After seeing countless concerts over the years, I finally attended "the event" by which all others will be compared to from now on.
First, let me comment on the venue. Yoshi's Jazz Club could not be any more intimate. With a total capacity of about 300 patrons, there is simply not a bad seat in the house. And the sound was everything one could hope for. Yoshi's has a policy that for anyone attending the 10 pm show, that they will reserve a table at the club for them, as long as they have dinner reservations. This worked like a charm. Our table wound up being about 8 feet away from the stage!
Now for the show. Ms. Krall's quartet was outstanding. Never let anyone try to convince you that she is not a serious jazz musician. All it would take to prove them wrong is to be lucky enough to see her perform just one song in a club such as this.
For 2 hours we were treated to mostly new material from an upcoming album that she is going into the studio in a couple of weeks to start recording. So in a way, we were guinea pigs for the evening. She performed covers from Mose Allison, Tom Waits, and Joni Mitchell, as well as a phenomenal version of "Almost Blue" from her beau. Along with that tune written by Elvis, she also performed a couple of songs that were written together by the couple. (which sounds like a very promising collaboration)
In between the new material she played a couple of her standard songs. "All Or Nothing At All" and "East Of The Sun..." come to mind. There may have been 1 more, but I don't really remember.
And now the really exciting part of the evening.........
Sitting just to our left in a booth about 10 feet away from us...........Elvis Costello!
As soon as the show was over, my wife and I went over to Elvis and wound up having a little chat and a couple of laughs with him. After about 10 minutes, we shook hands, told Elvis thanks for all the music, and good luck on his upcoming marriage to Diana.
What a great night!!
