 Potent as both a pianist and a vocalist, Diana Krall
possesses an extraordinary talent for creating music that speaks personally to
every individual who hears her perform. But don't expect Diana Krall to tell her
listeners what to feel. "Tony Bennett taught me how important emotional
directness is in music," she says. "It's all about how you communicate. You tell
a story, but you leave it open to personal interpretation."
Diana Krall's love affair with classic jazz ballads and with
pop music of earlier decades started when she was a toddler growing up in
Nanaimo, British Columbia. There was always music in Diana's life. Diana Krall
and her family would gather at her grandparents' home on Sundays to make music
together. (Her mother and father both played piano and her grandmother was a
singer.) Nat king Cole, Fats Waller, Bill Evans, Frank Sinatra, opera, and the
music of old radio shows helped form her musical tastes; as she grew older, she
was also influenced by Sting, R&B and piano great Ahmad Jamal.
Diana Krall won a Vancouver Jazz Festival scholarship to
study at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1981 and, after a year and a half
of serious study, she returned to British Columbia. Master bassist Ray Brown
heard her playing one night in Nanaimo and was so impressed by what he heard
that he took her under his wing and his mentoring relationship with her
continues to this day. Ray suggested Diana move to Los Angeles where she
obtained a Canadian Arts Council grant to study with Jimmy Rowles.
In 1995, Diana Krall released her first GRP album, Only
Trust Your Heart, featuring Ray Brown, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash and
Stanley Turrentine. It was also her first collaboration with Tommy LiPuma and it
introduced her talents to a much wider audience. She embarked on tour outside
the U.S. and Canada, playing at major European festivals and traveling to Japan
to perform with McBride, Nash and Sadao Watanabe.
All For You, Diana Krall's breakthrough 1996 recording
on the reactivated Impulse! label, was a personal dedication to the music of the
Nat King Cole Trio. In addition to Malone, Diana Krall was joined by Paul Keller
(bass), Benny Green (piano), and Steve Kroon (percussion). This impressive
Impulse! recording, also produced by Tommy LiPuma, was a spectacular career
success and held steady in the top ten on Billboard's Traditional Jazz
chart for nearly 70 weeks and earned a spot in The New York Times' Top
Ten Adult Pop Albums for 1996. In January 1997, Diana was nominated for a Grammy
in the Best Jazz Vocal Performance category.
Further evidence of Diana Krall's promise as a brilliant new
talent came in 1996 with invitations to perform in tributes to Ella Fitzgerald
at Carnegie Hall and to Benny Carter at Lincoln Center, as well as performing
with Ray Brown for his 70th Birthday Celebration at the Blue Note in New York.
An engagement at NYC's famed Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel solidified her
reputation as a crowd-pleasing performer. Her trio appeared before sold-out
audiences for four weeks, garnering praise and accolades from the New York
media. Diana Krall made a believer out of them, and now stands poised to make a
believer out of you!
Contact Grabow for more information or to book Diana Krall
for your next corporate or private event.
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