Diana Krall: Don’t Listen While Driving
One thing needs to be said about this album right off the bat: if you are searching for stay-awake-while-driving-long-stretches-of-the-highway music, this is not your album. Serious injury will be eminent, my friend. On the other hand, if some gentle wooing by candlelight is on your evening agenda, or perhaps if you need to soothe someone off of a major sugar high, this album could come in handy.
I assumed that Krall’s latest album, “Quiet Nights,” would be an ode to bossa nova. The title of the album references the Brazilian classic, “Corcovado,” written by Antonio Carlos Jobim in the 1960’s. The lyrics were later translated into English, which gave it the title, “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars.” I was thrilled to find this reference in the title of Krall’s album. I personally love the bossa novas of Jobim and his collaborators and am always excited to see that they are being kept alive among musicians today. I was disappointed, therefore, to discover that “Quiet Nights” is not so much an ode to the bossa nova, but rather an album of ballads with a couple of bossas thrown in.
The album opens with a couple of standards ballads interpreted in a gentle bossa beat, followed by another standard played in normal time. “Quiet Nights” does indeed feature the aforementioned song, “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars,” as well as two other tunes by the great Jobim. Krall managed to completely confuse me on one of those songs, “Este Seu Olhar.” She sings it in the original Portuguese, which I always prefer to the English translations. However, she sounds almost like a completely different singer. While on other tracks her voice is rich and resonant, at times on this track it is thin and nasal, as if the added dimension of the new language robbed her voice of what dimension it held itself. I swear I heard a little Blossom Dearie in there. While the vocal interpretations are rather disappointing, Krall’s piano solos are spot on. Her single note melodic styling is appropriate for the bossa nova genre and sounds very much like Jobim himself on the keys.
Krall also reinterprets a couple of covers on this album. “Walk on By,” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, is mildly interesting. Krall’s take on the Bee Gee’s “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” mainly led to some ten or so viewings of the Bee Gees performing said tune on YouTube and much pondering as to what could have inspired Robin and Barry to decide that a little falsetto was just what that chorus needed. Yikes.
My favorite tracks on the album are the standards, “You’re My Thrill” and “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.” The former features a soulful, bluesy Krall, whose excellent solo I replayed several times. Krall also handles the latter with a vocal sensitivity that I feel is missing on the majority of this album.
The real high point of “Quiet Nights” is the stellar arrangements by Claus Ogerman. The orchestra is a consistently lush and delicate presence that compliments the melody beautifully. Rich in interesting harmonies and musicality, the arrangements themselves easily outshine the vocals. If it were a conversation between the vocal and accompaniment, you would find yourself much more fascinated with the orchestra’s point of view.
I am left feeling after listening to this album that the beauty of the bossa nova is much better personified in current artists such as Rosa Passos, while the magic of Diana Krall lies in her quartet work. “Quiet Nights” is lovely in its arrangements, yet lacking in its vocals. Perhaps several sudden bursts of falsetto could have provided that extra interest I was waiting for? I guess it worked for the Bee Gees.
