Krall, Don't Walk

Jazz vocalist/pianist Diana Krall's career took a turn for the stratosphere following her 1999 release When I Look in Your Eyes. Not only was the album a mondo success and international best-seller but it earned Krall a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance and was the first jazz album in 25 years to be nominated for Album of the Year. Not bad for a girl from Nanaimo, British Columbia. Though her style is more smooth than scat, Krall started in on the Fats Waller stride piano early. She attended Boston's Berklee College of Music and later honed her chops in the jazz scenes of Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York City under the mentoring of bassist Ray Brown. In other words, she paid her dues for years before her songs started playing in Starbucks and on episodes of Sex and the City. Krall is a sexy songstress, with a sensual and suave elegance to her vocals and, when she wants, a neo-bop swing in her playing.