Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

My editor thinks Elvis Costello’s latest album, North, is a lot like Frank Sinatra’s 1954 classic In the Wee Small Hours. He’s right: both recordings are intimate explorations of emotional loss and the rush of new romance. On top of that, the string-backed piano ballads pack an immediate, visceral punch despite their spare instrumentation. When Costello calls, I mention the comparison. “That’s very flattering,” he says from the back of a limousine speeding along the Autobahn somewhere between Berlin and Hamburg. “Sinatra’s album is a masterpiece.” Then he brings up the Diana Krall factor: “People have made assumptions based on changes in my life that the appearance of quiet sounds,...

Canadian jazz has come a long way from the day that Oscar Peterson made his auspicious debut at New York's Carnegie Hall. The young Montreal pianist, sharing a bill with Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, "stopped the concert dead cold in its tracks," according to down beat magazine, displaying "a flashy right hand, a load of bop and a good sense of harmonic development." Peterson soared to fame virtually overnight, followed a short time later by Montreal trumpeter Maynard Ferguson. For the longest while, they were the only jazz stars from Canada. And, with a distinct lack of domestic gigs, they worked almost exclusively in the United States. Joining Peterson an...

The world’s top female jazz artist, Krall has achieved many milestones, from winning five Grammy Awards to producing the great Barbra Streisand. After recording 11 studio albums, the last of which, Glad Rag Doll, explored vaudeville tunes from the 1920s and ’30s, the Canadian-born star now turns her attention to her favorite pop songs from the ’60s to the present. Produced by David Foster, the album showcases the pianist’s voice, amid both spare and lush arrangements, in all of its beautiful, ragged glory. She duets with Michael Bublé on Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)” and Ryan Adams on Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home.” But Krall is at her best on her own, singing stark rendit...

It’s mid-morning in a quiet hotel restaurant and Diana Krall is having a love affair with an artichoke. One by one, she peels off the leaves and dips them into a small bowl of balsamic vinegar before gently lifting them to her mouth and slowly pulling the tender flesh off with her teeth. It’s a ritual she clearly relishes, washing down each morsel with a sip of chardonnay. But for Krall, this is also lunch. Having already done a photo shoot, and with an in-store appearance scheduled for noon, the Canadian jazz star is taking her meal while she can—even if it means being interviewed at the same time. Briefly distracted as she finally reaches the artichoke’s prized heart (“Pardon me,” she says...

Soft, subtle, subdued, seductive. Canada’s celebrated singer-pianist seems to attract alliterative adjectives with her brand of smooth and sophisticated jazz. No surprises here, just more exquisitely phrased chestnuts, a sensuous Latin tinge and stately backing by the London Symphony Orchestra. Krall could be accused of playing it safe, but why mess with such a successful sound?