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.
Krall does a role reversal on Lerner & Lowe’s I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face and Jobim’s The Boy From Ipanema. It makes sense on the first, a track that drifts the farthest from the bossa groove, but I had reservations on Ipanema, which was originally sung by Astrud Gilberto with the original gender intact and didn’t suffer but was actually enhanced by it. Krall does a nice job making a convincing argument for making the switch with a sexy vibrato. Still, I prefer the multiple interpretations by Eliane Elias, in both English and Portuguese, dating to the early ’90s and most recently on Bossa Nova Stories.
The contemporary standard Walk On By is given a enthralling reading, something Krall does so well, taking pop or pop-rock tunes and infusing them a tinge of jazz, something I would love to see her do more often.
The title track, Quiet Nights (Corcovado), is her best take on the Brazilian tunes with Este Seu Olhar, sung in Portuguese, a close second, both Jobim compositions. Krall’s impeccable enunciation, reminiscent of Carmen McRae, is most evident on Quiet Nights. So Nice is nicely executed but I prefer Bebel Gilberto’s brilliant reading from her landmark jazz-bossa-electronica work, Tanta Tempo. The album is completed by You’re My Thrill, in an almost rumba style, and the Sammy Cahn-Julie Styne standard Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry, played as a jazz ballad.
The CD contains two bonus tracks, both worthy additions, particularly the Bee Gees’ How Do You Mend A Broken Heart. She completely outdoes the Bee Gees on their popular hit with a cooler, direct version. The closer is Cole Porter’s Every Time We Say Goodbye, beautifully rendered.
As mentioned above, I’m waiting for a Krall album of all pop and rock covers. I’ve seen her in concert twice, both at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT. For the first show she was in a little black dress, the second, right after her marriage to Elvis Costello, she donned jeans and a flowery, peasant-style blouse and she always shines when she pulls out an Elton John tune or covers Joni Mitchell. Until then, Quiet Nights will suffice.