Vocalists

Diana Krall - Live in Paris

Does it get any better than this? Canadian torch singer and pianist Diana Krall is in perfect form in this two-hour Paris concert, recorded in December 2001 shortly after the release of her CD The Look of Love. In her band, guitarist Anthony Wilson and bassist John Clayton get the lion's share of attention, but the entire ensemble (including lush strings from the Paris Symphony Orchestra) provides flawless support for Krall, whose skill on a Steinway is as impressive as her smoky interpretations of vintage standards and ballads. Inspired by guest conductor-arranger Claus Ogerman, Krall can surprise with subtleties (like a delicious hint of the Beatles' "Day Tripper" in her closing of "All or Nothing"), or glide into solos with a master's flair. Matching the music beat for beat, the camera coverage and editing are intimate without being obtrusive, making this a bit of jazz heaven here on earth. --Jeff Shannon

Recorded live at the Paris Olympia on December 1, 2001, Krall's classic style blends equal parts artistic vision, hard work and determination. The British Columbia native began playing piano at the age of four and now has five stunning albums behind her. She made her debut with the critically acclaimed Only Trust Your Heart and the album topped the Billboard jazz charts for the most of 1998, earning Krall a Grammy nomination. She went on to win a Best Jazz Vocal Performance Grammy for 1999's platinum-selling When I Look in Your Eyes and became the first jazz artist in 25 years to be nominated in the Album of the Year category.

Norah Jones - Live in New Orleans

Jazz on a Summer's Day/A Summer's Day With Bert Stern

Part concert documentary, part pop-cultural time capsule, Bert Stern's Jazz on a Summer's Day chronicles the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with an approach as deceptively relaxed, even impulsive, as the music itself. Still photographer Stern sidesteps more formal documentary conventions such as narrative voiceovers to wander purposefully from festival stage to boarding-house jam sessions, taking in the parallel color and motion of the America's Cup preparations when he isn't capturing rich color footage of the performances and the celebratory mood of the concertgoers. In the process, he documents American jazz at a notably golden moment in its development--diverse, adventurous, and still broadly popular, this was jazz not yet under the shadow of rock and youth culture, played by an integrated artistic community a few short years away from social and political turmoil that would boil divisively to the surface during the '60s. To say Stern was rolling film in a jazz Camelot is overstatement, but only slightly so.

Stern's circular approach and wonderful eye achieve a breezy languor at the expense of more comprehensive coverage of the festival's bumper crop of strong jazz, blues, and gospel musicians. Perhaps inevitably, the camera lingers on Louis Armstrong, Anita O'Day, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, and George Shearing. Avid fans of later styles may be frustrated by the fleeting glimpses of other musicians such as Eric Dolphy and Art Farmer, or the honor roll of classic jazz stylists whose Newport sets weren't included in the film, but such omissions seem forgivable, if not necessary, to Stern's serendipitous design. --Sam Sutherland

Diana Krall - Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival

Diana Krall: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival is a portrait of an already-accomplished musician in the process of evolving into a great artist. Always a fine jazz pianist, an expressive singer, and a capable interpreter (mostly of the Great American Songbook), Krall spent little time developing an original voice prior to her marriage to Elvis Costello and her CD The Girl in the Other Room, which features multiple songwriting collaborations with Costello as well as more adventurous choices in cover material (Joni Mitchell's "Black Crow," Tom Waits's "Temptation"). That 2004 recording is the centerpiece of this concert; fully nine of the 13 selections here, including the Waits and Mitchell songs as well as five Costello-Krall compositions, were drawn from it. Purists may lament the lessening of the straight-ahead jazz element in Krall's music (indeed, with its simple major chords and countryish lilt, the original "Narrow Daylight" will inevitably invite comparisons to Norah Jones). But Krall and her excellent band still swing mightily (cf. an extended version of the standard "All or Nothing at All") and improvise like the seasoned jazz pros they are. It's a heady combination: Krall is at least as good an instrumentalist as her contemporaries; add to that her singing and now an interest in songwriting that reflects the influence of pop music as well as jazz, and you have a genuinely unique talent. --Sam Graham

Norah Jones and The Handsome Band - Live in 2004

Norah Jones's growth as a performing artist since she burst on the scene in 2002 is apparent on Norah Jones and the Handsome Band: Live in 2004, her second concert DVD (following Live in New Orleans, released in '03). The gifted singer-pianist-songwriter is still something of a reluctant headliner; personable if not exactly effusive (and seemingly bemused by the adulation), she's self-effacing and winningly unpretentious onstage. That goes for the music as well, as Jones and her empathetic band (now including guitarist Robbie McIntosh, formerly of the Pretenders and Paul McCartney's band) put on a tasteful, understated show at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Songs from her second CD, Feels Like Home, are favored, along with a version of the Grammy-winning "Don't Know Why" that's received with near-reverence by the audience. Jones's choice of cover material, including tunes by John Prine ("That's the Way the World Goes 'Round"), Tom Waits ("The Long Way Home"), and Gram Parsons ("She," which is among the several bonus tracks; other extras include two videos and three "mini-documentaries"), is also admirable, but it's when her various guests show up that the show approaches genuine transcendence. Among them are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who harmonize beautifully with Jones on Townes Van Zandt's "Loretta," and the indefatigable Dolly Parton, whose duet with Jones on bassist Lee Alexander's bluegrass-flavored "Creepin' In" is the undisputed highlight of the show. Radiant, ebullient, and in great voice, Parton is a star, and Norah defers to her accordingly. The only problem comes when Jones and company have to pick up where Parton left off, and in truth, it takes them a while to recover. --Sam Graham

Following a massive 55-city North American Tour in support of her quadruple platinum selling FEELS LIKE HOME, Norah Jones's historic ride continues with the release of an amazing DVD. Filmed in August 2004 at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, the concert film includes performances of most of the songs from FEELS LIKE HOME as well as hits from her landmark debut album COME AWAY WITH ME, and choice covers. Special Guests include Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and Richard Julian.

Fever - The Music of Peggy Lee

Louis Armstrong - Satchmo

Frank Sinatra - A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim

For the second of his 1960s television specials, Frank Sinatra organized the show around the loose theme of "rhythm," and chose for his exploration two artists of impeccable credentials: the scat stylings and jazz-influenced delivery of Ella Fitzgerald and the quiet Latin groove of Brazilian bossa nova legend Antonio Carlos Jobim. The program combines beautiful ballads ("Ol' Man River," "Put Your Dreams Away") with brassy up-tempo tunes ("Day In, Day Out," "Get Me to the Church on Time"), though one medley includes some forgivable but hardly memorable attempts at contemporary pop, mixing snatches of "How High the Moon" with "Up, Up and Away," "Don't Cry Joe" with "Ode to Billy Joe." The show slows for a relaxed medley with Jobim, who accompanies a lounging, cigarette-smoking Sinatra with guitar and whispering backing vocals while the Voice drops his volume to an intimate conversational tone for "Change Partners," "I Concentrate on You," and Jobim's own "The Girl from Ipanema." Ella duets with Sinatra on two medleys (contributing a fabulous scat rendition of "Stomping at the Savoy"), solos on "Body and Soul," "It's All Right with Me" and "Don't Be That Way," and finally the two burn up the program with one final duet, a high octane, show-stopping performance of "The Lady Is a Tramp," with Nelson Riddle's orchestra driving the brass to keep up. --Sean Axmaker

Come Fly with Me

A year after his slickly produced recording debut launched him on a meteoric course to stardom, this combo DVD/CD set chronicles Michael Buble's crowd-pleasing live performances before amphitheater-sized crowds on a triumphant national tour. The audio portion kicks off with a pair of new studio recordings again reinforcing the 20-something Canadian heartthrob's 1950s-something artistic tack with mixed results: "Nice 'n' Easy" has a Sinatra-faithful jazzy swing; the overproduced, somnambulistic "Can't Help Falling in Love" evokes Perry Como more than Elvis. The remainder of the audio CD is comprised mostly of live versions of songs from Buble's debut, with his takes of "My Funny Valentine," "Fever," Van Morrison's "Moondance," and "Mack the Knife" again suggesting that Buble has an ear cocked wisely towards the Bobby Darin oeuvre. But with the notable exception of three elegant live-in-studio performances culled from Sessions@AOL, the live DVD does Buble's undeniably charming stage presence a great disservice. Intercut awkwardly with offstage comments by Buble and his band, the balance of that disc suffers from an MTV-inspired, cut/dissolve-every-three-seconds style that's intended to focus one's attention, but does exactly the opposite. If sudden stardom virtually guarantees that Buble's impossibly smooth, expressive voice seldom ventures very far outside the Sinatra/Darin mold here, hopefully he'll leverage that fame towards greater artistic challenges in the near future. --Jerry McCulley

Tony Bennett - MTV Unplugged: The Video

This blue-toned, straightforward visit with a mellow Tony Bennett is a grown-up rock video complement to the CD, with a small, cabaret-style intimacy that gives the illusion that Tony's in the living room, singing only to us. The casual, languid Bennett style is omnipresent as Bennett croons and skats his way through some of the greats, including "Body and Soul," "A Foggy Day," and of course that old standby, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Old and new styles collide in the second half when Bennett introduces his guest k.d. lang, whom he adds to his list of personal bests Billie Holliday, Edith Piaf, and Andy Williams. They duet on an undistinguished version of "Moonglow" that makes us wonder if Tony might not be mistaking lang for someone else. Fortunately Elvis Costello arrives to kick things into a higher gear and as the lights dim red, Costello and Bennett heat up the track with a nice, spirited rendering of "They Can't Take That Away from Me." Bennett then encores with "Autumn Leaves/Indian Summer" and dedicates the whole ball of wax to Duke Ellington. It's a smooth, practiced affair that has little sense of spontaneity, though Bennett tries hard to imbue it with his trademark throwaway ease. Of course, it helps immeasurably if you watch this entertaining DVD in full surround stereo. --Paula Nechak