Diana Krall

A couple years ago, I bought a couple of Krall LPs to see what the fuss was about.

She felt like Lite Jazz to me. To measured. Too restrained. She left me cold. I sold the LPs.

For someone who blends jazz with gospel, r&b, blues, Broadway, soul, pop and Brill School, and does it with passion and originality, a style uniquely her own, see Laura Nyro. Especially New York Tendaberry, an LP with vocals (from a 20 decibel whisper to a 120 decibel scream) that will test the limits of your system’s performance.

She passed away decades ago from cancer, in her early 50s. There is one live performance recorded at The Bottom Line (sadly closed, I saw Miles Davis, among dozens of others there) in the late 80s that does not quite capture the magic of her live performance, but comes close.

Many of her compositions became pop hits for Three Dog Night, Barbara Streisand, the Association, Blood Sweat & Tears, etc. (Brill School incl Carol King, Janis Ian, Paul Simon, Niel Diamond, Geffen, Boyce & Hart, etc).

She was inducted into the rock ‘n roll hall of fame about a decade ago. Bette Midler did the introduction, burst into tears.

Every time I listen to her and I think she's great pop singer, but somewhat too far away from jazz.

is she considered a jazz singer?   I wonder, she seems pretty versatile, more jazz on some discs, less so on others.  Wallflower, a wonderful disc, is anything but jazz, but its still pretty great.  In my opinion of course.  No one is for everyone, that's clear.  

PS: I can’t edit my comment above anymore, one last thought: Laura made her first record for Verve when she was 16 years old. Clive Davis signed her to Columbia a year later. She was painfully shy, did the Davis audition with the lights off, the keyboard lit by a small candle.

She burst onto the scene in the mid 60s, and is considered the first female singer songwriter in the way we understand the term today. Without Laura Nyro, Diana Krall would not be the Diana Krall we know.

She simplifies lots of classic songs and feels like sufficient effort she places to the score, but either insufficient or unrefined effort for improvisation. Everything she sings seems simplified from jazz to simple pop. She seems to me a female Dean Martin that can put some stuff to the show and show off.