Ron Carter Esperanza Spalding - Downbeat

DIANA KRALL
Casting Agent,
Pianist, Singer
Ribot recalls being very happy, and a little
surprised, to get the call to record Glad Rag
Doll with Krall. “I’d met her before and
thought that she was great, but I associated her
with being very skilled at a kind of jazz playing
that I’m not that great at,” he says laughing.
“I seem to have gone directly from about 1926
to Albert Ayler and missed certain developments
that happened in between, while Diana
can play her ass off with all of that.”
“I didn’t know what to expect, since she
was working with T Bone and moving away
from some of her regular side musician and band
situations to try something new,” he continues.
“I was blown away by her piano playing and the
energy that she brought. She would dive right in
with these deeply Monk-influenced solos. I can’t
speak to her internal process, but energy-wise, it
felt like she just uncorked something. We had a
lot of fun on those sessions. Diana sets the bar
very high in terms of musicianship, and we were
jumping to keep up.”
For Krall, collaborating with Ribot was
equally inspiring. “I love Marc’s records and
working with him was a dream come true,”
she says. “I’d seen him play many times before
and knew what he could do. He can play Bix
Beiderbecke ‘Singin’ The Blues’ one minute and
go into his Ceramic Dog thing—which I really
love—next. He’s got this emotional, frothing
thing going on. It’s truthful and you believe what
he’s saying.”
Krall left Avatar Studios enamored with her
entire recording and production team. “I loved
working with all of them,” she says of her studio
collaborators. “It’s putting together a group
of people who come from different worlds, but
are all incredibly creative, free, open, giving and
generous—generous being the most important
word. When you put all of that together, chemistry
happens.”
When it comes to leading a band, Krall
doesn’t see herself as a hands-on director, so
perhaps the title casting agent would be a better
term to describe her approach. “I just find the
right chemistry between people and then let it rip,
let people do what they do,” she says. “Finding
the right people, though—therein lies the alchemy,
because if one person isn’t fitting in, that’s an
immediate feeling. I worked with the same people
for 10 years and there’s a reason for that. We
all think and breathe the same way.”
Perhaps the greatest evidence of Krall’s success
in casting Glad Rag Doll is the fact that the
album was recorded almost completely live, with
minimal post-tracking studio magic applied.
“We did a couple overdubs here and there, but
very, very little,” says Burnett. “Maybe Ribot
wanted to add another part, or Elvis added a
vocal later on ‘Wide River To Cross.’ But it was
live takes, and most of them first or second takes
as well. Diana’s something else. I have to say
that it felt like I was working with Ray Charles
or Aretha Franklin: someone who can tell the
truth, tell a story in a profound way, sing incredibly
well, groove like a maniac, and just flat get
after it. All of those guys who worked on this
project—they all get after it.”
For her part, Krall relished the opportunity
to simultaneously track vocals and piano live.
“When you start cutting and snipping—that’s
been appropriate for some things I’ve done, and
I’m not criticizing that method—but for this, it
was just me and a mic sitting at the piano,” she
says. As any pianist-cum-singer will attest, coordinating
fingers and vocal cords at the same time,
in a studio setting, can be a challenge, but Krall
was well-prepared, having learned early on from
the best. “Nina Simone, Nat Cole, Shirley Horne
and Ray Charles are all people that I listened to
as a kid,” says Krall. “You can study someone
like Nat Cole for three reasons—as a vocalist, as
a pianist, and as a vocalist and pianist together.
You could listen to him as any of those and be
equally blown away. Fats Waller, too, but Cole
is the top of my list.” And where does Krall see
herself fitting into this legacy? Notably modest
about her vocal and pianistic talents, Krall
describes seeing herself more as a “piano player
who sings” than anything else. “The two together
somehow work,” she says with a laugh.
Ordering another cup of coffee, the artist
leans back in her chair and smiles. She looks
tired but content, and like she would be happy
to hang and talk music for the rest of the afternoon.
It’s been a busy year for Krall who, in
addition to conceiving of and recording Glad
Rag Doll, managed to tour extensively, collaborate
in the studio again with McCartney, sing
“Fly Me To The Moon” at the Sept. 13 memorial
service for astronaut Neil Armstrong, and
raise her now school-aged twins with Costello.
Somehow it feels both oddly out of character
and yet perfectly natural to hear the multiplatinum-selling
Krall describe searching for
syrup after making French toast for her kids, as
she did the morning before our interview. “My
life is incredibly full,” she says. “But I wouldn’t
want it any other way.” DB
34 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2012