Friday at the Hollywood Bowl was billed as a Latin-themed night, with “an exotic lineup of romantic, jazzy and Latin American orchestral music" executed by the L.A. Philharmonic, segueing into an appearance by Diana Krall. The artist is fresh off releasing her “Brazilian-inspired" album Quiet Nights, featuring “sultry selections of standards and sambas."
Krall, bless her, had a different idea. Rather than treat the material as some luscious, mysterious musical Other, she and her sterling bandmates made Latin-jazz syncopations and Brazilian New Wave riffs seem utterly organic to her performance, as if she'd grown up strolling the beach at Copacabana rather than the shores of British Columbia.
“I'm not about to do 'Pump It Up' as a bossa nova," she joked, alluding to one of her husband Elvis Costello's catchiest post-punk anthems. “Save that for the cruise ship."
Indeed, Friday's concert, the first of two weekend performances from Krall at the Bowl, was no Carnival-tourist musical excursion or buffet sampler of sounds. It was instead the type of selective program that marks a well-traveled connoisseur eager to share her finds.
Converting jazz into a syntax of daily emotional life is one of Krall's career achievements. It was in character for her to introduce one tune by talking about driving a tour bus like Shirley Jones of the Partridge Family, with her 2-year-old twin sons in tow.
That song turned out to be a stunning version of “I've Grown Accustomed to His Face," in which Krall perfectly captured the gentle irony of the lyrics -- about the singer's understated amazement at finding contentment after swapping independence for cozy domesticity. Conductor Alan Broadbent coaxed a low, sustained hum from the strings that enveloped Krall's husky, ruminative vocals in a blanket of warmth.
Aided by the arrangements of Claus Ogerman, John Clayton and others, Krall and her impeccable trio -- Anthony Wilson, guitar; Robert Hurst, bass; and Jeff Hamilton, drums -- were as attentive to Lerner and Loewe as they were to Gilberto and Jobim.
