The first offspring of the Elvis Costello-Diana Krall marriage has
recently arrived - Krall´s CD _The Girl in the Other Room_ (Verve).
Lovely jazz piano + small combo, and that great voice grappling
(successfully!) with Elvis´ lyrics. In between their eight new songs
(her music to his lyrics), covers of Costello´s "Almost Blue", plus
terrific tunes by Joni Mitchell, Moses Allison and Tom Waits. Hardly
avant-anything, but classy. Moving, panoramic closer, "Departure
Bay", about her first Xmas home after her mother passed away. Bound
to bring a tear to the eye of the hardest cats out there (everybody´s
got a mom, everybody´s got a childhood home...).
For another kind of jazz, recommended reading: _Seriously Funny: The
Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s_, by Gerald Nachman (New York,
2003).
--
Stephen Fruitman
Dept of Historical Studies
Umea University
SE-901 87 Umea Sweden
