[Dixielandjazz] Diana Krall Interviewed - Victoria Times

[Robert Ringwald]

Diana Krall Nervous for Hometown Gig in Nanaimo
by Victoria Ahearn, Canadian Press
Victoria Times Colonist, January 30, 2013
TORONTO -- Grammy-winning pianist/vocalist Diana Krall has moved audiences at some
of the world's biggest concert halls, but when she thinks of kicking off her new
Canadian tour on Sunday in her hometown of Nanaimo, she gets butterflies.
"I'm probably more nerve-wracked playing there than Carnegie Hall because everybody's
going to be there that I know," Krall, who hasn't toured Canada in about four years,
confessed in a recent telephone interview.
"My dad's going to be there and it's been a long time since my dad's seen a concert.
I have his gramophone onstage with me."
It was that gramophone that helped inspire Krall's latest album, Glad Rag Doll, a
gritty and versatile collection that puts a contemporary touch on songs from the
1920s and '30s, from ragtime to blues and roots.
Grammy-winning musician T-Bone Burnett produced the album, which marks a bit of a
departure from Krall's tradition of playing mid-century jazz tunes. It also features
new instrumentation and new musicians, including Burnett and Krall's musician-husband
Elvis Costello (he plays under the pseudonym Howard Coward on the disc).
Krall has known the tunes -- from the contemplative title track to the sombre When
the Curtain Comes Down and the foot-stomping I'm A Little Mixed Up -- since she was
a baby, thanks to her dad's vast collection of sheet music and 78-rpm and cylinder
records.
"It's like a big archival library in there, in my dad's house," Krall said from New
York, where she and Costello have a home with their six-year-old twin boys.
"When I go home, we still play records and listen to music."
Growing up, Krall was also fascinated with the films of the era as well as the Marx
Brothers (she would even dress up as Groucho and Harpo) and vaudeville, in which
her great-aunt Jean performed in New York in the '20s.
"I used to sit at my nana's table playing cards and I'd ask her all the time about
aunt Jean and I'd look through photo albums and say, 'Tell me about her,'" she said.
"Apparently she was really a character."
With Glad Rag Doll, Krall aimed to probe a darker side of that era that also applies
to modern times. Getting inspiration from the Ziegfeld show girls, she wore vintage
lingerie on the album cover along with a sad look in her eyes.
"A lot of these women perished very tragically. One of them died on the stage," said
Krall, referring to the so-called "Ziegfeld curse."
"I'm not trying to make people think or feel. I'm always drawn to a darker side of
things, even in the Great American Songbook. But there's joy in it as well. It's
multilayered."
In her new tour, Krall has a video tribute to the Ziegfeld girls and uses other projections,
including photos from her childhood family singalongs and clips from silent movies
and old cartoons.
She also plays a short film that her actor-friend Steve Buscemi and his filmmaker
wife, Jo Andres, made for when she plays the tune When the Curtain Comes Down (it
can also be seen on YouTube).
The whole show is intended to make the audience feel as if they're in an old vaudeville
theatre, said Krall, who wears vintage clothing onstage and plays on a beat-up 1920s,
five-foot-two Chickering piano she found in a Mississippi antique shop.
"I end up cutting my fingers on it half the time," said Krall, who also has an 1890s
player piano onstage.
"It's really ambitious, this show.... It's really fun. I've created this whole little
world."
Krall said she came up with many concepts for the show when she was recovering from
knee surgery.
"I couldn't sleep, I was up all night, so I would just work all night."
For all her advance preparations, Krall said she's constantly tweaking the show --
a big change from her previous tour style of having a show that's set in stone.
"This is a lot of moving parts," said Krall. "The film's got to fit with the music.
It's a creative work in progress where you could never stop, you could just keep
going."
But only for a limited time.
Krall said her concerts in Europe this summer will be at outdoor festivals and won't
have the visual elements from the Canadian tour.
The Glad Rag Doll tour has already gone through Europe and Krall's twin boys were
with her for some of it. She won't get to tour with them in Canada, though, because
they're just getting settled back into school in New York and it would be too much
to take them out again, she said.
"My sister is going to come and hang out with them while I'm gone this time because
I think it's better for them to be in school at this time," said Krall, noting she
uses Skype to chat with her family every day when she's touring.
"They're going to go on tour with me in the summertime.... But it's a constant struggle,
a crossword puzzle with Elvis and I in trying to coordinate all this. It's very,
very challenging."
-30-
-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551
"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence -- and then success is sure."
-Mark Twain