Diana Krall: A rock star on the piano

By Jerry Fink

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Jazz musician Diana Krall has been playing piano since she was 4 years old — that’s 40 years of tickling the ivories with no sign of slowing down.

She will make a rare Las Vegas appearance Saturday at The Pearl at the Palms. That’s the same venue where her husband, Elvis Costello, spoke about the craft of songwriting and performed two years ago. Krall and Costello live in Vancouver, British Columbia, where they are busy raising their 2 1/2-year-old twin sons, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James. But this summer Krall has the twins on the road with her.

Early days

Krall grew up in Nanaimo, British Columbia. She began classical piano lessons at age 4 and played in her high school jazz band. But she says she got most of her music education from her father, a stride piano player and record collector. “I think Dad has every recording Fats Waller ever made,” she said, “and I tried to learn them all.” Krall received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston and lived in Los Angeles and Toronto before settling in New York in 1990.

First album

Krall made an impressive debut with “Stepping Out” in 1993. Her trio included John Clayton on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums, but it was Krall’s husky contralto and her piano playing that delighted jazz fans and critics around the world. Several songs have become Krall’s signature tunes — “Straighten Up & Fly Right” and “Frim Fram Sauce” among them. Some critics consider this her best recording.

Her breakout

Krall stayed hot with “All of You,” a Nat King Cole tribute, and “Love Scenes,” with a great trio featuring guitarist Russell Malone and bassist Christian McBride. But she became an international star when she teamed with producer Tommy LiPuma on the richly orchestrated 1999 album “When I Look in Your Eyes.” The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts, became an international best-seller and earned two Grammys — for Krall’s vocal performance and for its engineering. It also was the first jazz album to be nominated for Album of the Year in 25 years.

Collaboration with Costello

Krall won another Grammy in 2002 for top jazz vocal album for “Live in Paris.” At the awards ceremony, she met rock singer Costello. They became engaged in May 2003 while collaborating on Krall’s “The Girl in the Other Room.” They wrote six of the 12 songs on the CD together — the first original music that Krall had recorded. They were married Dec. 5, 2003, on Elton John’s estate outside London.

Her latest

Inspired by a recent trip to Brazil, her most recent album, “Quiet Nights,” is a collection of ballads and bossa novas. She again teamed with LiPuma, and Claus Ogerman, who arranged with such bossa nova pioneers as Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto. The album has sold more than 280,000 copies since its release on March 31 with 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard jazz chart. On her Web site she described the album: “It’s not coy. It’s not ‘peel me a grape,’ little girl stuff. I feel this album’s very womanly — like you’re lying next to your lover in bed whispering this in their ear.”