Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Diana Krall: Live in Rio Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Sir Terrence May 28, 2009

Fresh off the release of her tenth studio album Quiet Nights, Diana Krall travels to Rio home of the Bossa Nova for this live release. Live in Rio can be looked at as a video companion to the album, as most of the tracks on the album are performed here. Krall is joined onstage with her quartet which consists of Jeff Hamilton on drums, John Clayton on upright bass, Anthony Wilson on guitar, guest Paulinho DeCosta on percussion along with the Rio De Janeiro Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Ruriá Duprat - she flows through song after song filling the air with Bossa Nova tinged tunes, tight snappy piano solo's and her sultry voice. She also performs some songs from her past albums, and a couple of new tunes to boot. This entire set is quite laid back, approaching sluggish at times, but never boring.

As a jazz pianist, Grammy award winning Krall's keyboard skills cannot be faulted. She is a keyboardist extraordinaire as far as I am concerned, and can hold her own against any jazz keyboardist out there. Her improvisation has fantastic melodic lines that flow together beautifully, without any sense of choppiness. However her weakness is her voice, which does not do well with the songs she chose to sing. She tends to drop phrasing, which hampers articulation and intelligibility. Her range seems limited, and there is no dynamics or vocal improvisation which is what jazz vocalization is all about. At times during this concert her voice did not seem clear, and was just a bit too breathy for my taste. Vocally she is safe, sticks to the notes, and is very accurate in the process. She also does not seem at ease interacting with the audience, as if she does not know what to say. When setting up a song, she almost seems clumsy with her words - but when she puts her hands to the keys, look out!

The set list for the concert is as follows:

1 I Love Being Here With You
2 Let's Fall In Love
3 Where Or When
4 Too Marvellous For Words
5 I've Grown Accustomed To His Face
6 Walk On By
7 Frim Fram Sauce
8 Cheek To Cheek
9 You're My Thrill
10 Let's Face The Music And Dance
11 Every Time We Say Goodbye
12 So Nice
13 Quiet Nights
14 Este Seu Olhar
15 Boy From Ipanema
16 I Don't Know Enough About You
17 'S Wonderful
18 Exactly Like You

Diana Krall: Live in Rio Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Diana Krall: Live in Rio comes to the Blu-ray format in a 1080i/AVC encode framed in a 1:78:1 video window. The picture quality is a little disappointing. Black levels are stable and deep, and shadow detail is very good. Contrast is spot on, as there is no sign of bleaching or hot levels. Colors are vibrant, and nicely rendered. The problem with this release is video noise and softness in some shots. Video noise seemed to be a problem when light levels went down, like when the camera pans over the audience. There also appeared to be some noise when deep blue or violet was in the color mix. Some shots were sharp and clean, and other soft with very low levels of video noise. All of these criticisms are camera based, as some shots are clean and clear - others not so much. Flesh tones are very accurately portrayed, with nice details in faces. One can best describe this presentation as uneven, but not entirely bad either.

Diana Krall: Live in Rio Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

With a Diana Krall release, the audio is more important than the video in my opinon. Featuring an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, a 5.1 Dolby Digital track encoded at 640kbps, and a LPCM stereo track, the audio offered on this disc is superb! Vocals are well recorded and present Krall's sultry voice with all of its texture and breathiness intact. The orchestra is very well captured, with strings having a nice "sheen" to them. It adds a nice fullness to the mix without covering up the quartet. That string bass will fully test the transition between your main speakers and subwoofer, as the bass covers three octaves easy. The piano is nicely positioned center right, the drum and upright bass dead center – and the guitar far left. The positioning of the guitar seemed too far left, as it sounded fragmented (or by itself), and acoustically isolated from the rest of the group. The front sound stage is deep and laterally wide, and folds coherently into the surrounds which gives the mix a nice spatial envelopment. I found the DTS track, and the LPCM track both sound very pleasing.

Diana Krall: Live in Rio Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras on this release are worthy of a watch, and are as follows:

The Rooftop Session is an impromptu concert with Krall and her quartet on the roof of a hotel. The songs are featured :

The Boy from Ipanema
Too Marvelous for Words
Cheek to Cheek
Quiet Nights

Featurette: Quiet Conversations features interviews with Diana Krall and the members of her quartet.

Promotional video shows images of Ipanema Beach and other places in Rio set to the music of The Boy from Ipanema.

Diana Krall: Live in Rio Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Image quality issues aside, this is chilled, laid back concert video that is sure to please fans of Krall, or any jazz fan for that matter. The musicians are top notch and seemed to be really enjoying themselves - the song list familiar and performed well aside from Krall's vocals. I highly recommend this release, as it is a wonderful evening of entertainment that you are sure to enjoy.