DIANA KRALL Biography - Musicians

 
 

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DIANA KRALL

Name: Diana Jean Krall                                                                     
Born: November 16, 1964 Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada                                   
                                                                                             
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist               
                                                                                             
Krall was born into a musical family in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. She             
began learning the piano at the age of four. In high school, she started playing           
in a small jazz group. When she was 15 she started playing regularly in several             
Nanaimo restaurants.                                                                       
                                                                                             
At age seventeen she won a scholarship from the Vancouver International Jazz               
Festival to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and completed three           
terms.                                                                                     
                                                                                             
In Nanaimo her playing attracted the attention of famed bass player Ray Brown (ex-husband   
of the late Ella Fitzgerald, long-time member of the Oscar Peterson Trio and               
Grammy-winning composer) and drummer Jeff Hamilton. After hearing her play,                 
Brown and Hamilton persuaded Krall to move to Los Angeles, and study with                   
pianist Jimmy Rowles, with whom she began to sing. This also brought her into               
contact with influential teachers and producers. In 1990, Krall relocated to New           
York.                                                                                       
                                                                                             
Krall and British musician Elvis Costello were married on December 6, 2003 at               
Elton John's estate outside London. Their first children together, twin sons               
Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, were born December 6, 2006 in New               
York City.                                                                                 
                                                                                             
Her father Jim Krall's large record collection helped to expose the young Krall             
to jazz legends. Diana lost her mother Adella to multiple myeloma in 2002,                 
within months of also losing her mentors Ray Brown and Rosemary Clooney. Krall's           
only sibling, her sister Michelle, actively supports her older sister's 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, 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.                       
                                                                                             
Orchestral arrangements by Johnny Mandel provided the background on When I Look             
In Your Eyes (1999); more Grammy nominations came along, and she was rewarded as           
Best Jazz Musician of the Year. 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 Look of Love went to               
number one on the Canadian album charts and went quadruple platinum in that                 
country. The title track from the album, a cover of the Casino Royale standard             
popularized in the late 1960s by Dusty Springfield and Sergio 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             
topped the Billboard jazz charts, went top 20 on the Billboard 200 and went top             
five in Canada. It garnered her second Grammy (Best Vocal Jazz Record) and a               
Juno Award. 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. "Temptation", a cover of               
the Tom Waits's song off his Frank's Wild Years album of 1987, reached number               
one of the World Jazz Charts (based on the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and                 
China).                                                                                     
                                                                                             
She also joined Ray Charles on his Genius Loves Company album in 2004 on the               
song, "You Don't Know Me."                                                                 
                                                                                             
In late May 2007, Krall was featured in a Lexus ad campaign. [1] She also sang,             
"Dream a Little Dream of Me" with piano accompaniment by legendary pianist Hank             
Jones.