patricia barber - diana krall - holly cole


wouldnt that be awesome if they - toured together - tell me it wouldnt be sold out every night they played. 

128x128smargo

Go to Capital Audio Fest or any other audio show…….that’s all they play. 

Nobody would have to worry about me buying a ticket they otherwise would have gotten. 

My wife and I saw Diana Krall in concert recently. Underwhelming, to be polite. Never again.

Honestly wouldn't want one interrupted by the other.  Barber is modern and experimental.  Krall is the American songbook, when um, at her best.

They could do a jazz infused Supremes session. At the tempos that Patricia Barber and Diana Krall favour, you certainly can't hurry love:)

@kijanki

No love for Diane Schuur?

Her voice bugs me a bit. Never did quite put my finger on it...I have 2 or 3 of her albums, and every single time I play them, I just want to take them off and play something else.

Diana Krall I can at least listen to for a while. Eva Cassidy probably tops my female vocal list for the time being...but Alison Krausse and Emmy Lou Harris get a fair amount of play time. Thanks to this post I have fresh prospects to investigate. 😎

Can we resurrect Julie London or at least hologram her for part of the show?

@nosualc 

I like the Diana Krall CD’s, but have never seen he live. 
Why “Never again”?

@simao 

I bet it would be one expensive ticket or in my case, two expensive tickets!

But I’d still go if they played Red Rock! 😁

They would probably tear at each other's clothes, like Lucy & Ethel.

That's an interesting concept.

@curiousjim

Her band was great (bassist, drummer, guitarist). Sound quality was great. Venue was great.

She on the other hand, phoned it in. She sang maybe 1/4-1/3 of the time. The rest of the evening was an endless parade of instrumental solos from her admittedly talented band (and herself on piano). No material from her noteworthy repertoire. No energy. No charisma.

I get that artists don’t want to just play their hits at their concerts and that it wasn’t a one woman show. I also get that she’s human and is entitled to an off-night. Touring has to be a difficult thing.

However, people paid good money to hear Diana Krall do what she does best, sing. She did not deliver. She acted as if she was bored to be there, and late for her flight out of town.

@smargo 
Thanks for starting this thread, lots of musical inspiration in here

@kijanki kijanki and @simao simao 
Great suggestions

@bolong
Thanks for the links! I always wondered what speeded up the "decay" in Diana's previously lovely voice and caused it to crumble.

For those on the fence concerning Diana, IMHO "Live in Paris" (Blu-ray has quite a bit more material than the CD) and "The Look of Love" are her best works and are worth a listen.

For more inspiration check out:
Best Female Jazz Singers Of All Time: A Top 25 Countdown
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-female-jazz-singers-ever/ 

Best Jazz Singers Of All Time: A Top 50 Countdown
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/50-best-jazz-singers/ 

+1 @hilde45 

I would simply add way way over-rated

and way way way overplayed.

Regards,

barts

Recently saw Diana Krall at DPAC in Durham, NC mid October this year. Sadly, her voice has lost something. As a result, she quite often whispered lyrics and sounded hoarse. Agree it has to be gruesome performing on tour, but she could limit the number of performances. Not making excuses for her. On a plus side, she sure showcases her accompanying musicians. Still love listening to her CDs.

I don't want to pile onto Krall, but she's a rather staunch traditionalist and her performances have not been consistent. I'm happy with the albums I have an to have her in rotation, but I am a little surprised she occupies quite a bit of space in our heads when we think of female jazz artists right now.

I think the first night would sell, with a bunch of boomer male audiophiles with their remaining testosterone, and then it would be an empty house. There is a reason no one other than audiophiles listens to them. You know there are actual jazz musicians with talent touring, right? Get better music on a Wednesday night at any jazz club in any city. 

You know there are actual jazz musicians with talent touring, right?

You don't feel that those three are talented? 

I would prefer four individual nights of

Madeleine Peyroux
Connie Evingson
Térez Montcalm
Sinne Eeg 
 

 

It would be pretty difficult to go to one of their concerts though but I'm sure it would  sell out if you figured out a way to resurrect them and get them touring again.

+1 for Melody Gardot

and thanks for the various recommendations.  I'll try them out soon.

Echoing a couple responses earlier, a recent visit to a Diana Krall concert recently proved to be highly disappointing.  It was beyond "dialed in."  More like "checked out" or some other issue.  I would highly suggest anyone contemplating going to a Diana Krall concert to Google "Diana Krall Concert Reviews."  1.9 stars out of 5.  Most respondents had a very poor experience as we did.  What is sad it that she is such a talented musician, but the apparent several years long practice of offering substandard concerts suggests on her or her manager's part taking advantage of her audience.  The venue I was at actually refunded our payment for the tickets.  Finally-- another vote for Eva Cassidy as one to be part of this fictional group.

Diana Kralls last sterling effort was the underappreciated "The Girl in the other room." She and Elvis Costello collaborated on it and though is was ignored by many who boycotted it because it wasn't her predictable standards affair, it was in my opinion one of the best albums of her career. Her 70's tribute cd ( Wallflower) was more like wallpaper and a big miss for me, and even before the that release her voice and energy seem to have lost their vitality. It seems like the thrill is gone and that she peeked with the 2006 "From this moment on." I saw her live 3 times between 1989 and 2004 and she sang and played like it mattered to her. 

@2chfreak  , I actually enjoy "Wallflower."  I particularly like her cover of "Desperado."  I have yet to hear "The Girl in The Other Room."

Patricia Barber forced me to remove the lid from a large Steinway and I had to put it back on after the show. I'm clearly not over that, but hey...she sounded brilliant.

Eilen Jewell:  Songbird, One of Those Days, Half-Broke Horse

Jennifer Warnes

 

Big Krall fan…,1993 to 2003. Those days are gone. But hey, a decade long career of singing well isn’t a bad thing. I’ve every album of hers during that decade. Sure, she wasn’t as good a singer as Dee Dee Bridgewater or Cassandra Wilson, but she had greater notoriety because she had the backing of the record company.

Her career changed when she got married. She was never the same after that.

Still, her Live In Paris blu ray was the finest recorded concert of any jazz performance ever. I still watch it regularly. Makes you want to visit Paris, which I’ve never done. But I’ve been to Russia and Ukraine, so not all bad. They truly know how to dance and party over there!

Thanks to DK’s work over that ten year period, and to bassist Ray Brown, who in the very beginning days, encouraged her!!!

I can't say much about either Diana Krall or Patricia Barber live, but I can say that Diana Krall's albums are generally magnificently recorded, especially Live in Paris and Love Scenes.  Patricia Barber . . . another artist that I would love to see in concert, but I suspect that nothing can top her Companion XRCD.  That is one of my go-to test albums for any new equipment or cables.  To me, that recording is just magnificent . . . especially the opening bass line to Use Me, among others.

Each of them sounded boring to me after a while. Dinah Washington held singing lessons for many other "stars". As for Melody Gardot - her story is amazing. As teenager she made money riding bicycle to local bars and playing piano - until she got hit by the car and spent whole year in hospital bed. Her whole neurological system was damaged and she could not speak. Doctor in desperation suggested singing and that cured her. The only leftover of the accident is cane and sunglasses for damaged eyes.

Patricia Barber . . . another artist that I would love to see in concert, but I suspect that nothing can top her Companion XRCD.

@moto_man  , I didn't know that "Companion" was on XRCD.  I have the Blue Note  digital pressing that I bought before 9/11, and I did like it so much that more recently I bought the MFSL SACD pressing.  I have four different digital pressings of Cafe Blue, and I'll usually choose one (actually I haven't listened to one of them yet)   for auditioning changes to my system.

I have a Japanese digital pressing, that I bought a long time ago, of Holly Cole "It Happened One Night" that I like a lot because it does a good job of conveying the immediacy of her vocals, particularly on "Cry If You Want To." 

Oh well, ramble on. . . .

 

I wonder how the SACD version compares to the XRCD?  Let me know if you want to compare them by PM

@moto_man  , my ears probably aren't good enough for that, but I was planning on doing some listening tomorrow after the 1pm game.  I will put "Companion" at the top of my list (after playing a warm up disc) and I am game.

I haven't heard much on XRCD?  I have Tina Turner "Private Dancer" on XRCD, and that definitely has something extra (when compared to most other CDs, although I have made no direct comparison to any other "Private Dancer" CDs) and I paid way more$ than I wish I would have for "Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits" because 1) the few times I listened to it I never thought the sonics were anything special, and 2) about the 3rd time I was going to listen to it, when I was extricating it from its case (it fit tightly) it broke!  I almost felt like crying.  I wound up buying a used DCC pressing of that one, but it's not really anything special either.