DIANA KRALL
Christmas Songs
Verve
Read
the Jazzitude review of Diana Krall/The Girl In the
Other Room
Read
the Jazzitude review of Diana Krall/Live In Paris
Read the Jazzitude review of Diana
Krall/The Look of Love
Read the Jazzitude review of
Diana Krall/From This Moment On
It comes as no surprise that Diana Krall is
entering the Christmas music sweepstakes; after all, she
is a very popular recording artist who has crossed over
from jazz to a wider pop audience and those are the type
of artists who generally are able to parlay their popularity
into successful holiday collections. While Krall has a solid
discography at this point in her career, there has not as
yet been a holiday collection, an oversight which is remedied
by the newly released Christmas Songs.
Krall has opted to make a Christmas CD that
is firmly inside the tradition of jazz vocalist holiday
collections. She chooses as collaborators the excellent
Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. John Clayton provides most
of the arrangements here (though he does not play bass,
ceding the chair to Robert Hurst), with three tracks contributed
by legendary arranger Johnny Mandel, who worked with Krall
on her breakthrough CD Look of Love. Clayton/Hamilton is
the perfect backing group for Krall, providing classic,
clean performances that perfectly compliment the singer’s
voice and delivery.
Christmas Songs’ packaging
has a slightly retro feel, and there are ravishing portraits
of Krall in both green and red evening gowns. It’s
a solid CD that contributes to the canon of jazz/popular
music holiday collections without breaking new ground or
offering anything particularly innovative—but that’s
what Krall’s audience is likely to be looking for
in a holiday music collection. The song selection is pretty
good, though there are a few over-done chestnuts (“The
Christmas Song,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas,” “White Christmas”) but there
are some savvy choices as well, including Irving Berlin’s
“Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “What
Are You Doing New Years Eve,” and “I’ll
Be Home for Christmas.” Most of these songs are heavily
recorded holiday songs, but Krall, as usual, puts such a
polish on them that most of them gleam anew even without
anything particularly new or novel in the arrangements or
performances.
There are a few clunkers—Krall seems
cold and distant on “Christmas Time is Here”
and “”Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,”
but they are few and far between. On songs like “I’ll
Be Home for Christmas” and “The Christmas Song”
Krall manages to evoke both the warmth of the season and
its underlying melancholy, which better interpreters of
holiday songs are able to pick up on without becoming maudlin.
Krall really shines on the uptempo numbers,
swinging effortlessly while loosening up and having a bit
of fun. On a Sinatra-inspired “Jingle Bells”
she ends with the exclamation “I’m just crazy
‘bout horses!” Following on the heels of a nice
piano solo and the swinging ministrations of the Hamilton/Clayton
band, one can’t help but smile at that. She attacks
“Let It Snow” with the verve of Dean Martin
and tells us that we’ll party “the Canadian
way” on “Winter Wonderland.” And the closing
“Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” from
1954’s film White Christmas is a stroke of
genius.
Fans of Diana Krall and listeners seeking
a swinging, jazz-influenced rendition of favorite holiday
classics will enjoy Christmas Songs.
