June 17-24, 2004

musicpicks

Diana Krall

jazz

We knew her as a girlish seductress, the couture-clad purveyor of "Peel Me a Grape" and "Popsicle Toes." But the Canadian chanteuse has changed her address with The Girl in the Other Room, her latest for Verve. The reinvented Krall glowers at us from magazine covers, windswept in distressed bomber leather. Her voice has an offhanded toughness now — still sultry, but more smoky than sweet. And with original songs like the wistful title track, the reflective "Almost Blue" and the sorrowful "I'm Coming Through," she's projecting a seasoned maturity that out-Norahs Norah by an order of magnitude. So what happened? Need we say Elvis? Fact is, Costello's influence looms large not only in the songs, which he co-wrote, but also in the sensuous moods. Krall, the former queen of anticipatory romance, now sounds fully consummated. Post-coital, even. And it suits her perfectly. Now somebody hand the girl a cigarette.

Sat., June 19, 8 p.m., $22.50-$75, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 52nd St. and Parkside Ave., 215-893-1999.

—Kyle Parker