Diana Krall

Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s. On December 11, 2009, Billboard magazine named her the second Jazz artist of the 2000–09 decade, establishing her as one of the best-selling artists of her time. She is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debuting at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums. To date, she has won three Grammy Awards and eight Juno Awards. She also has earned nine gold, three platinum, and seven multi-platinum albums.

Personal Life

Her father played piano around the house and her mother sang in a community choir. She was playing piano herself at the age of four and playing jazz in a local restaurant at 15. She went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship before heading out to L.A. to play jazz. She returned to Canada to release her first album in 1993.

Krall lost her mother Adella to multiple myeloma in 2002, within months of also losing her mentors Ray Brown and Rosemary Clooney. Diana's only sibling, Michelle, is a former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Krall and British musician Elvis Costello were married on December 6, 2003 at Elton John's estate outside London. Their twin sons, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, were born December 6, 2006 in New York City.





  
Professional Career

In 1993, Krall released her first album, Stepping Out, which she recorded with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. It caught the attention of producer Tommy LiPuma, who produced her second album, Only Trust Your Heart (1995).
Her third album, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio (1996), was nominated for a Grammy and continued for 70 weeks in the Billboard jazz charts. Love Scenes (1997) quickly became a hit record with the trio of Krall, Russell Malone (guitar) and Christian McBride (bass).
In August 2000, Krall was paired on a 20-city tour with Tony Bennett. They were paired again for a song on the TV series Spectacle: Elvis Costello with Orchestral arrangements by Johnny Mandel provided the background on When I Look In Your Eyes (1999). The band mix was kept, following arrangements on The Look of Love (2001) created by Claus Ogerman; this record achieved platinum status and reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The title track from the album, a cover of the Casino Royale standard popularized in the late 1960s by Dusty Springfield and Sérgio Mendes, reached number 22 on the adult contemporary chart.
In September 2001, Krall began a world tour. Her concert at the Paris Olympia was recorded and released as her first live record, Diana Krall - Live in Paris. The album included covers of Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are" (a hit on U.S. smooth jazz radio) and Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You."
After marrying Elvis Costello, she worked with him as a lyricist and started to compose her own songs, resulting in the album The Girl in the Other Room. The album, released in April 2004, quickly rose to the top five in the United Kingdom and made the Australian top 40 album charts.
She also joined Ray Charles on his Genius Loves Company album in 2004 on the song, "You Don't Know Me".

Live at The Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Virginia - Photo by Rob Garland

 

In late May 2007, Krall was featured in a Lexus ad campaign. She also sang, "Dream a Little Dream of Me" with piano accompaniment by pianist Hank Jones.
Quiet Nights, her latest album, was released on 31 March 2009.
Krall also produced Barbra Streisand's album Love Is the Answer, released on 29 Sep 2009.

Posted in: Singer