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.

Krall declined an interview request, but this month in a Rolling Stone story Krall says Burnett shares her love of old records and that Costello and Burnett “are like brothers.”

But initially she was hesitant to work with Burnett.

“I was thinking … ‘Oh gosh, if this doesn’t work, this is gonna be difficult.’” she said.

Krall said Burnett understood her desire to evoke earlier eras without making nostalgic records.

He’s like “a great director who knows exactly what to say,” Krall told Rolling Stone. “It was a life-changing experience to work with him.”

Despite her desire to avoid nostalgia, Krall remains inspired by glittering bygone productions.

“I think I just wanted to live out one of the Carole Lombard characters that I saw on late-night pictures but with the music from the Ziegfeld Follies,” she says on her site. “If there was an era to which I could choose to go back in time, it would be the 1920s, just because of the whole wildness of it all.”

The cover of “Glad Rag Doll” was inspired by Alfred Cheney Johnston’s pictures of the girls of the Ziegfeld Follies taken during the 1920s, Krall says on her site.

In the image, shot by celebrity photographer Mark Seliger, Krall is reclining on a red velvet couch in gauzy black undergarments, a leather jacket draped over one shoulder and a string of black beads hanging around her neck.

“Mark is someone I admire and trust completely in creating something that I have had in my head for years,” Krall said, “photographs that echo images of the Ziegfeld Girls.”

Krall, who won a Grammy in 2000 for “When I Look in Your Eyes” was born on Victoria Island in British Columbia, and in 2003 married Costello on Elton John’s estate near London.

In 2006, Krall gave birth to twins on the couple’s third wedding anniversary, the BBC reported.

This year Krall reached a pinnacle when she played piano and served as musical director for Paul McCartney’s albums of standards, “Kisses on the Bottom.”

But she’s most exuberant about her forthcoming album.

“It was like I was a completely clean piece of canvas,” Krall told Rolling Stone magazine in an Aug. 14 story accompanied by a free stream of her version of Buddy Miller’s “Wide River to Cross.”

“Glad Rag Doll” stands in sharp contrast to Krall’s previous release, the Brazilian-flecked “Quiet Nights,” which came out in 2009.

The new album shows Krall is game for trying new things, even if that means covering old songs with her unique contralto.
Also on the new disc are the Doc Pomus classic, “Lonely Avenue,” and Gene Austin’s “Let It Rain.”

“I’ve always been interested in artists that have a lot to say,” she says, and those who have “the courage to explore different ways of saying it.”

Michael Shapiro writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. Contact him at michaelshapiro@pressdemocrat.com or see his web site: www.michaelshapiro.net

IN CONCERT
Who: Diana Krall
When: 8 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 28
Where: Wells Fargo Center, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa
Tickets: $69.75 to $89.75
Information: 546-3600 or wellsfargocenterarts.org

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Diana Krall at Union Station, Toronto, 2004 — concert and interview
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