Diana Krall's New Album "Quiet Nights" Keeps the Bossa Nova Genre Thriving

If you've followed the jazz career of Diana Krall since her impressive debut in the early 1990's, you'd know that part of her musical education has been the albums of Brazilian Bossa masters who had their genre borrowed by American jazz legends...and subsequently turned into Bossa Nova here in the States. Krall has always cited the album "Amoroso" featuring Brazilian singing/composing legend Joao Gilberto as a major influence on her. That led Krall to finally do an album very much like it and using the same arranger, Claus Ogerman, on her 2001 release of "The Look of Love." Not that the "Amoroso" album set any bar for the sound of how we perceive Bossa Nova in our country. Before that album was released in 1976, it was the Getz/Gilberto album of 1964 and 1967's collaboration of Antonio Carlos Jobim/Frank Sinatra that created the familiar Bossa sound of soft vocals and strings (with a little piano or guitar).

It was Ogerman who really created those sounds, particularly on the Jobim/Sinatra album where strings accompanied the sotte voce style type of singing Sinatra had to learn to master and which came natural to Jobim. Both Joao Gilberto and Jobim brought that soft and reflective vocal control via their own early 60's Brazilian albums before the two came to America to become even bigger musical stars. And Diana Krall was already utilizing that sound on her previous albums when interpreting a ballad.

Even though Krall's stylistic touch was influenced by the late vocal minimalist/stylist Shirley Horn, you can plainly hear the influence of Gilberto and Jobim's gentle vocalisms on "The Look of Love", right along with the light piano accompaniment made famous by Jobim himself on his first instrumental albums. But it's that ethereal string sound made famous by Ogerman above that gives the fuller romantic sheen people associate so strongly with the Bossa sound here in the States. Some purists who understood Bossa as being stripped down to just a guitar and light Brazilian percussion may have carped, yet didn't dissuade people from buying the albums with that richer sound.

After Krall's "The Look of Love" album, fans of the above Bossa sound probably expected her to keep doing more albums like it--if even a direct album of Brazilian songs. It took her eight more years and diverging into other musical territory before Krall brought forth the album that may just epitomize her musical craft. With "Quiet Nights", she delves even further into Jobim's songbook and pulls out a haunting and deeper album than "The Look of Love" was. Should you automatically know the introspective Bossa song "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" (or "Corcovado") by Jobim, then you can probably imagine Krall's vocal interpretation instantly without having heard the album.

Fortunately, as of this writing (and a week before the release of the album), Amazon.com is providing an impressive preview via a music video featuring Krall and a touch of tourism advertisement utilizing the natural wonders of the Brazilian rain forest. Anybody not instantly sold based on Krall's wistful rendition of "Quiet Nights" would be want in appreciating any of her other albums.
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Many of the songs covered on Krall's "Quiet Nights" are arguably the most covered jazz tunes of all time at this point. Nevertheless, DK is one of the few artists who have an uncanny ability to reinvent to sound like you're hearing them for the first time. She's also far from the only female artist doing albums featuring Bossa sounds. With Babel Gilberto (daughter of Joao), Eliane Elias and dozens of others, it's a challenge to stand apart from all the sexy-sounding, wispy female vocalists showing up lately. When you consider Elias is the Brazilian equivalent to Diana Krall, it starts to become a battle of interpretation if not even artistic ego.

Well, Krall's interpretations of these jazz classics are truly bar none in the world of American jazz. Starting with the well-worn "Where or When", you're instantly reminded of that ocean breeze Ogerman string sound and remembering that the "Amoroso" album also featured Bossa arrangements of Great American Songbook tunes. Adding "Too Marvelous for Words" and "I've Grown Accustomed to His Face" afterward showcases how the Bossa sound can be applied to just about anything--including legendary Broadway show tunes.

Then Krall finally gets to the classic Jobim material with the even more well-worn "Boy (or Girl if sung by a man) from Ipanema." Her take is about as strong as any classic version you can drum up. This isn't to say she couldn't have picked something else when you realize Jobim wrote literally thousands of songs. When it comes to selling albums, though, it's unfortunately all in the familiarity of titles.

Next, Krall goes into Burt Bacharach territory (DK's husband, Elvis Costello, is now in creative kinship with him) with the 60's classic "Walk on By." It's easy to adapt that to a Bossa sound, but less easy to adapt blues. Yet Krall manages it afterward with the bluesy torch ballad "You're My Thrill."

One thing about doing Bossa albums: It's now mandatory to sing at least one song in the original Portuguese. I've written here before about the magic of Portuguese and how I think it's the single most romantic language in the world, despite it not getting recognized enough. It's not an easy language to learn, however, and it might be arguable how good Krall's Portuguese is on the Bossa classic "Este Seu Olhar." She nevertheless makes it sound authentic as if you're hearing a lusty Brazilian jazz artist sing it in a nightclub down there.

You can't have a Krall album without hearing her play piano (which she doesn't get nearly enough praise for, in my opinion). On the perpetually overplayed and some might say lounge-lizard tune "So Nice", we have a chance to hear Krall play a solo that teaches you that the term deceptively simple applies to her playing. If you ever have a chance to see her in concert, you'll be blown away at her piano skills.

The highlight of the album is the above-mentioned "Quiet Nights" that you'll never forget. I dare say it's better than any version I've heard in lyrical interpretation--and I've heard many versions of it.

After that, it's hard to say if "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" really fits. That song is a nod to her other vocal inspiration, Sinatra, of course, plus gives a wistful and downcast feeling as a finale to the album. That ending might not apply if you purchase the unsurprising extended version of the album featuring two bonus cuts of "How Do You Mend a Broken Heart" and "Everytime We Say Goodbye." The former is a nod to the Bee Gees that's becoming more covered of late because of its timeless qualities. Michael Buble is the most recent artist to cover it...while coincidentally being from near where Krall was raised in Vancouver, B.C.

With Cole Porter's "Everytime We Say Goodbye", we have yet another emotional ending that tells us Krall is still in a wistful mood as an artist. It's always more artful to end that way on an album, despite Krall still undoubtedly feeling the pain of losing her mother, mentors Rosemary Clooney and bassist Ray Brown all in one swoop back in 2002. She's a sensitive artist while keeping a balance of the sexy, smoky singer all in tow. You need all those qualities in order to be a master at interpreting the Bossa sound...

Order Diana Krall's "Quiet Nights" here...

http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Nights-Diana-Krall/dp/B001K3JF7K/ref=pd_ts_zbw_m_music_2?pf_rd_p=309673501&pf_rd_s=right-5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=5174&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1PD28J5MN60SFXCFSX6Y

Or, for a rare vinyl edition, click here...

http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Nights-Diana-Krall/dp/B001PKVG5C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1238111199&sr=1-3