Article: "Concert review: DIANA KRALL gave her all Saturday night at the NAC" (ottawacitizen.com)

Concert review: Diana Krall gave her all Saturday night at the NAC

The leading vocalist in jazz demonstrated her emotional and artistic range during a generous two-hour concert Saturday night in Ottawa.


PETER HUM
More from Peter Hum

Published on: December 3, 2017 | Last Updated: December 4, 2017 10:32 AM EST

Diana Krall at the National Arts Centre, Dec. 1/17. DAN NAWROCKI

Diana Krall
National Arts Centre, Southam Hall

Reviewed Saturday night

From sultry and swinging to goofy and giggling to heartfelt and moving, Diana Krall gave her all at the National Arts Centre Saturday night during her two-hour concert.

While the concert drew substantially on songs from from Krall’s latest record, the award-winning and easy-on-the-ears Turn Up The Quiet, the all-Canadian but international jazz star presented a wider swath of music and emotions to the crowd that packed Southam Hall for the second of Krall’s two nights in Ottawa.


Here’s the set list for the show:


‘Deed I Do

L-O-V-E

Christmas Time is Here/Isn’t It Romantic

Night and Day

Blue Skies

Temptation

On The Sunny Side of the Street

A Case of You/River

Moonglow

I Don’t Know Enough About You

Just You, Just Me

Encore:

The Look of Love

S’Wonderful/East of the Sun

The Dream of You

Departure Bay

Compared to the recorded versions, the performances in Ottawa opened up considerably with extended solos, satisfying music fans who came for instrumental thrills and not just Krall’s smooth but compelling singing.

In particular, every time that guitarist Anthony Wilson, one of four ace American musicians in Krall’s touring band, stepped forward, he reliably contributed something dazzling, whether it was a gorgeous introduction or an improvised solo filled with ornate but wonderfully developed melodies.

Guitarist Anthony Wilson at Diana Krall’s Dec. 1/17 concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa DAN NAWROCKI

Wilson also played a trickster’s role in the night’s least scripted moment. Introducing the tuneIsn’t It Romantic by himself, Wilson played Christmas Time Is Here, the beloved Vince Guaraldi-penned classic from A Charlie Brown Christmas, so elegantly that Krall asked him to prolong his efforts. But the clever segue into Isn’t It Romantic was such that it left Krall momentarily and disarmingly at sea. “How does the song go, I forget?” she cracked. “Is that the right key?” A few bars later, she had fully recovered, casting a dreamy spell on the slow song.

Listeners who came to hear in-the-tradition, swinging jazz were well-served with sturdy, well-explored versions of Deed I Do, L-O-V-E, East Of The Sun, Blue Skies, On The Sunny Side of the Street, I Don’t Know Enough About You.

For jazz aficionados, there were cues from Krall that for all her millions of albums sold to crossover fans, she was still one of them. She enjoyed slipping in wry quotes of other songs in her piano solos, from a Charlie Parker blues head to Ding Dong Merrily On High. Her arrangement ofBlue Skies liberally cited jazz piano icon Thelonious Monk’s In Walked Bud, with which it shares a chord progression. While announcing, Krall gave a shout out to a photo of Count Basie that’s backstage at the NAC.

Jazz-wise, the big test of a night, given its tempo alone, was a light-speed rendition of Just You, Just Me. Bassist Robert Hurst cruised through a wily, walking solo. Violinist Stuart Duncan, who soloed a little more sparingly, pulled out the stops on that tune, which was one of his two star turns.

The other came in the band’s epic run through Tom Waits’ Temptation, which also featured an enthralling Wilson solo on solid-body guitar and a powerful solo by drummer Karriem Riggins, during which his bandmates encouraged the audience to spur him on with some well-placed handclaps.

Drummer Karriem Riggins at Diana Krall’s Dec. 1/17 concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa DAN NAWROCKI

Of course, Krall was not to be overshadowed by her massively talented bandmates. In the middle of her concert, her solo medley of Joni Mitchell’s A Case Of You and River was riveting. It was clear that Krall was digging deep artistically, finding new and personal ways to sing and play those pieces for which the bar is very, very high.

She was just as strong at the end of the night, when the generous encore (which had begun with a lightly funkified version of The Look Of Love) finished with the one-two punch of Bob Dylan’s The Dream of You and Krall’s own composition Departure Bay, an autobiographical ode that nods poignantly to the part of Vancouver Island where she is from and to the life Krall led before she became a global celebrity.

For all the restaurants and dinner parties that have used Krall’s albums as background music, and after a long set with much that was breezy, upbeat and entertaining, the concert’s last two songs made clear that Krall’s a formidable artist too.


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Fuente: ottawacitizen.com

Article: NAC Gala with DIANA KRALL!!!

Around Town: NAC Gala with Diana Krall and Alexander Shelley raises $724,500 for arts education programs.

CAROLINE PHILLIPS

Published on: October 23, 2016 | Last Updated: October 23, 2016 3:02 PM EDT

From left, NAC Gala honourary chair Sophie Grégoire Trudeau with NAC Orchestra maestro Alexander Shelley and Canadian jazz musician Diana Krall at the NAC Gala held at the National Arts Centre on Saturday, October 22, 2016. ERNESTO DI STEFANI / GEORGE PIMENTEL PHOTOGRAPHY
Hard hats were not required for Saturday night’s 20th annual National Arts Centre Gala but NAC Foundation chief executiveJayne Watson pulled the look off when she came out on stage wearing one, just for fun.

“Welcome to the NAC, which, in case you didn’t know, stands for Neverending Annoying Construction,” she joked of the massive renovation that will transform Canada’s performing arts building by summer. “Next year it’s going to be New Awesome Centre.”

The gala concert featured Canadian jazz musician Diana Krall with the NAC Orchestra, led by maestro Alexander Shelley. Afterward, top gala sponsors enjoyed a gourmet meal together on the Southam Hall stage.

Canadian jazz musician Diana Krall performed at this year’s concert during the National Arts Centre Gala held at the NAC on Saturday, October 22, 2016. ERNESTO DI STEFANI / GEORGE PIMENTEL PHOTOGRAPHY


Sophie Grégoire Trudeau continued the tradition of prime ministerial spouses serving in an honourary role. She appeared on stage in a floral-inspired beauty of a dress by Toronto-based fashion designer Lucian Matis. She announced the evening’s net total for the National Youth and Education Trust, in support of the NAC’s arts education programs across Canada. It ended up being $724,500, after more money was raised at the late-night live auction at dinner.
She spoke about her appreciation for the performing arts, and of growing up with music, culture, theatre and film.

“Want to hear me sing? Not tonight,” she knowingly quipped. She shared a cute story about wanting to play piano as a girl. Her parents – who were in attendance with her that night — did finally buy a piano, only to realize it wouldn’t fit through the door of their old home. “So, I played the flute,” she said, upbeat....

Also to take the stage was Victor Dodig, president and chief executive of presenting sponsor CIBC. He took a moment to remember the late Jim Prentice, former politician and vice-chairman of CIBC. Prentice, along with his wife Karen, was very supportive of the NAC Gala cause.

Seen that night were Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and such colleagues as Justice Suzanne Côté and Justice Michael Moldaver, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Chief Government Whip Andrew Leslie, Treasury Board President Scott Brison, and Liberal Party of Canada president Anna Gainey. Attendees also included U.S. Ambassador Bruce Heyman and British High Commissioner Howard Drake.

Returning to chair the gala committee was Gary Zed.

Top sponsors of the NAC Gala enjoyed a post-concert dinner on the Southam Hall main stage at the National Arts Centre on Saturday, October 22, 2016. ERNEST DI STEFANI / GEORGE PIMENTEL PHOTOGRAPHY

Fuente: ottawacitizen.com

Krall in full bloom

Jazz diva displays usual expressiveness, new artistic range
By Peter Hum, The Ottawa Citizen October 3, 2010 

Variety is more than the spice of life. It also seems to be the defining quality of a Diana Krall concert circa 2010, given the Canadian jazz star’s performance at the National Arts Centre Gala on Saturday night.

More so than in previous Ottawa performances, Krall stretched her wings musically. She and her band sampled broadly from the musical styles that are within her well-defined comfort zone, and even went to some new places, showing that the top-selling artist in jazz isn’t content just to spin out the tried-and-true sounds of her million-selling CDs.

Her concert featured music associated with Oscar Peterson and Tom Waits, Irving Berlin and Krall’s husband Elvis Costello, Fats Waller and Burt Bacharach. What unified it was Krall’s musical presence and the continual expressiveness of her voice and piano playing.

Between songs, Krall kept listeners rapt with anecdotes both musical (her encounter with piano giant Peterson, a 1997 NAC concert in Ottawa) and personal (a story about her twin boys and their fondness for the Spider-Man theme song, which has just figured in some of her improvising).

Krall’s set began with I Love Being Here With You, her standard set-opener and testament to her love for the swing feel and excitement at the core of the jazz tradition. It was locomotive-fast, meant to rouse a crowd and also unite listeners with its titular sentiment.

The bubbly bossa nova hit Summer Samba followed, but as Krall leaned into the song she was more bluesy than usual.

The music grew more serious with a ballad, the My Fair Lady song I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face. Krall was so deep into the music that when she delivered the song’s message of a lover’s “serene contentment,” it was easy to mind-read that she had Costello in mind.

The next selection hit like a musical jump-cut, as Krall presented the rollicking and dramatic Tom Waits song Jockey Full Of Bourbon. While Krall can be commanding with as little as a whisper, on this high-energy, Latin-groove tune, she seemed to be reveling in the pure power of her voice.

With that out of her system, Krall was deep into the jazz once more, swinging through I Was Doing Alright. Guitarist Anthony Wilson and bassist Robert Hurst were compelling soloists on the loping, medium-tempo tune. While some hipper-than-thou jazz fans look down at Krall’s music because of its accessibility, Wilson and Hurst definitely demonstrated their jazz-badass credentials.

Indeed, Wilson was under the spotlight during the next tune, Tom Jobim’s hypnotic song Corcovado, providing an introduction full of rich harmonies before he accompanied Krall’s dreamy singing with supreme taste.

Abandoned Masquerade, with lyrics by Costello and music by Krall, saw Krall entering more contemporary emotional territory and grinding blue notes during her piano solo.

Before Cheek to Cheek, her set-closer, Krall showed another facet of her piano playing with a stride-piano version of Honeysuckle Rose. The brisk Irving Berlin tune that followed was as playful as anything in the night.

Brought back for an encore, Krall had a final surprise. She tied together two Burt Bacharach tunes — What the World Needs Now and Walk on By — conveying sweet soulfulness with the first song and more contemporary sass on the second. What was a soul ballad for Dionne Warwick took on a trace of hip-hop, thanks to drummer Karriem Riggins.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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NAC Gala: An Intimate Evening with Diana Krall 

NACO Special Concerts

 Thank you to all our Gala patrons, sponsors and donors who made the National Arts Centre Gala such a success, resulting in net proceeds of over $550,000 for the National Youth and Education Trust.

Singer, pianist, and songwriter extraordinaire, British Columbia’s own Diana Krall is our special guest at this season’s NAC Gala. This superb Grammy Award-winning jazz musician has a unique style and a seductive, sultry voice that is sure to leave you wanting more. You might even hear something from her latest album, Quiet Nights. Diana Krall will captivate you in a one-hour performance on this glittering occasion.

To begin your enchanted evening, you'll enjoy a spectacular welcome by our own treasured Maestro Pinchas Zukerman as he leads the NAC Orchestra in the dazzling first half of the concert. An intimate, romantic and glamourous evening awaits you.

"She draws people into an intimate space… simply to enjoy that feeling of being ‘up close and personal’… that makes us sit back with a sigh and simply enjoy that Krall really is very good."
The Telegraph (London)

"In her dark whispery alto… the effect is to turn songs into mysterious stream-of-consciousness ruminations… in a private language that is all about rhythm."
New York Times

Fuente: www.nac-cna.ca