Concert: Sands Bethlehem Event Center adds Diana Krall

By Dustin Schoof | The Express-Times

on April 16, 2013 at 12:25 PM, updated April 16, 2013 at 12:27 PM

Jazz pianist Diana Krall returns Oct. 10 to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem.
Express-Times Photo | CHRIS POST

Jazz singer-songwriter/pianist Diana Krall is the latest artist to set a return date to the Lehigh Valley.

Krall will perform 8 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center, according to the event center's website.

Tickets, which cost $65 to $89.50 for reserved seating and $109.50 for luxury seating, can be purchased through ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000.

Krall is married to musician Elvis Costello.

For more information, visit sandseventcenter.com or dianakrall.com.

Diana Krall Autograph on RARE Photo Shoot Memorabilia

Extremely Rare!! Autographed by Diana Krall

For the serious collector, I offer an extremely rare piece of Diana Krall memorabilia. In 1999 Impulse produced a desk calendar highlighting jazz vocalist/pianist Diana Krall. Each month's calendar page featured different images of Diana taken from various photo shoots. Thousands of these calendars were sold in conjunction with a Christmas EP that was released. Now, one lucky buyer has the opportunity to own this original printers proof sheet. This sheet highlights 2 uncut complete calendars as proof sheets from the printing process, and has been hand signed by the musical artist (Diana Krall). There were only 5 or 6 of these uncut printer's proof sheets collected at the printer, and it is unknown if any of the others still exist or were signed. So, if you desire rarity, uniqueness and potential for investment in one of the biggest names in jazz music, then this is for you! Diana Krall's rise to fame has been phenomenal over the past 18 years and this proof sheet addresses her early works. The sheet is mounted on 1/4" foam board and is ready to be framed. Measuring approximately 39" x 23 ¼", it will be the highlight of your collection. From the personal collection of a former Verve executive, the provenance of this piece is guaranteed.

Item ID: 1643

Fuente: www.rubylane.com

Photo: DIANA KRALL AND ELVIS COSTELLO (Keith Richards at Paul McCartney's Wedding Celebration)

Elvis Costello attends a celebration for the recent wedding of Sir Paul McCartney to Nancy Shevell at The Bowery Hotel in Manhattan.
(October 22, 2011 - Source: PacificCoastNews.com)

Concert: DIANA KRALL - Verizon Theatre, Grand Prairie (TX), May 3, 2013

Diana Krall goes retro, but with a fresh touch, in Dallas concert

By THOR CHRISTENSEN
Published: 04 May 2013 02:53 PM
Updated: 04 May 2013 02:54 PM

Kye R. Lee/Staff Photographer

Some critics have dismissed Diana Krall’s new album of early 20 century music as a trip to “nostalgiaville,” which totally misses the point. When you play old songs as well as she did Friday night, they’re as fresh as anything on the radio today.

The Canadian jazz singer-pianist consciously played up the old-timey vibe at Verizon Theatre. On the left of the stage was an antique upright piano. On right, an old Victrola record player, which she cranked up to signal the end of the concert.

Delightful black-and-white movies screened above the stage throughout the show, from clips of Groucho Marx to dancing flappers to sci-fi fantasy sequences by George Melies, the French film pioneer immortalized in the 2011 film Hugo. The movies heightened the ambience, but never overshadowed Krall and her excellent five-man band.

She used her latest CD, Glad Rag Doll, as a springboard into a deep pool of retro sounds, from the obscure gospel-blues “Let it Rain” to Ray Charles’ hit “Lonely Avenue,” which she turned into an electric funk-rock strut. She summed up the show as “American music from a long time ago,” but that wasn’t entirely accurate.

Many high points arrived in the European gypsy jazz style, with brilliant playing from violinist Stuart Duncan. Other standouts were newer tunes, like a suitably twangy cover of Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Wide River to Cross,” and lovely encores of The Band’s “Whispering Pines” and Tom Waits’ “The Heart of Saturday Night” – the night’s second Waits cover, after a long, blistering “Temptation.”

As pleasing as Krall’s voice is, she rarely pushed it beyond soft-and-subtle: Even her yodel sounded sultry in Jimmie Rogers’ “Prairie Lullaby.” So it was refreshing to see Krall get downright edgy during “Temptation” and a few other tunes with help from her electric guitarist Aram Bajakian.

And while her banter was a bit too loose and awkward at times, she spiced up the show with charming stories about family and by taking requests for songs she barely knew, like Fats Wallers’ “Lulu’s Back in Town.”

She drew the line, however, when a fan yelled out for “Alison,” a song by her husband, Elvis Costello. “Right church,” she said, “but wrong pew.”

Thor Christensen is a Dallas-based writer. Email him at thorchris2@yahoo.com

*****

Article: "Diana Krall projects old-time movie vibe in concert"

Diana Krall projects old-time movie vibe in concert
Article by: BRITT ROBSON , Special to the Star Tribune Updated: April 29, 2013 - 12:57 PM

REVIEW: Veteran jazz star’s show Sunday was staged like an old-time movie.

Diana Krall opened up about the musical influences for her latest album, “Glad Rag Dolls,” during her Sunday concert at the State Theatre.MARLIN LEVISION • mlevison@startribune.com
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When Diana Krall released the album “Glad Rag Dolls” last October — comprising mostly show tunes from the 1920s that she grew up hearing from her father’s side of the family — it was appropriately lauded as a bold, humanizing departure for a jazz singer and pianist whose elegant prowess is usually encased in icy detachment.

At the time, Krall said the album sprang from her desire to “make my own old movie.” Sunday night at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, her concert tour, which centered on the songs from “Glad Rag Dolls,” brought that vision even closer to reality. And although her intricate planning created a little too much structure and routine, the more expansive and emotionally self-assured performer we heard on record has transferred — and enhanced — those virtues in concert.

Because of her taste and temperament, Krall will always be sophisticated. But on Sunday, she was also earthy and accessible, dimensions that enriched her talent in ways not apparent on previous tours.

A half-hour before the live music began, a player piano onstage began playing Fats Waller. Fifteen minutes later, old music-themed cartoons of Betty Boop and Tom & Jerry appeared on a large movie screen. Then Krall and her five-piece band were introduced in a film clip by actor Steve Buscemi, who subsequently mugged to the music (on screen) of the opening tune, “When the Curtain Comes Down.”

During nearly all of the 19-song, 110-minute (movie-length) performance, vintage film clips were played, in varying degrees of correlation to the musical selections.

The down side of this structure is a loss of spontaneity. There is precious little variation in the set list and the group has been touring for months now. The result was a polished but pro forma ensemble, which played with more rockish intensity than the Americana-tinged sound producer T-Bone Burnett achieved with Krall in the studio for “Glad Rag Dolls.”

But Krall, 48, herself continues to be liberated by the material and evolving the way it is being presented. Her repartee with the audience usually has elements of wit, sass and wry irreverence, but she was looser this time because of the format she had created. To cite the most obvious example, she spoke of visiting her aunt, who used to give her liqueur with milk at 11 in the morning when she was 16.

Krall said her aunt had been an aspiring showgirl, and as she spoke, a picture of the woman sitting at a piano in her underwear appeared on the movie screen. The jazz star said the sheet music from many of the songs she was playing came from her aunt’s floor — and still smelled like tobacco. When she then launched into the title track from “Glad Rag Dolls,” a tribute to show girls, the prelude enhanced both Krall’s vocal treatment and the audience’s appreciation.

The good news is that Krall’s newfound emotional depth isn’t limited to the “Glad Rag Dolls” songs. On Sunday, she was particularly effective on ballads, plumbing nuances not only from “Let It Rain” off “Glad Rag Dolls,” but also in a gorgeous, innovative rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate.” She also nailed the fragile arc of the Band’s “Whispering Pines” during the encore, right on the heels of another Band cover, the jangly “Ophelia.”

The final number in the three-song encore was “Prairie Lullaby,” which will be forever associated with Jimmie Rodgers. Krall introduced the selection by saying that she sings it to her 6-year-old twins at night. When it was done, she went over to the Victrola onstage, cranked it up, put on an old 78 record, and walked off as the screen showed home movies from her childhood.


Britt Robson is a Minneapolis critic and journalist.

Fuente: www.startribune.com