when I get ideas, whether it's 3am in the morning or late at night."
Though she's not sure what the next album may hold, she's focusing on her playing. "I'm limited technically. I've never been a good technician. I'm practising harder than ever now. I need to zero in and focus, uninterrupted. Of course I swear a lot and scream when I practise, especially now as I'm transcribing an Oscar Peterson trio piece. I've been working on it since I was 16, and I'm finally getting the hang of it."
And with Kareem Riggins on drums, Robert Hurst on bass and Anthony Wilson on guitar, Krall says she has her work cut out keeping up with her touring band.
"I also have to practise so hard because I have a killer band and they are kicking my ass."
Thanks for asking.... crno! 
).
would be more appropriate.)
) So, zivjelo? (good?) Hm... na zdrowie in Polish... ech, cheers! 
