TRACKLIST

01. Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby? (Austin, Jordan) 4:57
02. Only Trust Your Heart (Cahn, Carter) 5:19
03. I Love Being Here With You (Lee, Schluger) 3:40
04. Broadway (Bird, McRae, Wood) 7:27
05. The Folks Who Live on the Hill (Hammerstein, Kern) 4:18
06. I’ve Got the World on a String (Arlen, Koehler) 5:20
07. Squeeze Me (Ellington, Gaines) 5:37
08. All Night Long (Lewis) 6:41
09. CRS-Craft [instrumental] (Brown) 3:30

Personnel:
Diana Krall (vocals, piano);
Stanley Turrentine (tenor saxophone);
Ray Brown, Christian McBride (bass);
Lewis Nash (drums).

Diana Krall, here with her first GRP album, expands on the delights that populated her 1992 debut, Stepping Out. Again, her talents are simply remarkable: she sings with feeling, emotion, and nuance-she invests a lyric with believability-and plays marvelous piano, no matter the tempo. The program pleases on so many levels: slip the disc into the player, hit any track at random, and you’ll be moved. Take the oh-so-slow, heartfelt groover “Squeeze Me,” on which her alto is both breathy and demonstrative and her accompaniments are sly, and which features a winsome solo by bass maestro Ray Brown. On another gut-wrenching crawler, “All Night Long,” Krall tears you up with her emotive, intimate vocal, interspersing her singing with telling, shimmering piano notes, then delivering a solo full of wry confidences. The succulent title track is a deliciously slow bossa where Krall’s vocal is partly whispered, as if sung in your ear. More upbeat is the finger-popping “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” where the artist sings with grit and life then solos with an economical drive. Tenor saxophone giant Stanley Turrentine adds a trademark saucy improvisation. “I Love Being Here with You” is a romping shuffle where Krall’s voice hits some notes on the head and stretches others like pulled taffy. “Broadway” is another vibrant outing that includes a singing, fat-noted solo from bassist Christian McBride and Lewis Nash’s deft brush work. Aces all around. -Zan Stewart