About this Artist
Diana Krall is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. To date, her albums have garnered two Grammy Awards and 10 Juno Awards. They have also earned nine gold, three platinum, and seven multiplatinum certifications. Krall’s unique artistry transcends any single musical style and has made her one of the most recognizable artists of our time. As The New York Times recently noted, Krall possesses “a voice at once cool and sultry, wielded with a rhythmic sophistication.”
Born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, outside Vancouver, Krall grew up in the western part of Canada and began studying the piano when she was four years old. By the time she was 15, she was performing jazz locally and with the encouragement of her father, a stride pianist with a vast knowledge of such ’20s and ’30s keyboard masters as Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and Earl Hines, she devoted herself to music. “I think Dad had every recording Fats Waller ever made,” she says, “and I tried to learn as many as I could.”
Krall was still a teenager when she was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. After two years in Boston, she moved to Los Angeles, where she met her first jazz heavyweights, including bassist John Clayton, drummer Jeff Hamilton, pianist/singer Jimmy Rowles, and Ray Brown, the legendary bassist who served as her musical mentor. In 1993, the Montreal-based Justin Time Records released her debut album, Stepping Out. The following year, she signed with GRP Records and recorded Only Trust Your Heart, which featured Ray Brown on bass and Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone. Only Trust Your Heart also marked the beginning of her association with Tommy LiPuma, a collaboration that would continue until LiPuma’s untimely passing in 2017.
Krall’s success continued with her subsequent releases All for You and Love Scenes, but her watershed moment came in 1999 with the release of When I Look in Your Eyes, her first release for the historic Verve record label. The recording spent an unprecedented 52 weeks in the No. 1 position on Billboard’s jazz chart, won two Grammy Awards, and went platinum in the US and Canada. Krall’s next album, The Look of Love, continued her international success and became a Top 10 seller on the Billboard 200. Since then, she has released a string of recordings that have created an impressive body of work, including her critically acclaimed Turn Up the Quiet, which won two Juno Awards, including Producer of the Year. Love Is Here to Stay found Krall collaborating with her longtime friend and colleague Tony Bennett. It was recorded with the Grammy Award-winning Bill Charlap Trio, and the stunning result is a subtle, sophisticated, and beautifully rendered love letter to the Gershwins’ music and their status among the premier songwriters of the American popular standard. It is a master class in vocal delivery and phrasing, and the command that Bennett and Krall display of the material in both their duets and solo tracks makes it appear effortless, belying the honed skills of the vocalists. The duet tracks include “Love Is Here to Stay,” “’S Wonderful,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” and “Fascinating Rhythm.”
Her most recent release, This Dream of You, has garnered critical acclaim from fans and press alike. This album is a loving conclusion of Krall’s 25-year working relationship with Tommy LiPuma. Shortly before LiPuma’s passing, the producer and artist discussed the abundance of great music recorded at their last sessions together. LiPuma was adamant that this music be completed and issued. Krall and engineer Al Schmitt therefore mixed and sequenced the album for the 2020 release and in so doing honored their great and much-missed friend. (Schmitt himself died in 2021.) From this release came the worldwide premiere of Autumn in New York, a cinematic ode to the city, directed by Krall’s longtime collaborator and friend Mark Seliger, offering a visual complement to Krall’s loving and hopeful performance of the song.
Krall’s recordings have been included in several film soundtracks, and she has expanded upon her role as a performer to include songwriting, producing, and arranging, bringing her talents to collaborations with many other artists, including Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand as well as Tony Bennett. She tours extensively around the globe to sold-out audiences, appearing at premier jazz festivals and concert halls throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.