Playhouse Square 4/28/2012
Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
At the Tri-C JazzFest last Saturday at Playhouse Square’s State Theatre, Diana Krall purred that she wanted to feel as if she were playing and singing with a group of friends in her living room. All 3,000 plus of us, amazingly enough, probably felt a little bit that way as we watched the quietly confident, sexy and ladylike Krall charm her way through a non-stop program of jazzy vocals and some pretty hot piano playing. The vast State Theatre shrank into just the space needed for a Steinway grand, three sidemen, and Ms. Krall, spotlighted center stage, with the only other lights the glowing red EXIT signs along the walls around us.
It was a true love fest, this exchange with a rapt audience. Standouts included “How Deep is the Ocean?” that began with a murmured “How much do I love you?” and ended with a few tears. Beloved songs from past to today, tributes to the greats and the songs they made part of the (North) American songbook–such as Nat King Cole and “Answer Me My Love,” Burt Bacharach and a spirited declarative version of “Walk on By” and lyric and jazzy nods to Oscar Peterson, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Fats Waller (“I dreamed about a reefer five feet long”), and other greats as well as to her mother. Her mother’s song, unexpectedly, was the old cowboy favorite, “Don’t Fence Me In.”
She made the hour and a half slip right by as she spun variations vocally and at the piano. Nimble-guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Robert Hurst, and drummer Karriem Riggins all impressed with clever variations and solos.
Krall’s stage personality charmed, especially when she wryly gave an understated apology after a verbal slip (she laughed and said “I meant to do that”) and made a quiet statement of happiness — “My life is good; I love it” — when she spoke of being married to a rock star (Elvis Costello), and having five-year old twins. “Legos are my life,” she joked, speaking of those tiny plastic bits that clutter the floor and punish the unwary walker.
What a weekend! Between the previous evening’s David Sandborn Trio & Trombone Shorty then this night’s Diana Krall, between these two shows hot as fire and cool as ice [cream], this, the last of this season’s Tri-C Jazz Festival programs in the State Theatre (there were others elsewhere after this one), showed that jazz is too much to be just one style and that it still thrives in the heart of Cleveland.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.