[Speedskater]

"The Audiophile's Wife" wrote about Dianna Krall several times, here are a couple of blogs.

http://www.theaudiophileswife.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=31
http://www.theaudiophileswife.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=47

[geowak]

If you take Krall out of the topic, you can place anyone in. It may not be a matter of the artist being so good,  rather the artist sounds good! Some types of music can bring out great qualities in recordings. And, secondly some recording engineers and studios spend quality time getting a great recording. On a quality HiFi system, one can really hear this.

I happen to think DK is a very talented singer and some of her records are quality recordings. But one can find great pop, rock, punk, blues or other genre recordings as well.

[CSI]

Better to just come out and say it. She is awful. Just say it.
Try Ella - Let no man write my epitaph.

Krall isn't "awful" and at least one major jazz critic has written in detail why Ella is grossly over rated. That being said, it all really boils down to personal taste. If you don't like her, don't listen. I discovered Ms. Krall when I was selling audio gear and found that she played fine jazz piano (and has improved over the years), sings very well in the idiom (but see above re: personal taste), has always been well recorded - making for excellent demo material, and appeals to most listeners right off the bat. She also recorded a whole album/homage to the King Cole Trio which I really love. Oh, and she is quite pretty (a bonus) and has made a serious career out of actually entertaining people (as opposed to doing the Diva thing). None of this is to say she is the greatest jazz singer working (that's an open debate). I sometimes think there are people who come to dislike any artist who starts out with a limited audience (audiophiles and jazz fans only) then go on to great commercial success. It even happened to Chet Baker before his death. There was a time when the only really well recorded pop singer (audiophile quality pressings) was a woman named Amanda Mc something or other. Now she really was awful.

[Don_S]

CSI,

Amanda McBroom is the name you were searching for.

Factoid: She composed the song "The Rose".

[mick wolfe]

No problem here and she's very easy to look at. That said, I much prefer "Live in Paris" to her studio efforts.

[Devil Doc]

Who is this major Jazz critic who would write such a thing? Probably just a major attention getting device. We all know critics crave attention and talent.

Doc

[vinyl_lady]

and appeals to most listeners right off the bat.

This isn't anywhere close to the truth.

[S Clark]

Krall is sort of easy jazz listening, nice voice, nice looks, nice sound, usually excellent recordings- good demo material.  Clearly easier on the ears and eyes than Neil Young- but not nearly as interesting.

[low.pfile]

Quote
    and appeals to most listeners right off the bat.

>This isn't anywhere close to the truth.

DK's music does not appeal to me at all. I'm sure many do enjoy her music and piano playing talent. In the same genre, I'd take Melody Gardot's music is a second on a bluetooth boombox or a nice audiophile system Melody Gardot... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52yxuJKS4JY.

[brother love]

"The Audiophile's Wife" wrote about Dianna Krall several times, here are a couple of blogs.

Diana Krall aside, "The Audiophile's Wife" blog seems to be a bunch of mindless drivel.  WTF is "audio winning" ?

I never cared for Diana Krall's music, but I think she is very talented. Her husband on the other hand is a fave of mine and my wife's.  To each their own and all that jazz ...

[galyons]

If you take Krall out of the topic, you can place anyone in....

Exactly! These are always the most predictable threads..hate...love...can't be bothered....this instead.  Rather than any real discussion of the artist and the artist's music one gets Pavlovian responses.  Reminds me of the old prison joke about prisoners who had heard the same jokes so many times they took to numbering them.  Then, rather than shouting the jokes, in their entirety,  to the cell block, they just yelled the number. Would probably work here as well!

Of course, as in all things, YMMV!

Cheers,
Geary

[BrysTony]

I like Diana Krall's music but rarely listen to it because I don't listen to that genre often.  However, the facts are that Diana Krall is beautiful, very talented and wildly successful.  Her music is highly appreciated by millions of people worldwide.  You can choose to be a Diana Krall fan or choose not to be a fan.  What I have never understood is why some feel a need to disparage someone like Diana Krall who is an excellent vocalist, proven by huge commercial success.  Jealousy perhaps??

Tony

[CSI]

This isn't anywhere close to the truth.

Well, that's pretty much unprovable one way or the other but my point was that, for audio equipment demo purposes back in the day (which I think was the point of the string) she offended no one (at least no one that I ever played her music for). But then that was admittedly a small sample...

[drummermitchell]

Perhaps they need a mike in front of them  and sit them down at a piano and see how boring they are or what have you.
Lets see their talent.
I echo BrysTony's thoughts.

[CSI]

Who is this major Jazz critic who would write such a thing? Probably just a major attention getting device. We all know critics crave attention and talent.

Doc

Well, Gene Lees among others. But I hasten to add his criticisms were a mild technical critique about her early scat singing (he thought others did it better) and he recanted almost immediately (maybe after a deluge of outraged letters?). He and Ella were great friends through both of their later years and he was as worshipful of her as anyone in his books on singing. In later years, Newsday Jazz critic Gene Seymour (maybe it's a Gene thing) was highly critical of her place in Jazz as the "greatest of all time" but he, too, recanted at about the time of her death - admitting that his earlier critiques were misguided and ending his article, "I was wrong about Ella Fitzgerald". As for myself, I love Ella like everyone else but I find it mildly amusing that no apostasy whatsoever is to be tolerated. Now if the robbers came and demanded I give them all my Ella records OR all my Billie sides I'm afraid....

[vinyl_lady]

Clearly easier on the ears and eyes than Neil Young- but not nearly as interesting.

As someone mentioned above, it's all a matter of personal taste. I find Neil Young much easier to listen to than DK or any female jazz singer for that matter. Probably explains why I have every album he has put out, whether alone, with Crazy Horse, CSNY or Buffalo Springfield. I think Neil is one of the great singer-songwriters of our time and is definitely an interesting person.

As they say, different strokes for different folks.

[charmerci]

Diana (as well as most new musicians) is part of modern music's coddling. She's deeply talented and technically perfect but she can't play with real soul.


Has she ever really felt real challenge or suffering? (It really doesn't have to be an epic tragedy.)


In the years past, most of the greatest musicians had to struggle and fight - as well as craft their style - for years in obscurity to really connect emotionally with their music.


The perfect example to me is LeeAnn Rimes. If you listen to her first album (when she was 15?), I can hear the talent and something special was possible but since then it's coddling by the music industry with the "best" musicians and producers and infinite praise but the music turned into the same overproduced, slick crap that's everywhere now.

[geowak]

I guess I'm not an audiophile. I'd rather listen to a scratchy reissue of Alberta Hunter or Sippie Wallace from the '20s and '30s, than a pristine recording by  Krall. It's about the music not the equipment or software. Krall bores me.

Doc

That is an interesting comment " It's about the music not the equipment or software". I think a great many audiophiles, if not most, tinker with the equipment more than enjoy the music. It's fair to say that most of us do both, simply because we want to extract the best sound we can from the little music boxes we purchase.

A music lover does not always mean (equate to) an audiophile. Sometimes an audiophile is a person constantly buying, selling, swapping, comparing the sound reproducing equipment and really not listening and enjoying the music.

At some point during the insanity, some actually sit down to listen to the music. I try to do this often and be content with the musical boxes I have collected!

[S Clark]

As someone mentioned above, it's all a matter of personal taste. I find Neil Young much easier to listen to than DK or any female jazz singer for that matter. Probably explains why I have every album he has put out, whether alone, with Crazy Horse, CSNY or Buffalo Springfield. I think Neil is one of the great singer-songwriters of our time and is definitely an interesting person.

As they say, different strokes for different folks.

Ahh, a strike!set the hook!  You may not remember, but we spent a few minutes talking about the quality of  NY's records in the GR-Research room at the RMAF a couple of years back.  I admit to trolling for you, but in good fun.   
Scott

[Cheeseboy]

"The Audiophile's Wife" wrote about Dianna Krall several times, here are a couple of blogs.

http://www.theaudiophileswife.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=31
http://www.theaudiophileswife.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-06:00&max-results=47

She is soooo funny.