(Reprinted from the December 2020 issue of Downbeat magazine)
Diana Krall’s new release, This Dream of You (Verve), marks a turning point in the singer-pianist’s remarkable career: her first full-length, self-produced album. These 12 tracks, taken from earlier sessions with Tommy LiPuma (1936-2017), Krall’s dedicated producer since 1995, not only channel the collaborators’ past creative relationship, but further Krall’s move in other musical directions.
Unlike most of her previous studio albums, developed with a specific stylistic repertoire and set band configuration in mind, This Dream of You draws from all of these previous successes. Krall turns out a comfortably swinging “Almost Like Being In Love,” for example, with her regular rhythm section of almost 30 years—bassist John Clayton Jr. and drummer Jeff Hamilton, along with longtime side guitarist Anthony Wilson. She waxes breathily romantic on “There’s No You,” with her sometimes duo, bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Russell Malone. And she fronts a shimmering orchestra led by pianist/arranger Alan Broadbent on “But Beautiful.” This is the Krall who sold millions of jazz records worldwide and introduced the Great American Songbook to a new generation of non-jazz listeners.
But Krall has always advanced her musical interests outside of standards and traditional pop. As with her 2015 album Wallflower (Verve), she turns to Bob Dylan for this album’s title cut, played as an easeful, country-western ballad. Krall sounds fantastic in this idiom, enhanced here by a quintet featuring shape-shifting guitarist Marc Ribot and bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan.
Though a stylistic outlier, this track delivers the album’s emotional blow. “There's a moment when all old things become new again,” Krall sings. “But that moment might have come and gone.” In the face of loss, all that’s left is the dream. DB