Diana Krall's Tanglewood Cabaret
Fourth of July Celebration in Lenox
By: Charles Giulianp - Jul 05, 2009
Last night Diana Krall, with her quartet, augmented occasionally by a full orchestra, transformed Tanglewood into an intimate cabaret. She created an up close and personal ambiance chatting warmly with the audience that packed the Koussevitzky Shed and stretched out as far as the eye could see on the lawn.
This is the second time that the acclaimed Grammy award winning, double platinum album selling, jazz pianist and singer has performed on the Fourth of July to launch the Tanglewood season. She last took that position in 2004. James Taylor has filled that spot since then but they have now played musical chairs. Taylor, who has sold out his Fourth of July concerts, is now doing the same to end the season in August with three nights in Lenox.
Truth is we would have preferred to see her perform in Ozawa Hall which is more suitable for her style and delivery. The decision to have her in the shed seemed more about selling tickets for a popular artist than enhancing the artistic aspects of the experience for appreciative fans. She has appeared previously in that setting with the Tanglewood Jazz Festival and has also performed at Symphony Hall with the Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart.
Although born in Nanaimo, British Columbia she has a Boston connection with two years on scholarship at Berklee College of Music. From there she moved to LA and hooked up with John Clayton, pianist/ singer Jimmy Rowles and bassist Ray Brown. She later recorded "Only Trust Your Heart" with Brown and tenor sax player Stanley Turentine. This started her association with producer Tommy LiPuma.
During the evening Krall, wearing a black cocktail dress with red pumps, often told us about her two and a half year old twin boys with her husband, another frequent subject of quips and comments, the musician Elvis Costello. "They're American citizens as they were born in New York," she said. Although glamorous and capable of delivering torchy songs with suggestive lyrics, she projected the image of a happily married mother and wife hauling her kids around in a big tour bus with all of the comforts of home including a microwave ("I like to cook") and well stocked wine cellar ("It helps").
She described how honored she felt to be back at Tanglewood, with her kids, in the company of such great musicians. Krall introduced her accompanists: Anthony Wilson, guitar, Jeff Hamilton, drums, Robert Hurst, bass, and the orchestra conducted by Alan Broadbent.
From the get go she demonstrated considerable chops as a jazz pianist. The set revealed many aspects of her interests and influences. From flat out, hard bop improvisation, to popular songs, standards and ballads, and a dash of Bossa Nova in a rendering of the sultry "Quiet Nights" by the great Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.
She displayed many aspects of jazz piano technique including the Harlem Stride approach of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, blues riffs in the tradition of Leroy Carr, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Cow Cow Davenport, or the boogie of Pine Top Smith. The source of this eclectic mix was the vast record collection of her father a stride pianist. She described listening to Edison cylinders as a kid gradually evolving to 78s. When she was enjoying this old timey music in junior high school she got a good laugh commenting that the other girls were listening to "Elvis Costello."
The opening interlude was an extended instrumental vamp that evolved into a song ending with the exclamation "Ray Brown" a reference to her friend and colleague. The earthy mother then got into a suggestive mood with "Please Do It Again." It made a graphic point that was not lost on the vast audience. As a liberated woman she wasn't shy in conveying that she likes it a lot stating "My mother told me it was naughty but please do it again, and again, and again." Good heavens to Betsy.
She followed with a more romantic ballad the sophisticated "Let's Fall in Love" a jazz standard composed by Cole Porter in 1928. This was stretched out and accented nicely by the quartet.
After these selections she spoke to the audience, first about the "Nice weather (the first day in weeks when it didn't rain). I'm from an island and used to this but this is ridiculous." She then described taking her kids round the Tanglewood grounds in a large stroller which she described as resembling "A Hummer." This led into a song "I learned from a Frank Sinatra record 'I Can't Remember Where or When.'"
What was most impressive about the performance was an ability to shift gears and modulate her style and attack. At times she would stretch and scat, bending notes and phrases so that the lyrics bordered on the incomprehensible. This emphasized the musical structures of a song as a jumping off point. But she would then swing back in for a slow, melancholy and articulate rendering of lyrics milking them of the full depth of their humanistic content.
She introduced "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face" from My Fair Lady. "It's a favorite of my husband. It helps a lot when your husband likes your music. My life is very good right now. I have a fantastic husband and two great kids," she then paused and reflected on that saying humorously "Aren't you glad I told you all that? It's time for me to shut up and play." She toyed with the Lerner and Loewe standard working in a few phrases of "Get Me To the Church On Time."
"I think of Nat King Cole every day" she commented as she slid into "Do I Want You, Do I Love You, Honey Deed I Do." She followed a song inspired by Sergio Mendes with a Latin accent which melded into "Quiet Nights" then "Love Letters Straight from the Heart."
While touring on the bus, Krall described a recent visit to Washington D.C. where she performed at the White House for "Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama. It was great to talk with a woman my age about our kids. When they meet you they hug you. Not like that guy who came before them. (This evoked a roar of approval from the audience.) At one point the President leaned over and asked me 'Isn't your husband Elvis Costello?'"She played "Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off and Start All Over Again."
After an evening of playing with her combo, and occasionally that full orchestra, she ended with a moody rendering of the solo "P.S. I Love You." One sensed that it was projected to her husband who she previously described as also on stage that evening. With two musicians on the road there is a lot of separation while trying to keep a family together. It was a lovely accent to a richly involving evening. She came back for an encore of Leonard Bernstein's "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story. The audience exited to a barrage of fireworks. How perfect.