Diana Krall: The Language of Love

Rating:
Summary: Read Reid
Review: I have just finished the last words of Diana Krall: The Language of Love by Jamie Reid and I must say I was captivated by the entire story. This book is jazz. Reid, a jazz artist in his own right, captures the essence of jazz as he describes the great Canadian practitioner of mood, Krill. This book sings soul to you and is a must-read for anyone interested in what exists beyond the pedantic.

Rating:
Summary: Read Reid
Review: I have just finished the last words of Diana Krall: The Language of Love by Jamie Reid and I must say I was captivated by the entire story. This book is jazz. Reid, a jazz artist in his own right, captures the essence of jazz as he describes the great Canadian practitioner of mood, Krill. This book sings soul to you and is a must-read for anyone interested in what exists beyond the pedantic.

Rating:
Summary: pretty bad actually
Review: I thought this book did nothing for Krall or her music and seemed to have been thrown together simply to make a buck.... what a waste

Rating:
Summary: Long lists of names
Review: This book will give you interminable lists of jazz artists and music-world movers and shakers: who played for what group, who studied with which mentors, who is listed on the liner notes of various CDs. Some of these lists even have a direct relationship to Diana Krall, but many do not.

It will also give you some cliché-soaked descriptions of Diana Krall: "On stage in the act of playing, Diana Krall is even more beautiful than in the glamorous photographs gracing her recent album covers." "She is almost without makeup - only a pale lipstick on her full and sensuous lips." "Her teeth are as white and straight as the keys on her Steinway grand." Diana Krall is certainly an attractive woman, but she is no super-model. She is a super jazz musician, so why the over-the-top physical descriptions? I do not recall anyone every trying to make Louis Armstrong or Ray Brown into male hunks; why do it to Diana Krall?

What you will not find in the book is much about Diana Krall, the person. Reid apparently never managed to speak to Diana or her parents or sister. Many people who have known Diana personally chime in with nearly-perfectly-consistent comments: Diana is a pleasant, down-to-earth person. That is nice to know, but hardly the basis for writing a biography. So what drives Diana Krall? What motivates her and demotivates her? What makes her angry, sad or happy? Where has she ever stubbed her toe on the road to success? What does SHE consider to be her greatest accomplishments? What does SHE have to say about her childhood, her various teachers and mentors, her successes and setbacks? The book is silent on all of this.

Reid has written a very pro-Diana Krall book, but, as biographies go, it is not a very good book. The book has no list of releases or albums. It has no index. The references are unreferenced - just a list of sources. This book would be a starting point for research on a real biography, but a real biography it is not.