A truly enchanted evening with Diana Krall

When a friend learned that direk Gil Portes and I were going to the CCP last Sunday to watch the Diana Krall concert, he casually "warned" me, "You’ll fall asleep on her second song. Pampatulog ang music niya."

I’m glad and thankful I didn’t take my friend’s word for it, although, not being a Diana Krall fan or a jazz enthusiast (remember, I’m a Beatlemaniac forever!), I kept the "warning" at the back of my mind as Gil and I took our Row F seats, armed with tickets worth P2,000 each, courtesy of Pat P Daza-Planas (who came with husband Mike Planas), PR Girl of ABS-CBN.

Sorry to disappoint my friend but I didn’t sleep on Krall’s second song (was it Cry Me a River or I’ve Got You Under My Skin?), not even on her third or fourth or... In fact, I stayed wide awake throughout the one-hour-and-a-half concert, and so did the SRO audience that included Pinky Amador (who came with Inquirer’s Edmund Sicam), couturier Frederick Peralta (with Inquirer’s Leah Salterio and Bulletin’s Ivy Mendoza) and one-time Mutya ng Pilipinas-World Peachy Veneracion (with Manila Standard’s Isah Red) who were seated on the same row with us.

Also present were ABS-CBN top honchos Gabby Lopez ("A big fan of Diana Krall," according to Pat P) and his wife Panjee Gonzalez, and Freddie Garcia and wife Gloria with the whole family. It was the ABS-CBN which brought Krall back to the Philippines (she was here a few years ago for a Philip Morris-sponsored invitational concert), with the CCP concert to be shown soon as a Studio 23 TV special and the following night’s (July 22) show at the ballroom of the EDSA Shangri-La (where Krall and company were billeted) for the benefit of Bantay-Bata, pet project of Gabby’s sister Gina Lopez.

For the information of non-jazz fans (like me), Diana Krall is considered as today’s First Lady of Jazz, named by People magazine as one of The 25 Most Intriguing People of 2001, alongside US President George W. Bush, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Prince Harry, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts. Krall modestly rates herself as merely "an okay singer and an okay piano player" but in the eyes – and ears – of her fans (including, besides Gabby Lopez, the likes of Clint Eastwood, Elton John and Burt Bacharach, co-writer of the title track of her album The Look of Love, who describes Krall as "a wonderful singer and a hell of a piano player") she’s a supernova in that music genre.

Krall, going on 38, comes from the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia, Canada. Both her parents played the piano (you can’t escape your genes, can you?). Recalls Krall in the People interview, "Sundays, the whole family used to sing and play music together at my grandmother’s house. At Christmas, my grandmother would say, ‘Okay, let’s get the carols over with so we can sing jazz tunes’."

At age 4, Krall began to study classical piano, later playing jazz with the school band together with her bass teacher Bryan Stovell. At 15, Krall had her first gig at a restaurant in Nanaimo, performing three nights a week. In 1981, a Vancouver Jazz Festival scholarship allowed her to study for 18 months at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Back in British Columbia, she became friends with Jeff Hamilton and bassist Ray Brown who encouraged her to move to Los Angeles. She did, thanks to a grant by the Canadian Arts Council, and studied with pianist Jimmy Rowles. Then she recorded her debut album, Stepping Out, together with Hamilton and bassist John Clayton, with the support of Brown. In 1984, she returned to Canada to continue her studies in Toronto with bassist-pianist Don Thompson. In 1990, she moved to New York where she keeps an apartment in Greenwich Village. The People story mentioned that Krall’s boyfriend is a screenwriter named John-Paul Bernbach, 35.

A critic noted that, to pump "some lusty spirit" to jazz which was perceived to be an ailing genre, Krall was packaged as the pre-eminent sex kitten of 1990s jazz, much to the displeasure of Krall who, even if she does have that "sex kitten" look, protested when music critics "reviewed my legs more than my album... I don’t want to read that stuff about me. I want to make music."

And that’s just what Krall did at CCP – make beautiful music, turning it into a truly memorable and enchanted evening, with the endless drizzle outside seemingly getting into the beat.

I didn’t even take note of the sequence of her songs but I remember feeling like floating on the wings of love when Krall sang When I Look in Your Eyes and, as she "commanded," falling madly in love with love when she segued to Let’s Fall in Love. When Krall switched to East of the Sun (and West of the Moon), following it up with Cry Me a River, I got hooked. Soon, as her next number aptly put it, she’s got me under her skin.

I guess that the nice thing about Krall is that, even if you’ve listened to the songs she’s singing a hundred times, when you listen to her do them, they hit you in a different, magical way, as if you’re hearing the songs for the first time and realizing with a sweet, familiar pain how meaningful and how beautiful every word in every lyric of the song(s) is. Her voice is as clear and as distinct as water in a golden pond.

Dressed in floral pants and orange long-sleeved blouse with a low neckline that could tempt any critic to again call her a "sex kitten" (believe me, she is!), Krall was in her element that night, mesmerizing in the bare CCP stage, accompanying herself, of course, on the piano (no, it wasn’t transported to Manila from the US), giving her personal best as usual despite the jet lag from that 16-hour-plus flight barely 24 hours earlier. With her was a drummer and a guitarist, that’s all. But together, the three of them put up an unforgettable show.

Now, did I become an overnight fan of Diana Krall after that Sunday night?

Well, not really.

But first thing I did Monday morning was call Ramon Chuaying of MCA-Universal to ask for complimentary copies of When I Look in Your Eyes (the "platinum" album which won for Krall a Grammy) and The Look of Love, her new hot-selling album, the same ones playing on my portable CD player as I typed this piece.

My friend (who "warned" me about falling asleep on Krall’s second song) was right in a way. Diana Krall is enchanting to listen to performing in the flesh but she can be better appreciated and savored (like aged wine) on the CD in the privacy of your dimly-lit room especially on a drizzling Sunday night.

Meanwhile, excuse me while I, again, play The Look of Love.

Vilma back home

Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos and company, including son Ryan Christian, came back from a three-week vacation in California last Tuesday via PAL. Husband (Sen.) Ralph Recto and son Luis/Lucky flew in five days earlier because Ralph had to attend the opening of the New Congress last Monday, July 22.

While in L.A., Vilma and her family (mom Milagros, sisters Winnie and Emelyn and brother Sonny, plus other relatives) had a family reunion.

As soon as she has rested, Vilma will resume shooting for Star Cinema’s Dekada ’70 which is intended for the Metro Filmfest in December.

Vilma was absent from Congress last Monday, just like Sharon Cuneta (wife of Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan) and Assunta de Rossi (girlfriend of Negros Occidental Rep. Jules Ledesma). Otherwise, they would have surely stolen the thunder from the constantly bickering lawmakers who are taxing the public patience.