Mrs. Elvis Costello dedicates her latest album to Declan, Dexter and Frank, her husband and twin sons. She has presented them with a cool, mellow record in a distinctly bossa nova mood from her hushed vocal approach to spare but sparkling piano solos and the pristine production by longtime collaborator Tommy LiPuma.
Diana Krall’s Quiet Nights, at first, begs for an evening with the lights down low, a bottle of wine and your significant other. But it also plays well for a sunny, sandy beach day with its Brazilian connections. Fully three of the 10 main selections are from the book of Antonio Carlos Jobim, including the title track, and one by Marcos Kostenbader Valle and Paolo Sergio Valle, the wonderful So Nice. Most of the others share a bossa feel.
I nearly flinched when I saw the number of musicians credited and with all those strings was wary of the record being overloaded with orchestrations. But the arrangements are tasteful and subtle, never overpowering the singer or her core band of Anthony Wilson, guitar, John Clayton, bass, Jeff Hamilton, drums, and Paulinho Da Costa, percussion. Claus Ogerman, who arranged some of Astrud Gilberto’s ’60s solo work and worked with Jobim, returns as arranger, having previously worked with Krall on The Look Of Love from 2004.
The album opens with two standards transformed by the bossa style, Hart & Rodgers’ Where Or When, a Sinatra staple, and Johnny Mercer’s Too Marvelous For Words, both featuring a concise piano solo, Wilson’s persistent guitar rhythm and an undercurrent of strings. Krall’s vocal interpretation of Marvelous is individualistic and compelling. Continue reading Diana in a bossa mood
He’s also known to be, at times, a tempermental live artist. I saw him play at Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT in the early ’90s when that venue put on concerts. The highlight of the show was when Morrison wasn’t even on stage. At the time, jazz-pop vocalist Georgie Fame, who had several worldwide hits in the ’60s including Yeh, Yeh and The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde, was leading Van’s band. Fame came out alone and played two songs accompanying himself on Hammond B-3, Willie Dixon’s I Love The Life I Live in a Mose Allison style and Yeh, Yeh, both outstanding solo renditions. Van then came out, played a 50-minute set, left the stage and did not return despite a standing ovation.