Diana Krall’s step back into time

Diana Krall performing at her last Wells Fargo Center for the Arts concert in 2009. The singer returns on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. (Crista Jeremiason/PD)

There’s a sense that sultry jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall is a visitor from an earlier era, that she’d be right at home in a smoke- filled New York jazz club in the 1920s.

But Krall, whose forthcoming album “Glad Rag Doll” is likely to reinforce that image, says that while that may be true, it doesn’t mean her records are old-fashioned.

The new album, due out Oct. 2, is a collection of 20th-century covers, some dating back to the Roaring ’20s. Although Krall’s piano is an 1890s Steinway upright, she says her approach is decidedly modern.

“We all just went in there as if the songs were written yesterday. I didn’t want to make a period piece or nostalgia record,” Krall says on her website. “It’s 1920s music for the 21st century.”

One of Krall’s new songs, “There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears,” is available for free on www.dianakrall.com. It’s has a swampy, bayou sound that complements Krall’s steamy voice.

Krall, 47, worked with renowned producer T Bone Burnett, known for giving songs the authentic analog sound of vinyl.

In Burnett, who has produced artists ranging from Counting Crows to Los Lobos to Krall’s husband Elvis Costello, she has found a sonic soulmate.