childhood home in Nanaimo, B.C. and, alone at the grand piano
with only her dad's gramophone as a prop for company, played
the music she loved as a girl.
It was an intimate show Sunday night at Théâtre Maisonneuve,
as Krall put a sold-out hall at ease with standards and surprised
with some not-so-standards of the Great American Songbook.
Opening with Peel Me a Grape, she soon launched into a medley
of Fats Waller tunes, stamping her black stiletto heels as she
pounded away at the keyboard, boogie-woogie style, tossing her
blond curls to the rhythm.
Form-fitting, sleeveless black dress aside, it was a far cry
from that old Chrysler ad and The Look of Love, more a return to
the roots of Krall's 1995 fest debut when she proved her love for
Nat King Cole.
In between songs, she talked fondly of learning her chops from
Jimmy Rowles and jamming in Oscar Peterson's basement, recalled
how she was a disaster on third clarinet in her high-school band,
and reminisced about listening to jazz on her father's reel-to-reel
tape player and 78-rpm records.
If the audience didn't always get her jazz references, Krall
forgave them. "Thanks for listening to songs you might not have
heard before", she said after introducing something by Bix
Beiderbecke and getting no response.
No matter. Whether it was a familiar tune like Don't Fence Me
In or an unfamiliar one like the vintage ode to dope, Reefer Song
(loved that one), Krall's performance – her first full-length
solo concert ever – pulled the crowd into her world.
She closed her 15-song, 80-minute uninterrupted set with a
lovely but obscure 1938 movie tune called As Long As I Love and
came back for a three-song encore playing a ukulele. Why? Because
her childhood hero, Groucho Marx, played one.
She and her husband, Elvis Costello play the instrument in
bed, she explained, before softly strumming All I Do Is Dream
of You and encouraging her fans to sing along. Few knew the
words.
Then it was back to the piano for Krall's own Departure Bay
and, as an adieu, a Prairie Lullaby for her twin boys, Dexter
and Frank. Sweet dreams, all.
* From Where I Sit! *
June 26, 2011
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