Diana Krall can't win. Among jazz snobs she's criticized more for her cool blond looks than her musicianship, and now jazz ideologues deprecate her work because she released a Christmas album. But her stunning beauty aside, if you were blind and an honest critic you'd be charmed and intrigued by her distinctive time signatures and in love with her voice. Diana Krall's musicianship and vocal styling just gets better with each successive release, and this album is no exception.
As far as the diminution of her seriousness as a jazz artist because of releasing a Christmas album, here follows a partial list of jazz greats who have done the same thing: Nat Cole, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald. Those aren't good enough for you? Too "pop stylist" and not enough "jazz purist?" Okay, try on this list of jazz god-artists who also have released Christmas songs: Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Louis Armstrong, Shirley Horn, Jimmy Smith, Bill Evans, and yes (jazz ultra-snobs begin eating ordure now) even John Coultrane ("Greensleeves").
And so Verve wisely got Krall to pick the most overdone of Christmas songs that have been covered to death by thousands of others and see what she could do. The answer is that this album is excellent, brilliant, harmless, and fun that only a Jazz Grinch couldn't love. Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall's production is stunning, and John Clayton's arrangements and the Clayton/Hamilton orchestra's execution is flawless.
You'd think it would be hard to make "Jingle Bells" sound new, but Krall succeeds and makes a song I hate enjoyable. Her take on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" invokes memories more black and white than snow and evergreen, and with the length of her notes and excellent phrasing and sustain invokes the aching futility at the root of the song in a way not heard since World War II. Only one other artist tops Krall's excellent jazz version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and that artist works in the genre of rock and his name is Bruce Springsteen.
Other selections are equally delightful, and the musicianship throughout is superb. This is an unapologetically excellent album for any jazz fan, and deserves heavy rotation at Christmas gatherings or just for yourself by the fire. If any of your Christmas guests is rude enough to says otherwise, keep a lump of coal handy and whip out Coultrane's "Greensleeves" for a pause to have them put a stocking in it, then follow it up with Krall's "Let it Snow" to keep the Christmas spirit in full 4/4 time.