Diana, Canandaigua, New York, July 9'07

[johnfoyle]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/app ... -1/COLUMNS

Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester

July 10, 2007

Concert review: Relaxed Krall sticks with standards

by Jeff Spevak

There are no holes in Diana Krall's game. In baseball, the scouts would call her a five-tool player: She sings, plays piano, arranges, looks good and, ahh ..., well, for all we know, runs the bases well.

She and trumpeter Chris Botti drew 4,500 people Monday to the Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center, a very nice crowd for a high-priced jazz show. Fortunately for them, by the time Krall hit the stage, the day's stifling heat had cooled a few degrees, maybe to the level of that scene where Bambi is trapped in the forest fire.

As a singer, Krall is not a jaw-dropping technician. She's relaxed and easy, more Peggy Lee than anything else in the jazz galaxy. Nat King Cole is her standard, and with the backing of an outstanding trio, songs like "Exactly Like You" fit her well. She didn't have to reach far to reach "Let's Fall in Love" and was properly upbeat for "I Was Doing Alright," huskily dramatic for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," swinging for "'Deed I Do."

Krall has recorded a few contemporary pop tunes, but right now she's sticking with traditional songs dating back to "when the Earth cooled," as she said while introducing Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance."

But it's all very cool. And here's that fifth tool: Krall is pretty funny, joking about swallowing a fly on a buggy evening while singing a Lee number. She draws much of her material these days from the birth of twin sons seven months ago. The promised weight loss hasn't come with breast feeding, she pointed out.

Ruing that her clothes were sometimes victims of their vomit, she noted, "They've started eating carrots now; I'd better change my wardrobe." And as a musician steeped in standards, she hoped that in a few years her rock-star husband, Elvis Costello, would have a stronger influence on them musically, since schoolboys singing show tunes would probably be asking for trouble.

Botti appears to have many sides, and on Monday he was the melodic, romantic jazzman, opening his show with the gorgeous melodies of "Ave Maria," "When I Fall in Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me." He and his band turned "Cinema Paradiso" into an epic.

This foreplay beats his show a couple of years ago with Madeleine Peyroux at the Eastman Theatre and the Rochester International Jazz Festival, when in his first 50 seconds Botti whipped through every jazz-show cliché this side of Ted Lewis' grave — neglecting only to solo while standing on his head — leaving just one question: OK, now what?

Monday, he took his time. The result? It was more interesting jazz, particularly from his great band, with the late-arriving dynamics of Botti's pop instincts telling a better story. And Botti does speak from pop experience. Early in his 40-minute set, he warned the parents of fledgling musicians to keep their children away from red guitars or they might find themselves "playing in the David Hasselhoff Band for the rest of your life," ignoring the conventional wisdom that contemporary-jazz musicians playing in glass Performing Arts Centers shouldn't throw stones.

Yet Botti's own experiences have been considerably more elevated, playing with luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Thomas Dolby. The guy is talented, for sure: Backstage at a Sting concert a few years ago, I even spotted Botti standing on his head.

JSPEVAK@DemocratandChronicle.com

[surfy]

I wish Spevak would stick to new age, alternative, and indie music that he seems to prefer. I thought the show was terrific and only wish I had tickets for a couple more. Maybe he was sitting high up in the lawn seats or perhaps he spent too much time in the wine tent, but here's some of my notes from last night:

3:00 pm. 95 degrees and we're going to go sit outside with a few thousand sweaty people? I chug down my second quart of Gatorade and decide to jump into the pool to cool off.

7:00 pm. I take the wrong turn and find myself at the entrance to the VIP parking lot. The attendant is too hot to actually pay attention so he waves me through. I'm starting to like this.

7:20 pm. We take our seats. My fourth DK show and I've never been able to get a good seat. I know from prior shows that the piano keyboard is always just right of center. I've been to CMAC enough times to know that the sound isn't as good in the first five rows and they are almost below stage level, so I bought tickets in the 8th row, 4 seats to the right of center. However, the piano is way over on the left. Then I realize that this is not DK's piano, whew.

Not sure where Spevak got his attendance figures from but the crowd had to have been bigger than 4,500. There's 5,000 seats with very few empty and the lawn holds 10,000 and looks about a quarter full. For a jazz show that's a big audience. And its a late audience so Chris Botti doesn't take the stage until about 8:00 pm.

Botti begins with Ave Maria, nice start. Very powerful balladeer and the song was powerfully done. I'm not a big fan of the tinny amplified trumpet sound but he does have a pretty good sized following in this area as he's played here before. I'd much rather hear him in a smaller venue. Good opening act though.

Short intermission while they reset the stage. The people sitting next to us are from Windsor, Ontario and have spent the day following the Finger Lakes Wine Trail. Very nice couple. Their son is the big DK fan, lucky dog has tickets to three of her shows and also caught the Las Vegas Hilton show. While discussing the finer points of the wine trail I notice that the roadies have now moved DK's piano into position. The keys are straight ahead and eye level. Woo hoo!!

Very low key intro..."Ladies and gentlemen.......Diana Krall" I didn't keep notes on the setlist but the first song wasn't up to her usual. Seems very distracted and almost a bit lost in space. The sound is off and the sound guys don't seem to get it right until the song is almost over. She goes straight into "Lets Fall in Love" from there and makes a nice recovery. Finishes the song and starts talking to the audience but she is visibly distracted by something and her train of thought seems to be on multiple subjects. I dismiss it perhaps distracted by something backstage just prior to the start or something really bugging her. She makes fun of her Canadian accent and then tries on a New York accent. I don't know if that kicked her into gear but she made a lot more sense from that point on.

Doesn't seem like she has a setlist cast in stone, rather I think she's got a bunch of songs that she just flies with for whatever reason. I think Anthony Wilson could figure out what song was coming up next just by looking at DK but she usually had to look back at Jeff Hamilton and talk with him about what she wanted to do next. At one point she just announced to the crowd "here's a favorite Nat King Cole song of mine, well that doesn't really narrow it down. Let's see if they can guess what song it is". She started off solo for about 5 notes and then they had it figured out. I would assume that her setlist covers about half what she plays and the other half probably comes from a pretty large list that she picks and chooses from as she goes along.

However she chooses her songs, it was pretty obvious that she was in a good mood. Very upbeat music, nothing heavy, and not much in the way of some her really sultry stuff. Rather, this was a full on attack from the pages of the Great American Songbook. As much as I'd like to hear "Temptation" it was great to see her having fun and just playing away. At one point she spelled the band and performed a song solo while they took a well deserved breather.

Speaking of the band, it was the group you are used to seeing. Anthony Wilson, Robert Shultz, and Jeff Hamilton. I was in awe of Hamilton as his movements seem so effortless. He makes playing drums look easy. Reminded me of the first time I saw a PGA golf tournament and thought that everyone must be able to drive the ball 320 yeards.

And not one person yelled for her to play "Peel Me a Grape". Great show. Only wish I had tickets for a couple more. If you are going you won't be disappointed.

surfy

[Coda]

Thanks for a great report, Surfy. I wonder if the guy from Windsor, Ontario, will also catch the show in Detroit at the Fox on July 21.

[surfy]

He didn't mention it but I wouldn't be surprised if they were there. I know they enjoyed it last night too.

[mapache61]

Thanks for the nice report, surfy.

[Victoria]

Is the Canadian accent so different from the american? I can't tell . Can you name one of these differences?

[surfy]

The "o" sound is the one she made fun of. "Oh, I have to remember that I'm not ewt and abewt anymore"

[Coda]

We live in a border community (the Detroit area) and when we go to Canada, we notice only a few differences between Canadian English and American English. "Don" sounds like "dawn" to me, then there's "about" that sounds like "aboot" and the extra "eh's" thrown in occasionally (which I guess would parallel the "you knows" that I hear a lot on this side of the border). I also like the road signs that say "Squeeze" left or right instead of the "merge" that you'll see in the States. (Sounds cozier to me.)

[Samuel]

Interesting...

[Bud]

There is also "shed-ule" versus the US's "sked-ule" for the word spelled "schedule"....

[Victoria]

So, in general, I see that the Canadian English accent has certain similarities with that of the British.

[surfy]

No, I wouldn't think of it as like British English. The Brit's accent is vastly different from the American accent and there are times when I don't have a clue what the Brits are saying (my bad....not theirs). Canadian is more subtle, the vowels are throatier and are pronounced with a more rounded mouth. Most of my experience though is with Ontario and New Brunswick. Been to Quebec a few times and what little English is spoken in Quebec is quite different.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a linguist

[Victoria]

No, I wouldn't think of it as like British English.

I know it's not exactly british, but the schedule" example ( pr. as shh), or the spelling of some words, like Colour/vs. AME "color" are just some of the many cases where it resembles British English.
I also notice how Diana makes clippings of certain diphthongs sometimes, for ex: "rain" /rein/ , she makes it sound more like /rin/ (slant lines for pron.)
. I studied English/ American phonology and phonetics in college, and as far as I see it, Canadians' accent is very close to RP ( Received Pronunciation) aka . "standard pronunciation". but there's a lot of debate about this, bcause Canada is divided in many areas, some have been afected by British accent and some others by French. Anyway, no accent is better or worse than the other, according to linguists.

[Coda]

On one TV show a couple years back, we saw a special (maybe it was on CBC-TV) that talked about the development of Canadian English. I remember a couple very random things, especially something about a favorite Canadian doughnut (can't think of the name now -- but it wasn't Tim Horton's) and the influence of Scottish immigrants on Canadian word pronunciation. (Funny what sticks in my mind!)

Also, we've noticed very minor differences in phrasing from listening to Canadian radio or tv reports, such as: so-and-so was sent "to hospital" instead of "to the hospital."

[gundy516]

I have many close friends from Canada (primarily from Calgary, Alberta) and I remember the first time I heard someone mention something about a 'chesterfield' they had just bought and I could not for the life of me figure out what they were talking about - they had bought a new 'sofa'. Another item similar to the 'hospital' is when we would talk about going to college and they always would refer to it as 'going to university'.

[Bud]

http://www.mpnnow.com/news/view_story.p ... leId=10065

Chris Botti and Diana Krall brought class and smooth strains to the Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center.

HOPEWELL — Jay Diedreck is lucky he still has all his fingers.

The first time the Chili resident heard Diana Krall on the radio, singing "peel me a grape, pop me a cork, french me a fry ...", he was outside cutting wood. Her sultry voice made him "hot under the collar," so he took a break from his task before he was lulled into losing an appendage.

Diedreck and his wife, Alicia, were just two of the thousands of fans crowding both the Shell and lawn at the steamy Constellation Brands-Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center Monday night. They came to hear Krall perform her versions of Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole standards, singing and playing jazz piano, accompanied by an intimate trio on guitar, drums and double bass. Trumpet virtuoso Chris Botti was the opening act.

The youthful Botti stunned Monday night's crowd with covers ranging from "Ave Maria" to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and "A Thousand Kisses Deep." Botti was the unqualified gem of his small band but he also shared the spotlight with his drummer, pianist and guitar player. Botti made a plea to parents to expose their children to music, early and often, saying, "young people don't get to check out jazz enough."

Some in attendance, like Carl Reynolds of Rochester, were Botti devotees, while others had come to see Krall and were delighted at discovering Botti.

"While most jazz trumpet players like to make it an athletic enterprise," said Reynolds, (Botti) plays with expression and interpretation."

Fans had plenty to say about Botti's musical musings.

"He makes the trumpet just sing — it's bliss," said Karen Schankat of Webster.

"He takes me to fantasyland," offered fellow Webster resident Martha Abbott, whose favorite song was "Someone to Watch Over Me."

When asked to describe the sound of Botti's trumpet in just one or two words, folks suggested "truly melodious," "sexy," "plaintive," "reverberating," "crisp," "clear," "smoky" and "sassy."

While the handsome trumpet player was still negotiating the long line of autograph-seeking admirers, Krall took the stage, opening with Peggy Lee's "I Love Being Here With You." Leading her quartet through songs by Lee, Irving Berlin, and her favorite, Cole, Krall sang with a voice that fans most frequently described as "sultry" (other suggestions included "touching," "mellow," and "velvety").

Krall, who is married to musician Elvis Costello, gave birth to twins seven months ago. The babies became a source for wry jokes throughout the evening — "'the wheels on the bus" is what I've been singing for the last seven months, and I'm trying not to sound too sultry at it," Krall quipped.

Fans Pat Hess of Oneida appreciate that Krall has "brought to life all the American classics." When invited back on stage for an encore, Krall chose another American classic: George and Ira Gershwin's "S'Wonderful."

There were about 3,700 attendees in the mostly older crowd, said Rochester Broadway Theatre League Marketing Assistant Jessica Karlsen. The concert lasted until just past 10:30 p.m., and the storm clouds held back their thunder.

Botti and Krall, and their bands, had stolen it.