From The Straits Times    |



For her new album Glad Rag Doll, Diana Krall looked to songs from the 1920s and 1930s from her father’s collection. PHOTOS: UNIVERSAL MUSIC

Some girls never grow tired of playing dress-up.

For jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall, it is fun to put on a fancy costume even at 47, vamping it up in corset, stockings and suspenders for the cover photograph of her 10th and latest album, Glad Rag Doll.

But do not mistake that image to mean she is bringing out her inner saucy seductress.

“I’m just playing dress-up, playing a character, playing a glad rag doll,” says the two-time Grammy-winning Canadian in a telephone interview from New York.

“It’s just an album cover, just pictures you would make for a movie. I think of this as very theatrical, very cinematic. The whole thing feels like a movie.”

Krall, who holds the record as the only artist to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard jazz charts, adds that she enjoyed doing the photo shoot, a collaboration with Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood and photographer Mark Seliger.

She had also worked with Atwood for her cameo as a 1930s torch singer in Hollywood gangster drama Public Enemies (2009).

The music in her new album is taken from the same era, comprising covers from the 1920s and 1930s. It is the result of Krall’s collaboration with Grammy- and Oscar-winning producer T-Bone Burnett.

Krall – the mother of six-year-old twin boys with her husband, influential English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, 58 – says that fans can forget about her dressing like on her album cover for her live shows.

“I’m not gonna be doing what a pop singer might do, as in dress like that for a performance. It’s a different thing.”

1 What kind of music do you and your husband, Elvis Costello, play to your six-year-old twin sons?

We usually listen to a lot of music. They like Elbow, they like Radiohead, they like Patti Smith’s new album Banga, they love the Beatles.

They like their dad’s music a lot and they listen to 78rpm records, whatever Elvis is playing on our 78rpm record player. They party to that, they listen to some indie music and dance – we have a lot of dance parties. They like Tom Waits.

They like my new record too.

2 How do you choose which songs to cover for the new album, Glad Rag Doll?

They were from my father’s record collection and from my interest in the collection. So I found my own way into that record and sheet music collection.

The sheet music at that time were like album covers, they were beautiful things to hold and touch and look at. So it wasn’t only records, it was also the original sheet music.

3 Is this album of rootsy and bluesy sounds from the 1920s and 1930s an indication of how your music will be like in the future?

I think I have more creative ways to go now in the future. I don’t think I will say that I will do this and not do that – I will do this as well as do that. It just makes it bigger for me artistically, to be in a different creative venue.

4 Your husband, Costello, plays on the album, though he is credited as Howard Coward. What kind of sparks were there between the two of you in the studio?

His contribution was like playing music with your best friend, so it made things feel very at home for me. It was just great.

And I felt really comfortable because he’s my husband as well as an artist, so to play alongside him in the studio was thrilling for me because he’s a great artist.

5 You had a huge role in Paul McCartney’s recent album, Kisses On The Bottom, playing on most of the songs and helping with the arrangements. What was it like to work with the former Beatle?

It was the thrill of a lifetime, I loved it. Such a great experience, so much fun. I had a ball.

Paul is a musician’s musician, he is easy to work with and a strong bandleader and artist. And even though he’s Paul McCartney and everything, he still makes everybody comfortable and he makes everyone feel really good.

6 In September, you played “Fly Me To The Moon” at the late astronaut Neil Armstrong’s memorial service. Did you know him personally?

I met him and had a conversation with him, which was delightful, at the 40th anniversary of the moon landing and I thought that he was such a delightful man, and so humble.

I admired his humility and his strength. Even though I met him for just a moment, I admired him before because I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to be a rock star or an astronaut.

It was a great honour, it was one of my biggest honours to play at his memorial service.

7 The last time you played in Singapore in 2008, there was some controversy when the venue was changed at the last minute and the show was plagued by noise from the nearby Formula One race. What do you remember from that gig?

I don’t really recall that. I hope to look forward to going back to Singapore and enjoy playing for people. That’s what I hope, to play a really good concert next time, yeah.

8 How would you like to be remembered?

Ask me that when I’m dead, I’m not dead yet (laughs heartily). I don’t know… nice person, good mother, good friend. I don’t know, that’s a long way off but thank you for asking me that.


Glad Rag Doll is out in stores.

This article was first run in The Straits Times newspaper on November 19, 2012. For similar stories, go
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