All For You (A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio) by Diana Krall (CD, Mar-1996, Impulse!)

Put on a CD of Diana Krall, get your beloved close, and just sink into an evening of eeeeeayyyy listening. Great singer and pianoplayer

All for You is the first cd by Diana and represents a milestone in jazz recording. It's the first time that a female jazz vocalist would attempt to pull off an acoustic trio without drums and do what only Nat King Cole was able to do in a trio setting. And that is, to swing down so many different rhythmic paths and to her credit, pulls it off like nobody has since the master of self accompaniment, Nat King Cole . The thing that makes a great entertainer is someone not afraid to challenge their own boundries with confidence that the end result will be worth while and they will be able to pull it off without sounding like there's something lacking. With the help of Christian McBride and Russell Malone when performing live, two of the finest young lions on the scene today, this seems destined to be great. Diana swings, and that is what pays off for the listener. One of the toughest things to pull off is a ballad in this kind of setting and she does it remarkably well. Not many artist would expose themselves to this degree so early in their career by recording with such a small ensemble of players but here we find and artist who doesn't do things the conventional way and chooses to venture outside the box and play from her soul, sometimes at lightening tempos. Tommy Li Puma saw something in this young energetic artist that assured him that she could pull it off and that there would be more greatness down the road where this came from. This outing by Diana is raw, clean and swingin' and demonstrates the remarkable young talent of this up and coming artist.