Diana Krall - Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival

Starring:Diana Krall
Studio: Verve
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Diana Krall: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival is a portrait of an already-accomplished musician in the process of evolving into a great artist. Always a fine jazz pianist, an expressive singer, and a capable interpreter (mostly of the Great American Songbook), Krall spent little time developing an original voice prior to her marriage to Elvis Costello and her CD The Girl in the Other Room, which features multiple songwriting collaborations with Costello as well as more adventurous choices in cover material (Joni Mitchell's "Black Crow," Tom Waits's "Temptation"). That 2004 recording is the centerpiece of this concert; fully nine of the 13 selections here, including the Waits and Mitchell songs as well as five Costello-Krall compositions, were drawn from it. Purists may lament the lessening of the straight-ahead jazz element in Krall's music (indeed, with its simple major chords and countryish lilt, the original "Narrow Daylight" will inevitably invite comparisons to Norah Jones). But Krall and her excellent band still swing mightily (cf. an extended version of the standard "All or Nothing at All") and improvise like the seasoned jazz pros they are. It's a heady combination: Krall is at least as good an instrumentalist as her contemporaries; add to that her singing and now an interest in songwriting that reflects the influence of pop music as well as jazz, and you have a genuinely unique talent. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews:

Try Peggy Lee instead.......2007-03-11

I agree: the rapid cutting is annoying. This is supposed to be a jazz concert, not a rock concert.
Also, I don't get these songs, either. Pretentious stuff, it seems to me. The woman can play the piano, but her singing is lacking.

I say give Peggy Lee a listen, try Shirley Horn, Billie Holiday, Dione Warwick, Etta James, Dalida, Jeane Manson, Kelly Flint (of Dave's True Story), Nana Mouskouri, Dusty Springfield, Carmen McRae...I could go on.

frantic camerawork throughout the concert.......2007-02-16

frantic camerawork throughout the concert. There are so many camera angles fading in and out that it gets tiring to watch. I just wished that the camera would sit still for at least 10 seconds. I get the feeling that it was directed by someone who has only directed 30 second commercials.

Reason alone and rightly so for yet another junk dvd. someone start a school for these idiots

Flights of Improvisation Suits Montreal Festival Expectations.......2007-01-29

I anticipated this live recording and was duly rewarded by Diana's longer improvisational breaks and generally sharp differences from the polished product on the Live in Paris album.

If you prefer club jazz, wherein the lead artists in a combo create longer solo excursions between more-or-less tidy returns to melody and chorus, then, like me, you will appreciate the elbow room afforded Diana at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Now I know for sure something that I had been curious about all along. Diana has said in the past that she will hold back a new tune from her set until she perfects her performance of it. There is a style of jazz performance that plays each tune note-perfect on tour (Glenn Miller is the simplest example), but as the Ken Burns JAZZ series stated with refreshing directness, if you're a jazz player who never makes a mistake, you're playing it way too safe. That was always my impression of groups like the Glenn Miller "orchestra."

It is understatement to say that jazz festivals like the venerable one in Montreal are the perfect places to let one's hair down. Duke Ellington found that out decades ago. You better have chops at Montreal Jazz, and Diana's combo understands the expectation. These are not the tidy album-track arrangements played on tour for the jazz hits crowd. Here, those of us who would really like to hear Diana and her bandmates "go long in the breaks" get our wish.

If you think the Live in Paris CD, great as it is, is just a tad too well calculated, too clean, a bit too rehearsed for your appetite, then here you'll find one version of an antidote.

Here's a DVD live show wherein Diana gets to "go off" according to the parameters I've sketched above. The songs are from her set lists as you can see, but her lead improvs, and those by the rest of the band, are something you can't hear on the other more formal media. I recommend this confidently to those who are curious to hear Diana and the guys jam in the blues and jazz improvisation stratosphere without the net.

Note: You may actually be chagrined by Diana's blues leads, since blues leads have become a staple of rock'n'roll over the years, but blues are part of the jazz heritage, and Diana is still in charge of her instrument. See what you think. I enjoyed it, yet I hope next time she allows more jazz moves in her blues riffs.

Diana Krall DVD.......2007-01-26

The DVD was just as advertised and very enjoyable. The quality of the DVD and the music were excellent. It was a very good price and worth every penny.

Diana Krall Live at the MOntreal Jazz Festival.......2007-01-10

Wonderful concert. Wish I was there, but this is the next best thing.

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