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For well over a decade, Diana Krall, the leggy, blonde, telegenic singer/pianist, has effectively deployed her engaging pop-sweetened-jazz style and consistently hit the crossover sweet spot. And like Dusty Springfield decades before, Krall achieved audiophile pinup status when she covered “The Look of Love,” a track that boosted her 2001 set, Live in Paris, into platinum territory. Recorded at the Paris Olympia in late 2001, it’s a collection of comfort-food standards that spans Gershwin’s “S’Wonderful,” and Porter’s “Let’s Fall in Love,” to pop classics like Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” and Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are.” Krall is an expressive interpreter who connects without over-singing and lets her smooth piano excursions do the talking. Her crack trio of Anthony Wilson, guitar, John Clayton, bass, and Jeff Hamilton, drums, offers rock-solid backup. For her efforts Krall received her second Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Record. The recording, engineered by legend Al Schmitt, sounded good on CD. But ORG’s stellar two-disc, 180-gram vinyl reissue, remastered by Bernie Grundman, trumps it. Surfaces are dead quiet, and the LP is lighter on its feet, more layered, airier, finer grained, and more transparent. Live in Paris is a great addition to a choice LP collection.
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By Neil Gader
My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.
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