Diana Krall This Dream of You ( 2LP )

Diana Krall produced her new Verve release, This Dream Of You, herself in May 2020, and it was mixed by Al Schmitt, who worked closely with the artist to achieve a particular intimacy and immediacy to her voice in the sonic balance. The performances in the set are from sessions in 2016 and 2017, which have added poignancy since they were collaborations with her friend and longtime creative partner Tommy LiPuma, who died in 2017 at 80.

Krall heads a quartet line-up on some tracks that includes such long-standing collaborators as John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton and Anthony Wilson on "Almost Like Being In Love" and "That's All." On "Autumn in New York" and "There's No You," the trio format spotlights Christian McBride and Russell Malone. Among the duo performances, there's a notable first-take recording of "I Wished On The Moon" by Krall and Clayton, and two vocal cuts, "More Than You Know" and "Don't Smoke In Bed," on which she's accompanied by Alan Broadbent on piano. He also provided the string orchestration for "But Beautiful" and the string arrangement on "Autumn In New York." The final, ensemble session for This Dream Of You took place at Capitol Studios featuring guitarist Marc Ribot, Stuart Duncan on fiddle and a rhythm section with Tony Garnier on bass and Karriem Riggins on drums. They're featured on "Just You, Just Me," Berlin's "How Deep Is The Ocean" and the Bob Dylan song that gives the album its title, on which Randall Krall plays accordion.

"This Dream Of You is a new album that I have produced from sessions that took place in 2016 and 2017, leading up to Turn Up the Quiet, but it is very far from a record of outtakes or unfinished music," Krall explains. "When Tommy Lipuma died shortly before TUTQ was released, I lost not only a great friend but my creative partner. Earlier this year, I realized that I still had work to do in preparing the large repertoire covered in those 2016-2017 sessions for this new album. I'm glad to say that record leads off with ‘But Beautiful,‘ a performance that Tommy loved with all his heart and the last song we were able to complete together." Krall notes the emotional arc of the album and its opening and closing tracks when she says: "If ‘But Beautiful' is the overture, then ‘Singing In The Rain' is the end title. Some of these performances have unavoidable poignance."