Devil May Care
Diana Krall
The swinging confidence here is immediate — the rhythm section locks in with a buoyancy that lifts the arrangement off the ground from the first bar. Krall plays with a pianist's pleasure in the pocket, her comping loose and responsive, the right-hand lines darting through the changes with idiomatic fluency. Her vocal delivery on this Bob Dorough original is less intimate torch song and more jazz sophisticate at ease with herself: there's wit in the phrasing, a slight smile in the tone. The lyric's philosophy — devil-may-care acceptance of life's terms — fits Krall's sensibility naturally, and she inhabits it without irony or excess emotion. This is the album track that reveals the working jazz musician underneath the mainstream recognition: technically assured, rhythmically alive, clearly enjoying the craft. The tempo sits in that ideal mid-swing zone where everything wants to move. You'd play this on a Sunday morning with coffee, or in the car on a drive with no particular destination.
medium
2000s
bright, lively, polished
American jazz
Jazz, Vocal Jazz. Swing Jazz. playful, confident. Sustains buoyant self-assurance from first bar to last, wit and ease never wavering.. energy 6. medium. danceability 7. valence 8. vocals: sophisticated female, slight smile in tone, idiomatic phrasing, relaxed confidence. production: swinging piano trio, responsive comping, darting right-hand lines, mid-tempo pocket. texture: bright, lively, polished. acousticness 7. era: 2000s. American jazz. Sunday morning with coffee, or a drive with no particular destination and nowhere to be.