[Dixielandjazz] Diana Krall reviewed - Toronto Sun, May 23, 2015

[Robert Ringwald]

Diana Krall Strikes Familiar Tone at Massey Hall


by Jane Stevenson

Toronto Sun, May 23, 2015


It it ain’t broke don’t fix it?


Nanaimo, B.C., jazz-pop singer-pianist Diana Krall seemed to adhere to that philosophy -- at least staging-wise -- as she brought her Wallflower tour to Massey Hall on Friday night for the first show of a two night stand.


Krall arrived with pretty much the same cool-looking vaudevillian stage setting -- right down to the gold clamshell lights and old-timey projection screen showing old black and white films and other images -- that she used on her Glad Rag Doll trek at the same venue two years ago.


Maybe Krall, 50, felt the set-up looked so good -- and it did -- that she might as well resurrect it.


I just thought Wallflower, an album of covers from the ‘60s to the ‘80s including the Bob Dylan titular track, maybe deserved a new production?


And there were a few new things like a majestic Lawren Harris painting projection, candles throughout the stage (which worked well during Krall’s low-lit, intimate, solo cover of Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You, which she initially just introduced as written “by a Canadian composer,”) and, most significantly, the backing of an orchestra who nicely filled out the sound when required.


Then there was Elvis Costello.


Okay, the British musician and Krall’s husband and father of their eight-year-old twin boys wasn’t on stage but he was in the audience as she herself mentioned about half-way through the show.


“I’m excited ‘cause my family’s here,” said the husky-voiced singer.


His presence might have been the reason that Krall seemed distracted off the top of the evening as she launched her 100 minute performance with two Glad Rag Doll tunes -- We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye and There Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears.


Helping her get back on track was her talented band with major props to guitarist Anthony Wilson, fiddler-back up singer Stuart Duncan, and drummer Karriem Riggins for their respective solos throughout the night whether they were playing modern pop songs or Great American Songbook tunes.


Standouts ranged from the rompin’, stompin’ marathon version of Tom Waits’ Temptation to the breezy Antonio Carlos Jobim classic Quiet Nights that kicked off the encore and the gorgeous orchestral rendering of Love Letters in between.


Krall’s versatility, both as a singer and pianist, was also on display as she neatly interpreted ‘60s and ‘70s era songs The Mama and the Papas California Dreamin’ and Jim Croce’s Operator before heading back in time to the Nat King Cole popularized Just You, Just Me, and the jazz standard Deed I Do.


Set List:


We Just Couldn’t Say Goodbye

There Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears

Do It Again

So Nice

Let’s Fall in Love

Love Letters

Temptation

Sunny Side of the Street

California Dreamin’

Operator

If I Take You Home Tonight

Don’t Dream It’s Over

Just You, Just Me

Deed I Do

Wallflower

I’m a Little Mixed Up


Encore:


Quiet Nights

I’ll String Along with You.
-30-


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