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This is a great album btw. One of Diana's best imho and there is an added bonus in that side 4 is a blank. So now those who buy it will have another way to check their anti-skate setting. But Diana is really good on this one. She plays well, she sings well, and the songs were well chosen. Highly recommended.It is interesting that the marketing department has always tried to sell her as a sex symbol. Irrespective of how any person perceives her looks, the idea that this approach might help sales to the jazz buying public seems ludicrous. Consider Lena Horne, a person generally conceded to have been one of the most beautiful women of her day. She was never given her due as a jazz singer. A fact that is very curious as anyone listening to her records can ascertain she was a marvelous stylist who put audiences in a spell with charisma, faultless taste, and a range only exceeded by Sarah Vaughn. One of the best of her era. Julie London comes to mind as another beautiful woman who, in consequence, was generally discounted for her singing prowess. She sang very well anyway. By contrast there are many women singers, never considered beautiful who are still selling records today like hot cakes. Billie, Sarah, Ella, Anita, Carmen etc.
I wonder if anyone in the marketing department is paying attention.
Edits: 05/08/17
Hi Bill,
As much as I love Ella, it is hard for me to think of her as a sex symbol. I do have to differ with you on the other ladies which you mentioned.
There is a video of Anita O'day climbing steps before performing at Monterey in a dress she had just bought at a thrift and high heel shoes.
If you can look at that without your heart rate climbing, I would be surprised.
Definitely Sara and Carmen in their younger days were lookers. Even Lady Day near the end of her life in the famous video doing Fine And Mellow has a definite sensual appeal to me.
Phil
I think the video of Anita you are referring to was made at Newport not Monterrey in 1958. "Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon" - right? Anita, one of the top jazz singers in anybody's book was never marketed as a sex symbol. Anyway, my point was that sex does not sell jazz singers well. I can't and won't debate the relative appeal of this or that lady. Beauty is too subjective for that. It is like the age old debate about blonds vs. brunettes. To get back to the original post, Diana Krall is not well served by being marketed like she is a piece of cheese cake. She happens to be a person trying to make a living singing and playing traditional jazz and she is doing well so far. If nothing else she is a survivor and a success story to offset the tragedy of someone like Beverly Kinney, or for that matter Stacey Kent who had to go aboard to make a living.
Hi Bill,
I believe that you are correct. Thanks for refreshing my memory of jazz history.
I do also get bothered by the way sexually is used to sell records.
From a financial standpoint I don't think it has hurt Diana. I'm guessing that she has sold way more records than two of my favorite singers in her age group, Karyn Alyson and Roberta Gambarini.
Phil
Karrin Allyson performed in nearby Boca Raton, Florida, last year and she was a treat to see live. My only criticism was that she did not play the piano. Not sure why. I am not familiar with Roberta Gambarini, so will have to check her out. Other current artists who sing and play an instrument that I enjoy include: Norah Jones, Cecile Mclorin Salvant, Nicki Parrott, and Eliane Elias.
Hi Bill,
Karryn Allyson does make it to California on occasion and I have had the pleasure of seeing her several times. I even saw her free at the San Jose Jazz festival a couple of times back when it was free. She definitely can play and it is a disappointment that she doesn't play more. It is a shame that the piano playing seems to go by the wayside for many singer / pianists.
Sara and Carmen come to mind. Also Nat Cole was good enough to be compared to Art Tatum. While I like most of what he did as a vocalist the early trio stuff is to me just great.
Phil
You and I seem to have very similar tastes in music. I have been listening to Nat Cole Trio stuff a lot lately, and comparing him to Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Oscar Peterson. These were all great artists of course. My preference is for either Wilson or Cole over the other two. They used space quite effectively. Peterson, and even more so Tatum, filled all the space with sound. With the passage of time I have acquired the less is more taste buds.
Back to Cole, I recently acquired a reissue of "After Midnight", this album was the last jazz instrumental album he made. Cole/piano, John Collins/guitar, Charlie Harris/bass, Lee Young/drums; but he brought in featured guests: Willie Smith/alto, Harry Edison/trumpet, Stuff Smith/violin, and Juan Tizol/valve trombone. This album is an absolute joy. I also have several other albums of his piano playing and if you are interested I will provide some detail. You have struck a nerve Phil! Thanks.
work Miles Davis did in the 60s. That's also why I don't listen much to John Coltrane who seems to pack as many notes in a small space as he can. I am sure I will receive much flak for the Coltrane comment, but I don't like listening to it.
I also really enjoy the early King Cole Trio, especially the "After Midnight" LP. When I first picked that album up in a thrift store years ago, I had no idea it was going to be pure jazz. I grew up with the "Lazy, Hazy,Crazy . . what ever," and I thought it might be more of the same. So, I now pick up early 78s with this Trio whenever I see them. Only my 78rpm trio records have Cole piano, Oscar Moore guitar, and Johnny Miller bass.
Your comments are right in line with comments that Miles made both directly to 'Trane and to others when they were working together. 'Trane just did not know how to stop and often went way too far. In fact you can listen to him "progressing" in the direction of totally out of control from his Prestige recordings, to his work on Columbia with Miles, and then his last years on Impulse. I have to get off the 'Trane after "A Love Supreme."
I think Billie and Sarah in their youth where very attractive.
Billie befoere drugs and booze ate her up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWtUzdI5hlE
Sarah before see started getting fat and out of shape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7piqVwlX3d4
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Far be it from me to try and influence anyone else in these matters. Did the marketing department ever sell the sex appeal side of Billie or Sarah? I dunno. For sure other female jazz singers have been pushed on the basis of their beauty. I don't think sex sells musical performers all that well in most cases.
Other pictures I've seen of her, and the DVD I have, show her to be more attractive than that cover. Strange expression there.
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
My guess is a conscious attempt to recreate the 40's/WWII look.
I don't know it that makes sense for the new LP (haven't heard it/about it), but that wouldn't be a stretch ...she has been in an explorative phase for a while now.
I find the discussion of her attractiveness more than a little odd, but I'll leave it at that. ;)
the marketers and producers behind her have sold her looks since the first album. in a way, it works against her as pretty girls are often taken less seriously in all professions (except pop divas). i think she is a serious musician who considers herself as such and goes along with the cheesecake image because like it or not, a pretty or if not pretty, glamorous looking girl (if you don't think she is pretty) on a record cover does attract male attention. i will reserve my thoughts on her looks and say that i can enjoy a side or two of her music, but she in not my favorite.
Tom Collins
Before she was "Diana Krall", I heard her live at Blues Alley in Georgetown DC. The thing is, she is a very fine jazz pianist, first and foremost. Unfortunately the subsequent efforts to sell her to the public as a sort of modern day Julie London have under-promoted the fact that, as you say, she is a fine musician who was genuinely influenced at an early age by the piano playing of another (greater) singer who was a great pianist too, Nat King Cole.
"the marketers and producers behind her have sold her looks since the first album"
Precisely, hence the irony.
Personally I see Diana Krall as one of the Premier ladies of Jazz.
At a time when Jazz was far from the limelight she toured an excellent Big Band with a string of excellent releases to feed that purpose.
Even her small setting releases from that period didn't stray far for straight Jazz, i.e. in the tradition.
More formerly, perhaps as fitting for family, kids, etc., her works are more modest, explore other areas, etc.
A great talent, a gift to Jazz, and a class act. I've been of that opinion for decades.
I didn't know the platter could glow blue? ... is green in all other pics I've seen.
Maybe the TT was blue it was just a shot and that wasn't its new owner - poor thing destined to do the reviewer circuit, ouch, big diff.
Still I'd send to the factory and demand "Diana Krall" blue LOL
I never found Dianna Krall pretty. However, the turntable is a beauty....
Not pretty? She is certainly striking.
but what's the TT?
Andy
aa
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Bling, bling, bleah. Pretty girl, but neither is my cup of tea. Bet she gets played a lot by them that own that deck. ;-).
___
"If you are the owner of a new stereophonic system, this record will play with even more brilliant true-to-life fidelity. In short, you can purchase this record with no fear of its becoming obsolete in the future."
aa
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Someone has strange taste. I find her very attractive. I hope it's not me.
She's certainly not my type, but she is quite attractive.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Having met her, I think she is an attractive women. She was also a very nice person.
My wife and I saw her once at an Italian restaurant in Nolita. She was there en famille. We saw Elvis Costello leading his two little twin sons, one in each hand, to the restroom. Made our night.
Tres cool!
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