Classical Music and Jazz

Jazz Performance Report

Jazz in its essence is a group of assorted musicians seamlessly communicating with one another. The communication may be planned or take place in spontaneity as the musicians become one in music. Since the tempo, key, rhythm and etiquette of the music is so potent, the musicians allow for great excitement generated by the music to shine, thereby making spontaneous improvisation easier. Jazz is a constantly evolving music genre and is great music to dance to and enjoy (HJW).

Jazz grew in popularity quickly, and for the first half of the 20th century, it was the world's most popular music. This period produced great music that is being enjoyed even today by the young generation. This period in time was also one of the most depressing in history as the great depression struck by an influenza pandemic and citizens of the world endured the world wars and the atomic bomb. Jazz was the music to turn to seek refuge from all these problems (HJW).

Diana Krall was an outstanding Jazz musician as she started out, and received a lot of praise and adoration. This level of adoration would fade away as her later albums were seen to be engineered for the mass-market and so were losing the essence of Jazz. Indeed, when Live in Paris came out in 2003, it was shameful to admit that one liked it. This performance set the stage for people to say that the 'real' Krall showed up at the Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival concert in 2004. The first sign that the show would be awesome is the opening which was largely dominated by Krall's co-players. She did not sing during this session. The audience was huge and numbered at 15,000 and Krall delivered at the 25th anniversary of the historic event. Her work helped rebuild the jazz vocal base and she built a following of crossover fans who would not otherwise listen to jazz. Most of the material for the concert came from THE GIRL IN THE OTHER ROOM album and a few were fans' favorites from other albums. The track list consisted of "Temptation," "Devil May Care," "Sometimes I Just Wanna Freak Out," and several others (Sabbatine).

Krall did not seek to be center of attention and this was a big reassurance that the group did not come to merely show-off, but to perform. She planted herself behind the piano and was not over-demonstrative as she offered her powerful vocals on "All or Nothing At All." She let Anthony Wilson, the guitarist to exhibit one of the most amazing runs as she followed with her instrumental solo. The critics were silenced and had no option but to enjoy the 90-minute art piece (Sabbatini). Krall always sings in great form when singing a collection of originals and standards, but she never really turns the heat up. Her live performances often exceed the studio compositions and this was the case during this performance also. Robert Hurst delivered comfort on bass as Drummer Peter Erskine played his role perfectly without distracting from the other stars in the stable (Harrington).

The work of Krall and her team were the epitome of Jazz standards. Classical music inspired jazz standards' harmonic vocabulary. It was then adapted to suit the short form of pop songs. The harmonic vocabulary has since evolved over time and now suits contemporary jazz performers perfectly. Jazz musicians tend to reduce the arrangements of songs to basic harmonic frameworks to allow space for improvisation. The performance of Diana Krall's team during the concert shows just how much important improvisation is important to engaging the audience and delivering a great show (Spitzer).

Diana Krall was blessed with an angelic voice that is as distinctive as it is beautiful. The alto is frayed and sounds polished, vulnerable and hip at the same time. She is also a master jazz pianist and she came out in the 1990s under the Justin Time label, she offered a fresh voice to jazz lovers and she was quickly embraced. She had an inviting refreshing voice that resembled that of guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli who was also belting out Nat Cole sounds in a style that fans found cheeky and hip. Improvisation in jazz began to allow dancers to stay on the floor for a longer time. Were the tunes to play straight through, the tune would end before the enthusiasm of the dancers was exhausted. This led to jazz musicians inventing sections or improvised sections in the middle of a tune to make them last longer (HJW).