Investigate a contemporary Jazz Artist and comment on his or her style.
Investigate a Contemporary Jazz Artist
Diana Jean Krall is a hugely famous contemporary Jazz singer. Due to her achievements, the singer was named by Billboard as the second greatest Jazz singer of the decade. In her career, she has been awarded multiple Grammy and Juno Awards. She has had eight of her albums top the Billboard Jazz Chart. Many of her albums have reached Platinum status. Krall’s love for Jazz developed at a young age and was encouraged by her parents. Her breakthrough occurred because of her third album titled, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio which was released in 1996 and remained at the top of the Billboard Jazz charts for 70 whole weeks.
Diana Jean Krall does have her website. On her site information about her upcoming performances and important things about her career are notified to the fans. Performances can also be requested by her fans on the site. A newsletter by Krall is also provided on the site which provides Krall’s opinion on different artistic things.
Talking about her music she states that she has been heavily influenced by Jimmy Rowles. She has talked about her struggle with performing other people’s music, especially legendary individuals like Rowles, but as time has gone by she has become comfortable with the concept of emulation. At the same time, she has learned to make compositions unique and noticeable in her recreation of Rowles’ music. She performs it by incorporating a different mood, which is devoid of eccentricities. In her childhood, she also became fond of Nat Cole.
The singer has been criticized in the past for not writing her materials. She has become comfortable with emulation but has countered this criticism by stating that there are various things that she does in her performance from formulating her arrangement, playing the piano, and leading her band (Lassoued-Balazsházyová, 2019, p.2). In formulating her arrangement she finds inspiration from Ahmad Jamal. She also attempts to make every arrangement unique and stand out in its way. Though her music may sound simplistic, she does not worry about that as in her opinion just because something is simple does not mean it is easy or not a beautiful offering to the listeners. Initially in her career more than formulating her focus was on interpretation. She was attempting to use tempo to bring a unique flavor to every song she produced in the album. All of these elements eventually helped her to produce a commercially hit album.
Reference
Lassoued-Balazsházyová, Z. B. (2019). Reception of Diana Krall, Unique Jazz Phenomenon. CAML REVIEW, 47(1), 57.
