Diana Krall, the Grammy Award-winning Jazz singer and pianist, is in the midst of a world tour promoting her new album, Quiet Nights. She’s also enjoying attention via her scene in Public Enemies, the Johnny Depp film about John Dillinger — she sings “Bye Bye Blackbird” in a club scene with Depp and Marion Cotillard, and the song plays an important role in the story.
Quiet Nights is Krall’s 12th album and uses Brazil as a musical point of reference, melding Bossa Nova with her Jazz stylings.
Born in Canada to a musical family, Krall attended Berklee School of Music in the early 1980s, then moved to Los Angeles to continue her studies with bassists Ray Brown and John Clayton, drummer Jeff Hamilton and pianist Jimmy Rowles, who convinced the young pianist to focus on her singing as well. By 1990, Krall relocated to New York City and began performing with a trio, and in 1993 she released her debut album on a small Canadian independent label.
After signing to Verve Records in 1999, her career exploded when When I Look in Your Eyes won a Grammy for best Jazz vocal and became the first Jazz CD to be nominated for Album of the Year in 25 years. The Girl in the Other Room (2004) was her first to focus on her own songwriting (with six tunes co-written with husband Elvis Costello).
Krall performs at Fraze Pavilion in Dayton at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Get tickets and find more details about Fraze here.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2009.
