"I think Claus really fell in love with her the first time around," says LiPuma, who introduced the two in 2000. "He had sort of stopped doing new projects except composing his own music, piano concertos, violin concertos and such. Now, I've worked with Claus since the early '70s - on his own recordings, with Hank Jones and Michael Brecker - a Joao Gilberto album in 1977 (Amoroso) which is one of Diana's favorite albums. But he still says that The Look of Love (Krall's 2001 multi-platinum success) was probably the best album that he had ever been involved with. So he's very conscious of what she is capable of doing."

Ogerman's arrangements are as defining an element on Quiet Nights as any other, adding an astonishing level of sophistication to its mood and languid flow. There are moments when time slows to the point that normally momentary emotions have a chance to collect and be fully expressed. Ogerman's challenge was to find a fresh, ear-catching approach to familiar territory. "Claus has worked on a lot of these tunes before," LiPuma says. "But for the most part he approached them much differently. He emphasized the minor chord side-- slightly darker on certain things, like 'Quiet Nights.' Diana has complete confidence in him and just gave him total freedom."

Krall laughs relating how Ogerman jokingly understated his contribution. "Claus told me, 'It's a gloomy string orgy' - he has a very dry sense of humor. There was a lot of him saying, 'I've written these things a hundred times, now I'm gonna really do something crazy. And some of the arrangements he did are pretty wild.

"When we did 'Walk On By,' he said 'Ja, I think this is gonna be good.' And then we listened to those French horns playing the Burt Bacharach melody? We all had a meltdown. There's a lot of space with just the orchestra playing. It's reminiscent of Ravel's 'Bolero' and so beautiful I didn't want to fill it up with a jazz solo. I refused to play piano in some of those parts because I wanted to leave the space and let the arrangements do their thing."

Krall confirms that, in a manner that would satisfy the most pure jazz sensibility, Quiet Nights was built from the band up - meaning that each tune began as a quartet performance, featuring longtime sidemen guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist John Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton (in a scene where things change fast and often, it says a lot that Krall has forged such uncommonly lasting relationships - including her backup, her producer and her arranger.)

"The trust I have with Claus is complete. We met in New York, where I played him 25 tunes and from there we edited it down to 15. He wrote the arrangements and after that there was no editing, no changes."

LiPuma describes how the recording process continued: "Claus wrote the charts and then we did the rhythm tracks to his specifications. But it wasn't like it was a routine - Diana loves going in there with the quartet. She's been at this a while and has a certain manner of doing things. She knows that it's about trying to find the groove. She feels much more comfortable in doing it with just a quartet, then bringing in the strings and so forth afterwards."

Krall - at the age of 43 - has experience in her favor. Born in Nanaimo, Canada, to a musical family - her father is a stride-style pianist and serious record collector -- she grew up absorbing music that guided her future growth. She attended Berklee School of Music in the early '80s, then moved to Los Angeles where she continued her studies with bassists Ray Brown and John Clayton, drummer Jeff Hamilton and pianist Jimmy Rowles; Rowles convinced the young pianist to focus on her singing as well. By 1990, Krall relocated to New York City and began performing with a trio, and in 1993, she released her debut album on a small Canadian independent label.

Fifteen years later, she can look back over a stellar career path: in '99, signed to Verve, her career exploded when When I Look in Your Eyes won a GRAMMY® for best jazz vocal and became the first jazz disc to be nominated for Album of the Year in twenty-five years. In 2002, The Look of Love was a #1 bestseller in the US and a five-time platinum album in Canada. 2004's The Girl in the Other Room, was her first to focus on her own songwriting (with six tunes co-written with husband Elvis Costello); 2005's Christmas Songs proved one of the season's best-sellers; and 2006's From This Moment On was an upbeat, critical success that coincided with the birth of her twin sons - a life-affirming event that LiPuma feels enhanced Krall's continuing growth as a musician. "Motherhood definitely agrees with her- and marriage. I think she's really come into her own."

As moving as Quiet Nights is -- deriving from Krall's feelings for Brazil and bossa novas - the singer is not shy in admitting that its sensuality is as much about her home life. "It's my love letter to my husband - just an intimate, romantic album." As they say in Rio - obrigado!

Verve Music Group
Diana Krall Official Site

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)