Only Trust Your Heart

by

Diana Krall

Edit

When I first bought Diana Krall's, "Only Trust Your Heart", I gave it one or two listens and then put it away being not too impressed. Then about a year later I saw her in concert where she opened with a tune called "I Love Being Here With You". I couldnt figure out at the concert, where this energetic little opener had come from. It turned out to be on the before mentioned CD. I gave "Only Trust Your Heart a relisten and I realized, what a wonderful jazz album it really is.I think the reason I like "Only Trust Your Heart" is because it sounds so unlike Diana's other albums. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Ms.Krall and her other albums.I love that smokey, honey-tinged voice and her wonderful piano stylings. But on this particlar album, rather then her usual sexy whisper, she seems to belt them out with a roar.Also her band seems more at the forefront of the production including a very sassy turn by veteran sax player, Stanley Turentine.There are plenty of song stand outs including "Is You or Is You My Baby" and "I've Got the World On A String."A special mention should be made also for the lovely ballad "Folks Who Live On the Hill." This is a really good jazz CD, that grows on you after a few listens.

The first time I heard Ms. Krall was in All For You, her best album to date. Since then, I've bought everything she's released, and Only Trust Your Heart was something of a disappointment. I mean this in reference to Ms. Krall's singing, which is nowhere as elegant as that of later recordings. Here, she is still shouting in quite a few songs - not as much as to remind one of the dreaded Whitney Houston, but enough to make me want to warn Amazon.com customers who haven't heard this album. I must say, however, that her piano playing is pretty much as good as ever and that Christian McBride's bass is the instrumental highlight (Sorry, Ray Brown).