Love Scenes

Outstanding and oh so alluring collection of beautiful romantic ballads. The clean simplicity of Diana Krall's smooth and sultry alto voice with only a string base and guitar and her own lush piano makes this some of the best music I have heard in years. The thoughtful styling she displays in each cut on this CD makes this the ideal score for the concept of "Love Scenes". Her rendition of "I Don't Know Enough About You" (it's the cut that first hooked me on her) is bouncy and petulant and showcases her vocal and piano talent while her bluesy "Lost Mind" transports me to places dark and romantic. Her take on "I Miss You So" exudes a wonderfully rich torch song aura and drips of romance. Overall, the cuts on this CD are remarkably reminiscent of the combination of dark chocolate and cabernet - rich, smooth, tasty, and utterly romantic.

Definitely a "candlelight evening for two" collection that should touch the true romantic in anyone who listens to it. Ideally, the second CD for such an evening would be another of hers, The Look of Love.

Why waste words? "Emotionless" says it all.

Seriously folks, do yourself a favor and get a great jazz cd with some of the best cover's I've ever heard. And she's even better live!!! But still you've got to listen to:

peel me a grape
i miss you so
lost mind
gentle rain
how deep is the ocean

and on the import, the bonus track "that old feeling" is WONDERFUL! what great jazz guitar....anyway, don't waste your time reading any more reviews, Diana will fill your house with wonderful piano and guitar-based jazz with soft lyrics and none of that "smooth" nonsense!

Diana has a lovely voice, well suited to these romantic songs, but she is also a brilliant pianist, although this latter skill is more obvious on the very different, upbeat King Cole Trio tribute album. This album creates it's own mood - if you aren't in the mood for love when you start playing it, you surely will by the end.

The songs are mostly from the thirties and forties (a characteristic of all Diana's albums to date), beginning with All or nothing at all, an American number one for Frank Sinatra in 1943.

Diana also does brilliant covers of songs which were originally American hits for Peggy Lee (I don't know enough about you, 1946), Fred Astaire (They can't take that away from me, 1937), I don't stand a ghost of a chance with you (Bing Crosby, 1933), You're getting to be a habit with me (Bing Crosby, 1934), How deep is the ocean (in 1932, three different versions were top ten American hits - Guy Lombardo, Paul Whiteman and Rudy Vallee), Garden in the rain (Gene Austin, 1929) and Shep Fields (That old feeling, 1937).

Of course, some of those singers and bands have long since been forgotten even in their homeland, while others have been immortalised. Diana's covers of these great songs, nicely updated for today's music fans, demonstrates their enduring quality.

I largely ignored jazz music and the Great American Songbook before I discovered Diana's music. This was the album that changed everything for me - I have since become a huge fan of Peggy Lee and Claire Martin, among many others.

Thank you, Diana.

Diana Krall has a nice voice and is keenly aware of it's limitations and in so doing she crafts her approach in a very clever way. Never attempting things she cannot do.

She conveys a clever style combined with a competent touch on piano. She has a way with a certain type of song. She is better at clever pieces like "Peel Me A Grape", which require a sense of style, than she is with the classic American popular standard.

The thing is that her voice doesn't seem to stretch or bend around the notes as other of her contemporaries such as Ann Hampton Calloway, Dina Derose or the amazing Roberta Gambarini. Her ballads convey more coy sensuality than romance or passion.

Yes there is a certain sensuality her her delivery but certain songs require much more. The arrangements here are good, solid, non-intrusive but all too conventional for my tastes. The ballads are more languid than romantic. There aren't enough surprises for me on this. It seemed to me that someone as hyped as Diana has been that there would be something truly compelling that would stop you in your tracks.

She's a solid musician and everything you hear here, is good solid music.

This is a very nice recording for a Sunday afternoon in spring. Diana has been largely hailed a jazz singer but I feel she has jazz sensibilities but is more of a popular standards singer of a particular sort.

A nice debut recording.