Traveling in support of her Glad Rag Doll, she focused on material largely created before the last century had made half its mark on musical and cultural history. Many of the tunes she heard at home on her father’s old gramophone, which last night kept her company from stage left.
 

Unsurprising given her broad taste, the program ranged from a sentimental hit for Bing Crosby to a couple of jazz workouts from her heroes Nat “King” Cole and Fats Waller; from well-worn classics such asSunny Side Of The Street to obscurities including the album’s title track.
 

Stretching the playlist to what might be the breaking point for less-imaginative talents, she masterfully interpreted songs by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and the Band.

But the presentation was made more comprehensive by a stage designed like an old theater that featured a backdrop of vintage film clips.
 

Their selection was as ambitious as Krall’s musical choices. Plus, they augmented the emotional tone of the songs, echoed the rhythm and added humor.
 

Groucho Marx swooned over Margaret Dumont during You Know — I Know Ev’rything’s Made For Love, the only marriage song in a collection often about getting unmarried.
 

The unusual band, too, partnered Krall’s vision. It included guitar, violin, a rhythm section and even a second pianist, although a second keyboardist seemed unnecessary.

Although it was never less than entertaining and nearly always impressive, the program several times found a magical synergy. Near the end, the group delivered a deeply resonating Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, the familiar tune made darkly, dangerously sexy by Krall’s inspired vocal and detailed with the evening’s best solos. The moment was dramatically completed by the unforgettable footage of George Raft and Carole Lombard dancing to The Magic Of You, from the film Rumba.
 

Krall continued her exploration through the encore. She returned with Dylan’s Simple Twist Of Fate, embracing the story and remaking the melody. Then she sent the crowd home to dream with Prairie Lullaby, a lovely song she said she sings to her children.


View Diana Krall's Tour Upcoming Tour Dates

Read the article on Dispatch!  
 

“This is no ordinary “sit at the piano and plunk out some tunes” kind of evening. Far from it.”

(Toronto Star)

Diana Krall knocks out Massey Hall with a show that is a unique work of art".

(Toronto Star)

"a charming multimedia show…"

(Guardian UK)

“Exquisite….Brimming with innovation…”

(London Evening Standard)

On April 2^nd in Miami, Florida, Diana Krall kicked off the American leg of her current Glad Rag Doll world tour.  Glad Rag Doll (Verve), released October 2, 2012, marks Krall's fifth consecutive Top 10 debut  on the Billboard 200.

Happy to be back on US soil following rave reviews across Europe and Canada, Diana is now pleased to be adding still more US dates as she returns to Humphries in San Diego on September 20^th.  (see full list of added dates below). 

Krall will be accompanied onstage by Aram Bajakian (guitar), Dennis Crouch (bass), Stuart Duncan (fiddle/guitars), Karriem Riggins (drums) and Patrick Warren (keyboards)

‘Glad Rag Doll World Tour’  Fall 2013 U.S. Dates! 

Tickets on sale Saturday April 13^th at local box offices and www.dianakrall.com 

Tickets now on sale at www.dianakrall.com
‘Glad Rag Doll World Tour’ Eastern U.S. Dates (currently on tour)

I look forward to being back on tour very soon, we've been having a blast playing for you Canada!   

Diana

It was the night before Halloween and the lights dimmed at the Royal Albert Hall. Images of embers and apparitions, fit for the occasion, flickered on a giant screen behind the stage as the music began to play.
 
Suddenly, the actor Steve Buscemi makes his entrance on celluloid, delivering a newly recorded rendition of the recitation from "When The Curtain Comes Down," in the guise of a 1920s barker and song and dance man.
 
European concert goers have already enjoyed the beautifully conceived film, directed by Jo Andres, when it appeared as an overture to Diana Krall's recent performances.
 
Like many of the songs on her acclaimed album 'Glad Rag Doll,' Diana first encountered "When The Curtain Comes Down" among the treasures of the 78rpm record and sheet music collection of her father Jim.
 
Indeed, this song and the title track were originally to be found on either side of a 78rpm record by the bandleader Ted Lewis.
 
The opportunity for Krall to collaborate with her friends Jo Andres and Steve Buscemi has provided the ideal introduction to her new stage show.

Click here to watch "When The Curtain Comes Down" now!
 
Vintage photographs of Ziegfeld girls, projected artistic images - such as Jo Andres’ exquisite blue doll - and playful and poignant cinematic montages, all frame Diana and her ensemble in a unique theatrical setting.
 
Diana Krall's Canadian tour begins in her hometown of Nanaimo on February 3rd 2013. Tickets for Canada and her U.S. tour dates in the early Spring of 2013 are already on sale and can be purchased here. 

'Glad Rag Doll' is available now on Verve Records, click here for details.

» www.npr.org

The Strasbourg concert has been rescheduled to Thursday November 8th at the Palais Des Congres.

Please check back here, or with your local ticket outlet for information on a replacement ticket for the Strasbourg performance and a reschedule date for the Amsterdam concert.

» www.standard.co.uk

4/2/13 - Adrienne Arsht Center (Miami, FL)

4/17/13 - Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts (Worcester, MA)

Pre-sale tickets for these two shows above go on sale tomorrow, WEDNESDAY, 10/31/12 at 10am EST - local via http://dianakrall.artistarena.com

Please visit the Tour section for further information on the rest of Diana's Glad Rag Doll U.S. dates below (already on-sale to the public).

4/3/13 - Ruth Eckerd Hall (Clearwater, FL)

4/4/13 - Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall (Sarasota, FL)

4/6/13 - Durham Performing Arts Center (Durham, NC)

4/7/13 - Ovens Auditorium (Charlotte, NC)

4/9/13 - Heinz Hall (Pittsburgh, PA)

4/10/13 - Music Center at Strathmore (Bethesda, MD)

4/12/13 - New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark, NJ)

4/13/13 - Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa (Atlantic City, NJ)

4/14/13 - The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (Hartford, CT)

4/16/13 - Grand Opera House (Wilmington, DE)

4/19/13 - Beacon Theatre (New York, NY)

Diana Krall's 'Glad Rag Doll World Tour' is coming to the United States in support of her new album 'Glad Rag Doll'. The tour launches on April 2nd, 2013 in Miami, FL and will head northeast, hitting New York City on April 19th, 2013 (additional dates to be announced soon).

Early access to pre-sale tickets begins WEDNESDAY 10/17/12 for most dates on the tour.  Please see below for details on how to access the pre-sale in your city.

The presale for the following shows will be available WEDNESDAY, 10/17/12 at 10am - local market time at http://dianakrall.artistarena.com/

4/3/13 - Ruth Eckerd Hall (Clearwater, FL)

4/6/13 - Durham Performing Arts Center (Durham, NC)

4/7/13 - Ovens Auditorium (Charlotte, NC)

4/9/13 - Heinz Hall (Pittsburgh, PA)

4/10/13 - Music Center at Strathmore (Bethesda, MD)

4/13/13 - Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa (Atlantic City, NJ)

4/14/13 - The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (Hartford, CT)

4/16/13 - Grand Opera House (Wilmington, DE)

4/19/13 - Beacon Theatre (New York, NY)

 

The pre-sale for the following shows will be available WEDNESDAY, 10/31/12 at 10am - local market time at http://dianakrall.artistarena.com/

4/2/13 - Adrienne Arsht Center (Miami, FL)

4/17/13 - Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts (Worcester, MA)

 

The following shows are already up and on-sale, please visit the links below each date to purchase tickets now.

4/4/13 - Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall (Sarasota, FL) - Buy Tickets

4/12/13 - New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark, NJ) - Buy Tickets

Diana Krall’s interpretations of mid-century jazz standards have won her two Grammys and sold many millions of albums worldwide. For her new record — Glad Rag Doll — the singer and pianist mined the music of her childhood. Although she grew up in the 1970s, she was raised on her dad’s collection of 78 rpm records from 1920s and '30s.

Kurt Andersen discovers that Krall isn’t just a singer: she admits to being a mega music nerd ("this is like Nerd Alert times 5000"). As a teenager at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Krall made a pilgrimage to the archives of bandleader Paul Whiteman to see the original sheet music for Bill Challis’s arrangements of Bix Biderbeck tunes. Even now her idea of fun is sitting around with musicians trying to outdo each other with obscure tunes.

The ensemble features guitarist Marc Ribot and Krall’s husband Elvis Costello on ukulele; T Bone Burnett was the producer. Songs like “Glad Rag Doll” and “Let It Rain” are infused with Krall’s signature purr, giving the old tunes grit and soul. “I didn’t want to go in there and try to play the music like the 1920s,” she explains, “I wanted to play it the way they would have played it if they were here now.”

Read the interview on NPR 

Krista Smith: Ah, this is so exciting. So, what’s going on right now?

Diana Krall: I’ve got a new stage set. And then a new band. I’ve been in rehearsals all day long, nonstop. I got myself into a much more ambitious project than I ever imagined. It’s good, but it’s likewow, you know, I could use another three weeks.

This album seems exceptionally personal in a different kind of way. I was so moved when I saw the show. I loved the story—the fact that the conductor used to be your teacher, and how this album really came from your childhood.

I don’t think you realize until those shows that I had to learn the quote-unquote Great American Songbook—like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter—when I was in high school learning jazz standards. Before that I was listening to this music that was not from that group. A lot of them were just unknown, like songs sung by Annette Hanshaw. They were songs that were, I guess, closer to my heart and songs that I learned before the songbook stuff—the ones a lot of the repertoire bands sing now. It’s different.

I’ve been having this discussion a lot lately about how our generation is kind of the last generation that went through record players and the whole 70s age. That was public—family would all hear it. I look at my brother and my nieces and everyone has earphones on. We went from the record player, the family credenza, to a Walkman, and then a DVD or CD player, and then it goes on now with iPhones, etc.

Well, you can create that. I went home to visit my dad for one day. I just was by myself and what we did was, I sat on the couch in his living room and spent about six hours where we just hung out and played records. And he has the family credenza and the gramophone that you wind up. [In the show] I have footage that I’m using of family sing-a-longs. They were really poor—they’re coal miners—but they had a piano, so everybody played and I think my dad started taking some of the collection money on the way to church, and buying 78s. That music was what they listened to, and people came over because they couldn’t afford to go out. Everyone came to their house and brought bottles—whatever they had. I have tapes of it too, recordings of us all singing together. It’s really interesting to hear that big mass of people talking and singing and playing and going from one song to the next. That was the party. It’s like the green chip-and-dipper on the table. I can still see it. I miss that day. It was always kind of like that at my Nana’s house.

That organic, organic time.

My drummer that I’m working with—he’s so great, Jay Bellerose—he left rehearsal and he was carrying a suitcase, a small suitcase, and a huge messenger bag. And I said, “What’s that?,” and he said, “That’s my iPod.” And he’s carrying … He travels with a record player and a bag of vinyl.

Most kids are in their own world. Growing up, obviously you were somewhat a prodigy. I know you’re going to be uncomfortable with that word, but when did you decide that this was going to be your career?

Well, when I was 15, I went down to the local restaurant, which was owned by Roy Gilmore, a former NHL hockey referee. He had this restaurant called the NHL and it was all NHL-themed and the waiters all wore referee shirts. And they needed them, because the people in the bar needed calming down. They were really kind, and they hired me when I was 16. I was not even legal to be in there, because it was a restaurant with a liquor license, so it was like I could kind of play half in the bar, and half in the restaurant. I started playing there for extra money on the weekend—that was my job. Everybody was getting jobs at schools, so I guess it just started there and I just didn’t look back.

That’s just amazing. And this is your eleventh studio album, and you’ve won Grammy Awards and had a very big, great, amazing career. How did T Bone Burnett come to produce this album?

I started with the intention of doing a solo album and a solo tour. And then I started listening to it a little more and was like, Well, I don’t know. T Bone has been a friend for many years, and I thought maybe that’s too close—too risky because he’s such a good friend and he’s close to Elvis, and if we didn’t get along that would be upsetting. But I called him and he was really into it, and it was the best decision I could have ever made. I knew I wanted [guitarist] Marc Ribot, and I didn’t want it to be a jazz record at all. He suggested maybe having a jazz element to it. The first day we played “Ain’t No Sweet Man” and I heard Ribot playing that guitar and was like, Ohhh, this isn’t my dad’s 78 record collection and it’s not about my dad, it’s about how I’m hearing things and how I want to reimagine these songs so they don’t sound like period pieces.

It was totally modern to me. I mean, that’s what I love about it. I have it on loop in my car. I feel very connected to it and the amount of nostalgia.

Well thank you. I always look at things like there’s a certain amount of nostalgia in it for me because it’s coming from people like Annette Hanshaw and Gene Austin. But it’s not from Frank Sinatra. This one feels more vaudeville. Like a modern vaudeville thing, I guess.

When you start on the album, is there a story that you see cinematically that ends up being told with each album?

For sure. I was looking at all the pictures of the Ziegfeld Follies and [thinking about] how a lot of those girls perished, really. That’s why I didn’t want to just do this kind of flapper, get your ukulele thing, because there’s a darkness to it, a tragic element.

A working-mom-to-working-mom question: are you ever not in the mood to go and perform and make music?

This is the most intense, intense, intensely intense time I can remember in my life, creatively. And I said to Elvis today, “You know what, I’m going to have to stop.” Because I just get on a creative riff and just keep going and coming up with ideas and ideas and ideas. I just have to stop myself or else I’ll be the victim of my own overwhelming desire to be creative. I know, that sounds kind of dramatic. Right now, I’ve got too much stuff, so I sort of have to wheel back. And Elvis does the same thing. There has to be a point where you go, O.K., I’m going to be O.K. with this right now, and then I’m going to let it evolve.

I like my kids too, I want to follow them, I want to be right there. I love the movie I Don’t Know How She Does It so much because I’m an involved parent and I don’t want to tap my kids on the head and send them off. I need to show up, and I want to be there and I want to come home and read books even though I’m totally fried. That’s my safe, happy place, is my children.

Obviously the boys are surrounded by so much music—do you think that any of them will have the desire to do more?

I’m thinking about that, because I’m waiting for when they say, “I want to play this” or “I’d like to try this.” Right now we don’t even have a piano. We’ve moved houses, we’re in a temporary apartment.

How was the tribute for Neil Armstrong?

Oh, incredible. We all want to be astronauts or rock stars when we grow up, right? I mean, I always wanted to be an astronaut. My Confirmation day was spent building a rocket. I built it out of the kit and read Carrying the Fire. I had a chance to meet [Armstrong] and his family at the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing. And then I met a couple other guys, astronauts, I became really good friends with. And nerd alert: I went to the last shuttle launch in Cape Canaveral.

Your stories are so good. I just keep thinking about that story when you were a student and Sarah Vaughn came on, pulled up in her Pontiac and went on stage, did her whole thing…

She pulled in in a Mercedes and played at the Hollywood Bowl and walked out with her fishing cap on and her regular clothes, played, and got in her Mercedes and drove away. I was like, wow that’s the way to do it. And I was studying in L.A. then. I was exactly Kristen Wiig inBridesmaids. I had a Toyota Tercel, it was broken down and I would always have to go play those parties in the Sherwood Country Club, that’s where they filmed that movie. I would always pull up in my crap car and play my piano gig for the wedding or whatever I was playing reception. I did a lot of people watching at that time. When you’re playing solo piano in bars for hours on end, you have a lot of time to people watch.

Read the article on VanityFair.com here

Krall's marketing team is presenting Glad Rag Doll, a collaboration with producer and family friend T-Bone Burnett,as one of her most personal efforts. Songs were culled from her father's collection of 78 RPM discs and others she'd discovered in sheet music lying on her grandparents' piano bench. She's exploring the youthful fantasies she cultivated during late nights watching Carole Lombard movies on television: this dream of glamor is designed to free her from the one that's made her famous but also hemmed her in, which is more contemporary but also more dull, since it's founded in the idea that she makes sophisticated (read: not rock or pop) music. Eleven albums in, Krall is finally acknowledging her inarguable sex appeal through a cover shot that puts her in a modest version of America's eternally popular adult Halloween costume — a corset and stockings — and song selections that establish a mood of playfulness and heat. She had to go back to the dawn of popular music as we know it in order to do what Pink and Katy Perry do every day.

The quote from Krall's electronic press kit that's floating around has Burnett calling this "sex music," though what he said next — "this is swing music" — is equally important. Working with Burnett and the top-notch small band he's assembled, including guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Jay Bellerose, Krall successfully evokes a time when people assumed that, if music was playing, they'd be dancing in pairs, not just sitting and listening. The swing is the thing that wakes up listeners to sensual pleasure and romantic possibility.

Glad Rag Doll doesn't only cull from the roaring '20s, but it does sustain a mood reliant on the tensions that make music from that moment so fascinating. This gets back to that central idea of "the personal." In the Jazz Age, recording techniques were changing to accommodate the use of microphones in the studio, and singers began transitioning from vaudeville theatrics to a more conversational style. This shift, along with an increasing frankness about sexuality following the upheavals caused by rapid urbanization and the First World War, led songwriters to adopt a tone that was often quite racy, but also intimate in other ways, and that's what Krall uncovers in this set.

In his excellent book on New York nightlife in this period, The Scene of Harlem Cabaret, Shane Vogel describes what happened between performers and audiences in the tiny clubs of uptown New York as a form of "public intimacy": a contingent but powerful connection that, as Vogel writers, "brought bodies, sounds, and histories together in ways that disorganized and reorganized desires, selves, time, and space." Artists were articulating ways of being that were new or had been hidden, and in the close quarters of Connie's Inn and the Cotton Club, they could create the mood that got their messages across. The same thing was happening in different ways through mass media: in movies, now suddenly made "small" by sound (to quote Gloria Swanson's famous line from Sunset Boulevard) and in a recording process that could catch nuances the older acoustical approach missed.

Early versions of the songs Krall covers on Glad Rag Doll, by flapper-era favorites like Libby Holman, Annette Hanshaw and Ruth Etting, feature performances with one satin-clad foot in broad theatrical performance and one in the newer, more introspective style. (It's a little strange that she picked songs mostly made famous by white singers; the repertoire of blues queens fits in so well with her project. Maybe her grandma's collection was short on Ma Rainey or Bessie Smith?) Krall benefits the most, actually, from emulating the broader strokes of these singers. There's a vivacity to her singing and piano playing that's welcome after so many years of mellower material.

The other major touchstone is Bing Crosby, who pioneered and popularized microphone-centered crooning. Der Bingle recorded three of the thirteen songs Krall approaches here; listening to his versions of "Here Lies Love" or the larky "There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt of My Tears," in which he matches the ease of Bix Biederbecke's cornet playing with the kind of gentle confidence that Krall's been pursuing throughout her career. "The essence of his art was an illusion of naturalness that fails if people notice it," Robert Christgau once wrote of Crosby; that's a pretty good description of what people who love Krall appreciate.

Krall steps forward into rhythm and blues with two of Glad Rag Doll's most beguiling cuts: a Tom Waits-y take on Doc Pomus's 1956 classic "Lonely Avenue," and "A Little Mixed Up," a 1961 Chess Records rarity cowritten and performed by Betty James. These songs are musically characteristic of the later dates when they were composed, but their lyrics bare the same emotional concerns that crooners and Gaiety Girls expressed. The modern romance that pop promoted during and after the 1920s reflected ideals of individual fulfillment and emotional independence that the nascent science of psychology made fashionably. Women's increased financial independence and mobility made them bolder in their pursuit of happiness, and that's something that obviously interests Krall and Burnett. The very idea that women could have "personal" concerns extending beyond home and family was still fairly radical in the early 20^th century. The sexy sound Glad Rag Doll evokes is really the sound of women possessing themselves.

This project may, indeed, be personal for Krall; it's also well-timed to complement current trends. The Roaring decade tangos back into fashion every once in a while, and it's happening again, with Boardwalk Empire, Beck's sheet music project, and the lawn parties on New York's Governor's Island reviving interest in the era. I think the lure of the 1920s (really the whole period between the World Wars, but hey, fashionistas are rarely stickler historians) boils down to the fact that it's the first historical moment in which we recognize modernity. People have always thought of their time as the new time, whether they were rockin' in the Renaissance or venturing into outer space in the 1960s. The 1920s idea of what was fresh, however, had many parallels to our own. Diana Krall seems to get that, and that's what makes this vintage outing so right for right now.

Read the article on NPR.org here 

It turns out, however, that the shocking aspect of Glad Rag Doll is not so much the fact that a well-established, 47-year-old jazz star would pose in lingerie to sell her record, as the radical difference between this album and all her previous ones.

Whereas we're used to hearing Krall's sultry minimalist vocals backed by shimmering strings playing glossy bossa arrangements, her band here is very guitar-heavy, with a raunchy rock element to a couple of the tracks, and a country feel to others. And there's a looseness, a spontaneity, occasionally a homespun quality to this album that's new.

The content is not autobiographical (just as well, given the inclusion of the gloriously gloomy torch songs Here Lies Love and Lonely Avenue), but Glad Rag Doll may well be Krall's most personal album to date. Not only does it feature a string of slightly obscure songs she has lived with for most of her life, but it also includes a notable contribution from her husband, Elvis Costello, who plays ukelele, among other instruments, on the record, and can be heard on backing vocals too.

And furthermore, its producer – the man whose "voodoo magic is all over it," as Krall puts it – is close friend of the Krall-Costello family, T-Bone Burnett, whose musical knowledge straddles country, rock, bluegrass, folk and the "old-timey" music of one of the hit films he has worked on, the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Indeed, Burnett's influence is the key to trying to explain what sort of record this is: it is an album of many different flavours, the result of the collaboration of a number of artists – notably the guitarist Marc Ribot – who all draw on wide-ranging influences and move seamlessly between musical genres. Krall laughs at her own attempts to categorise it – "well, that only took five minutes!" – but settles on it being "something very unique ... It's like if you cast a movie with great actors who are all coming from different disciplines. They're all great and when they're all together, you get something unique. I think there's a Tom Waites quote: 'Once you figure out what it is, maybe people stop listening.'"

Part of the need to ask her about categorising it comes from her record company's press department insisting this is not a jazz album, that it's not being positioned as such. And yet, when I listen to it, I find there are plenty of delights for the fan of classic jazz, with some of the tracks bound to appeal to anyone who's enjoyed the music of Marty Grosz or Leon Redbone. "Who told you it was a move away from jazz?" asks Krall in disbelief. "Oh, boy," is her response when I tell her. "It's definitely rooted in jazz!"

When I first interviewed Krall, 14 years ago, we fell to chatting about Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio show and, listening to Glad Rag Doll, I'm struck by the front porch treatment of some of these lovely old pop songs and how they are exactly the kind of thing you might hear on Keillor's show.

"That is a compliment to me," she says. "A lot of that is from my mother. She loved that music, and I grew up listening to that radio show every weekend. And I also heard things that my dad played – he belonged to 78 record clubs in England. I grew up listening to everything from George Formby and Harry Lauder 78s to Supertramp and Elton John."

The album was born out of a desire to do something with the 1920s songs that Krall had fallen in love with as a girl. "Two years ago I recorded them in the studio by myself, with a view to putting out a solo record. I did a solo show at the Montreal Jazz Festival but then wasn't so sure I wanted to spend the next couple of years doing that.

"I decided I'd like to try something different, with a different producer (I've worked with Tommy LaPuma my whole career), and I decided that T-Bone would be the person who would know best what to do with the songs of the 1920s without making a nostalgic record, or a traditional record. I knew he would bring something unique to it with the artists that he chose.

"This is different than if you take the repertoire of someone like Duke Ellington or some of those early jazz recordings which you would want to recreate because they are as important as classical music; these songs have been re-imagined. It takes a lot of imagination to go from the original Let It Rain and make it into this Let It Rain.

"If you go on YouTube, which is the only place you'll find it, you'll hear Gene Austin singing it. It's someone's gramophone being filmed – you see the cat coming in and out! – and you would almost never guess that it was the same song. Therein lies the key of the creative click of the kaleidoscope.

"Someone described this as an album of covers, and that makes me cringe because the imagination required to take something that's just ukelele and corny piano and make it into a gospel tune is significant. I'm not saying the original recordings weren't good, but there was definitely more creative imagining involved in this than with the songs from the Great American Songbook that I've done."

Krall was clearly daunted by the different approach involved in working with Burnett. "We went into it without a lot of discussion," she says, laughing. "I gave T-Bone a CD of 35 songs, and when we went into the studio, I had no idea what we were going to do. The first one we tried was one I was comfortable with, There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears – I've known the Bix Beiderbecke and Bing Crosby version all my life – and I heard Ribot playing this sort of Howlin' Wolf thing and thought, 'Aaah, I see what we're doing...' I think that fear of the unknown, in the creative sense, is sometimes the best place to put yourself because that's when things happen naturally."

Krall may have had 35 songs ready to choose from but one of the stand-outs, A Little Mixed Up (an R'n'B tune recorded by Ray Charles), was sprung on her by Burnett at 10pm the night before she went into the studio and released her inner Elvis (Presley, that is). And the Buddy Miller ballad Wide River To Cross was one she suggested to the musicians and then recorded more or less on the spot.

As an old movie fan, Krall often describes things in film terms, and she says that what particularly appeals to her is "if I can find the short film in my head of what it's about". The filmic aspect really came into focus for her with the tender title track which is heavily associated with the legendary Ziegfeld Follies shows of the 1920s. Recorded by the torch singer and Ziegfeld star Ruth Etting, it tells it as it was for some of those chorus girls who "had a tough time and often died very young and tragically".

And it was the exquisite portraits of Ziegfeld girls (taken by their official photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston) in various states of arty undress that inspired the photo-shoot for Krall's album. The singer worked with the Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood on the look.

"Just as we didn't want to completely recreate the 1920s in the music, we didn't want to recreate the Cheney Johnston pictures. So the hair is more modern. It's like Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde – her hair was more 1960s than 1930s. I think mine here is like Sharon Stone in Casino meets the 1920s, which is fine. It gives it a rock'n'roll edge.

"The fact is: I'm playing a character. I'm not changing or reinventing myself. I'm not going to go on stage like this. It's the movie poster. People don't go to the premiere of Boardwalk Empire dressed in what they wore in the show. I feel like this is just a different movie for me."

Glad Rag Doll is released on Verve on October 15. Diana Krall performs at the Royal Albert Hall, London on October 30 and 31.

Read the article on HeraldScotland.com here 

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For the record, Diana Krall isn't wearing bordello lingerie on the cover of "Glad Rag Doll" (Verve), nor is the scanty attire a cheap trick to hawk her new album. "I was just playing dress-up to illustrate the album's title and 1920s theme," said the 47-year-old jazz-pop singer-pianist and mother of two. "There isn't even any cleavage—just a little more thigh. Look at Alfred Cheney Johnston's Ziegfeld Girls photos from the period. They're much more risqué."

On "Glad Rag Doll," due Oct. 2, the breathy-voiced two-time Grammy winner covers mostly jazz and vaudeville songs written between the two world wars. But the album's bluesy, Prohibition-era theme is a risky deviation for Ms. Krall, whose fans have grown accustomed to her humid renditions of American Songbook standards backed by lush orchestrations.

 

Mark Seliger

Diana Krall

"I'll be back to strings—this album is just something I wanted to do in addition to that," she said. "I'm not trying to reinvent myself here. The more different creative outlets I have, the more exciting recording is for me. This is the music I was first attracted to—before Louis Armstrong and Nat Cole."

Born in 1964, Ms. Krall grew up in British Columbia and today divides her time between Vancouver and New York with husband, Elvis Costello, and their children. As a preteen, Ms. Krall spent hours listening to her father's vast collection of 78-rpm records. Fascinated by the '20s and '30s, she traveled at age 16 to Williams College in Massachusetts to visit the archives of jazz-age band leader Paul Whiteman.

"It had nothing to do with Whiteman, though—I was intrigued by Bill Challis's complex arrangements for the band," she said. "When I saw the scores and harmonies he wrote and the parts for [cornetist] Bix Beiderbecke, I got chills."

In preparation for her new album, Ms. Krall selected 35 songs from her father's collection and gave sheet music to producer T Bone Burnett. "I had no idea which songs T Bone would choose until I arrived at the studio," she said. "We wanted the element of surprise and improvisation."

"We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye" and "Just Like a Butterfly (That's Caught in the Rain)" were inspired by the relaxed recordings of '20s singer Annette Hanshaw. There are nods to Bing Crosby, Gene Austin and Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards.

Breaking theme, Mr. Burnett suggested Betty James's 1961 rockabilly single "I'm a Little Mixed Up." "Playing rock 'n' roll piano on there was a challenge," Ms. Krall said. "It's not like jazz improvisation. It's all mood, guts and blood." Ms. Krall also took on Ray Charles's "Lonely Avenue" from 1956—with an arrangement that references Miles Davis's album "A Tribute to Jack Johnson." As for the title track, it was first recorded in 1928 by vaudeville clarinetist Ted Lewis—with lyrics she calls "a feminine statement, in a weird way."

What does Ms. Krall's father think of the album? "He likes it. Last week I was with him for four hours listening to stacks of old 78s. This album is who I am. It just took 40 years to make."

A version of this article appeared September 21, 2012, on page D5 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Diana Krall Sings With No Strings Attached.

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Best tribute ever? Diana Krall sings "Fly Me To The Moon" for Neil Armstrong 

Diana Krall sings Sinatra for the beloved American astronaut in a winning tribute performance.

By: Kristin Deasy

Diana Krall, way to pick the right song.

The jazz singer's performance of "Fly Me To The Moon" at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl Saturday night in honor of Neil Armstrong has impressed, with the Associated Press saying she really "knows how to pay tribute."

The legendary US astronaut, the first man to set foot on the moon, passed away on Saturday at the age of 82.

Armstrong, who was a pretty reserved dude, once had a glass of wine with Krall, the singer revealed, according to AP.

He must have dug her music.

But he probably didn't want to hear the old Sinatra tune for the millionth time, Krall said, a half-serious remark AP said was made as she stood "gazing toward the night sky."

All that was missing was a wink and she'd have followed the statement put out by the Armstrong family to the letter: "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink," they said.

Well, wink or no wink, Krall's was truly a tribute in tempo with the times.

Diana Krall's "Butterfly" is a new-fashioned 1927 song

Diana Krall is seated under low light at an 1890 Steinway upright that she doesn't even touch until halfway through the take.

The "Recording" sign goes on and she begins to sing the verse of "Just Like A Butterfly That’s Caught In The Rain," accompanied only by Bryan Sutton's Maccaferri guitar. The band commences to play with an effortless tread, while with lovely melancholy, Krall sings…

"I know that all of the world is cheery by that old cottage door

Why are my wings so weary?

I can't fly anymore"

It is one of the most beautifully realized performances from Diana Krall's extraordinary new record, 'Glad Rag Doll' – out October 2^nd on Verve.

The song, written in the late 1920s and recorded originally by Annette Hanshaw in 1927, is among many on the album that were first recorded in the 1920s and 1930s.

Speaking of hearing Hanshaw while growing up in a household filled with 78rpm records, Krall said, "I just love the way she sang, always have. I knew Annette Hanshaw as well as any other singer before I discovered Carmen McRae and Ernestine Anderson."

Producer T Bone Burnett, spoke of the process of making these older songs vivid for the present time…

"We try to imagine ourselves sitting in the room with the person. What did it actually sound like when Annette Hanshaw or Lee Morse was singing and playing? It sounded exactly the same way as when you sing and play today.

Whatever the time and place, Krall says of "Just Like Butterfly", "I think that's my favorite but I don't have try to sound like them. It's more the story I'm trying to tell"

Then she added with a smile, "You know, it says "lonely" twice in "Just Like a Butterfly That's Caught In The Rain." The refrain is "Here I am lonely, tired and lonely."  Okay, I'm lonely already. We get the point."

Diana Krall has collaborated with Academy Award winning costume designer, Colleen Atwood and acclaimed photographer, Mark Seliger to create a series of beautiful and striking images for Krall’s new album, “Glad Rag Doll”. They are inspired by Alfred Cheney Johnston’s pictures of the girls of the Ziegfeld Follies taken during the 1920s.

Said Krall, “If there was an era to which I could choose to go back in time, it would be the 1920s, just because of the whole wildness of it all.”

Speaking of her collaborators, Diana said, “I had admired Colleen’s work in “Chicago” and “Edward Scissorhands” and worked with her for both my appearance in the Johnny Depp movie about John Dillinger, “Public Enemies” and on Tony Bennett’s 80^th birthday television spectacular. Colleen understood exactly what I was trying to achieve with the choice of costume.” 

The cover image of the album, “Glad Rag Doll” – out October 2^nd on Verve – was shot by Mark Seliger, who also photographed Diana for her 2004 album “The Girl In The Other Room”.

Said Krall, “Mark is someone I admire and trust completely in creating something that I have had in my
head for years; photographs that echo images of the Ziegfeld Girls, as well as making reference to photographs from the late 1970s.”

Seliger has shot countless remarkable cover images for Vanity Fair, GQ and Rolling Stone. The most recent collection of his work, “Listen” was published in October of 2010.  

Although many of the songs on “Glad Rag Doll” were also written and first performed in the 1920s and ‘30s, Krall says, “There was never any thought of simply recreating what was already done in the past.”

Read more about Alfred Cheney Johnston and his work here:

http://alfredcheneyjohnston.com/blog/acj-bio/

http://ruthetting.com/alfred-cheney-johnston/

Learn about Mark Seliger’s “Capture”: Episode 1 –

http://youtu.be/zfmifVKpat8

Trailer - www.youtube.com/ReserveChannel


"Glad Rag Doll" is now available for pre-order in the U.S. at Amazon.  

It was just like any other night; pulling 78rpm records from a big stack in the den or playing half-remembered melodies from song folios piled up by the piano.
 
“I thought everybody knew about these things,” said Diana Krall speaking of listening again to the marvelous, mischievous records that her Dad had collected during her childhood.
 
"Now I’m all grown up, I think I just wanted to live out one of the Carole Lombard characters that I saw on late-night pictures but with the music from the “Ziegfeld Follies."" 

"It’s 1920's music for the 21st Century”. 
 
It's precisely those records and visual images that inspired “Glad Rag Doll” - out October 2 on Verve - Krall's first collaboration with producer T-Bone Burnett. 

"She was just possessed" said Burnett. "People might say this is all about old-fashioned music but it's very, very new-fashioned music."

Diana reworks Fred Fisher's "There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt of My Tears" with Marc Ribot, T-Bone Burnett, Jay Bellerose, Dennis Crouch, Colin Linden, and Keefus Ciancia.

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—   Latest From Emmy Award-Nominated “In Performance at the White House” Series Features Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Mike Myers and More, Airing May 21—

WASHINGTON, D.C.— “Burt Bacharach & Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House” is a PBS music special in the East Room of the White House.  President and Mrs. Obama will host the concert event on May 9 in honor of songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s receipt of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.  The evening will include performances by Sheryl Crow, Michael Feinstein, Diana Krall, Lyle Lovett, Mike Myers, Rumer, Arturo Sandoval, Sheléa and Stevie Wonder.  (Program subject to change.)  President Obama will present the Gershwin Prize for Bacharach and David during the event.  The sixty-minute television special is part of the Emmy Award-nominated PBS “In Performance at the White House” series — made possible by major grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS.  The program will premiere Monday, May 21 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings).  The program will also be broadcast at a later date via the American Forces Network to American service men and women and civilians at U.S. Department of Defense locations around the world.

This event, including the President’s remarks, will be available for press via the White House Press Corps pool feed and streamed on www.whitehouse.gov and www.pbs.org/whitehouse.

“WETA is proud to bring this concert to the American people in collaboration with the White House and the Library of Congress,” noted Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA.  “This event marks the forty-ninth production of the WETA ‘In Performance at the White House’ series and it is our continuing honor to share these special musical events with the wide public television viewing audience.”

“The music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David became part of the soundtrack of our lives and has inspired the work of a new generation of songwriters and musicians,” said Paula A. Kerger, president and CEO of PBS.  “This broadcast reflects PBS’s commitment to bringing the very best of the performing arts to the largest stage, ensuring that every American has access to this great work, while documenting the contributions of extraordinary talent who continue to influence music today.” 

“Since the inception of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, PBS has brought this celebration of creativity directly and more broadly to the American people,” commented Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress.  “The success of the inspired genius of Burt Bacharach and Hal David has without question produced one of the richest and most recognizable multi-generational playlists known to the world.  We’re pleased that people everywhere will be able to join in the recognition of these great artists.”

“Public media informs, educates, inspires and entertains,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, a project funder.  “We are proud to support the ‘In Performance at the White House’ series and celebrate the contributions of Burt Bacharach and Hal David to our country’s musical heritage.”  

The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin.  This award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture.  The prize is given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins.  The first Gershwin Prize was awarded to Paul Simon in May 2007, the second to Stevie Wonder in February 2009, and the third to Sir Paul McCartney in June 2010.

This will be the first time the Gershwin Prize honor has been awarded to a songwriting team.  Like the legendary siblings for whom the Gershwin Prize is named, Bacharach and David are a pianist and lyricist respectively.  The GRAMMY- and Academy Award-winning pair have collaborated for more than a half-century, creating such beloved songs as “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” “What the World Needs Now is Love,” “Walk on By” and “Alfie.”  David, 90, and Bacharach, 83, first began collaborating in the 1950s at the Famous Paramount Music Co. inNew York City. Since their first hit together, “The Story of My Life” in 1957, both David and Bacharach have been nominated and honored with every major award bestowed by the music industry. Today, their songs continue to be recorded by such artists as Diana Krall, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Cyndi Lauper, and the cast of the television show “Glee.”

Bacharach, born inMissouriand raised inNew York, has been for six decades one of the most honored and successful composers of our time.  His music continues to set industry records and creative standards. A recipient of three Academy Awards and eight GRAMMY Awards, including the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award and 1997 Trustees Award with collaborator Hal David, Bacharach revolutionized the music of the 1950s and ‘60s. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is the recipient of other tributes received from top music industry institutions to governments, universities and charitable and philanthropic groups.  From helping charitable organizations raise funds, to Broadway, movies and scores of new recordings of his songs each year, Bacharach’s music is always nearby.

David, a native New Yorker, elevates the common pop song to fine art, showing sophistication and maturity in his lyrics. As an Academy Award-winning lyricist with 40 Top Ten songs, David has been honored for his way with words with every major award bestowed by the music industry, including numerous GRAMMY Awards, the NARM Presidential Award, and the B’Nai B’rith Creative Achievement Award.  He has been elected to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, has received its coveted Johnny Mercer Award, and is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.  David was awarded the prestigious GRAMMY Trustees Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and was also the first non-British person to receive the esteemed Ivor Novello Award from the British Performing Rights Society.

“Burt Bacharach & Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House” will be the ninth “In Performance at the White House” program during President Barack Obama’s administration.  Spanning from February 2009 to the most recent broadcast in February 2012, these latest “In Performance at the White House” events have honored the musical genius of Stevie Wonder and Sir Paul McCartney; celebrated Hispanic musical heritage during Hispanic Heritage Month; marked Black History Month with events featuring the music from the Civil Rights Movement, Motown, and the Blues; explored the rich history of the uniquely American musical form of Country music; and spotlighted Broadway and the exceptional spirit of the American musical.  The star-studded line-ups have included Marc Anthony, Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Jamie Foxx, José Feliciano, Dave Grohl, Herbie Hancock, Faith Hill, Jennifer Hudson, Mick Jagger, Alsion Krauss, B.B. King,Nathan Lane, John Legend, Eva Longoria, Lyle Lovett, Audra McDonald, Idina Menzel, Smokey Robinson, Seal, Jerry Seinfeld, Esperanza Spalding, Elaine Stritch, James Taylor, and Jack White.

“In Performance at the White House” has been produced by WETA since 1978 and spans every administration since that of President Carter.  The series began with an East Room recital by the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz.  Since then, “In Performance at the White House” has embraced virtually every genre of American performance: pop, country, gospel, jazz, latin, blues, theatre and dance among them.  The series was created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the setting of the nation’s most famous home.  Past programs have showcased such talent as cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, dancer/choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov, popular music singers Linda Ronstadt and Alison Krauss, jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, the United States Marine Band, soul and jazz singers Natalie Cole and Aretha Franklin, leading Broadway performers, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

“Burt Bacharach & Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House” is a production of WETA Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, Cappy Productions, Mark Krantz Productions and CoMedia.  The “In Performance at the White House” series was created by WETA Washington, D.C.  The creators of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song are Bob Kaminsky, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Krantz, Cappy McGarr, Dalton Delan, and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.  The executive producers of “Burt Bacharach & Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House” are Bob Kaminsky, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Krantz and Cappy McGarr; WETA executive producers are Dalton Delan and David S. Thompson.  The program producers are Eileen Bernstein and Allen Kelman.  The program director is Linda Mendoza.  The music producer is Phil Ramone.  The music director is Robert Mounsey.  The series producer is Jackson Frost.  Corporate funding for the program is provided by Sprint Nextel Corporation and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).  Foundation support is provided by the Anne Ray Charitable Trust, The Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Philanthropic Fund and The Annenberg Foundation.  Individual support is from Cari and Michael J. Sacks.  Major funding is also provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and public television viewers.  Air travel is generously provided by American Airlines.

For more information about “Burt Bacharach & Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House,” visit www.pbs.org/whitehouse.  An electronic press kit, including downloadable talent photos for promotional use, is available at pressroom.pbs.org.  To follow “In Performance at the White House” on Twitter, use hashtag #PBSipwh.

WETA Washington, D.C., is the third-largest producing station for public television.  WETA’s other productions and co-productions include “PBS NewsHour,” “Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal,” “The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize” and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including the premiere November 18 and 19 of “The Dust Bowl.”  More information on WETA and its programs and services is available at www.weta.org.

The Library of Congress sponsors privately endowed programs that honor achievement in the humanities and creativity.  Through these awards and prizes, the world’s greatest repository of human creativity honors those who have advanced and embodied the ideals of individual creativity, conviction, dedication, scholarship and exuberance.  More information is available at www.loc.gov.

PBS, with its 356 member stations, offers all Americans — from every walk of life — the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content.  Each month, PBS reaches more than 123 million people through television and more than 21 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; hear diverse viewpoints; and take front row seats to world-class drama and performances.  PBS’ broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions.  Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life.  PBS’ premier children’s TV programming and Web site, pbskids.org, are parents’ and teachers’ most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children.  More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,300 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services.  More information is available at www.cpb.org.

Diana Krall, the multi-platinum, GRAMMY^®-winning musician with an unprecedented nine #1 Billboard Jazz chart debuts, will begin her biggest year of touring since 2009 on March 22. After multiple appearances during GRAMMY^® week in Los Angeles, Krall is announcing nearly 20 additional dates on her 40-city, 2012  “SUMMER NIGHTS” tour, taking place across the U.S. this spring and summer.

Krall will be joined on tour by Anthony Wilson (guitar), Robert Hurst (bass), and Karriem Riggins (drums).

 Since her GRAMMY^®--winning tenth studio album Quiet Nights (Verve) was released in 2009, Krall has performed on four different continents, produced Barbra Streisand’s “Love Is the Answer,” contributed “Simple Twist of Fate” to the charity album Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International and performed on Paul McCartney’s new album, Kisses On The Bottom.

For all US dates and to purchase tickets check out the "TOUR" section on the site or www.dianakrall.com/tour.  

          

First, Diana Krall joins Paul McCartney who will commemorate the release of his new album Kisses On The Bottom with a once in a lifetime streaming performance taking place live at 7:00 p.m. PST Thursday, February 9, from the famed Capitol Studios where much of the new album was created. Diana Krall, Joe Walsh (guitar), John Clayton (bass), Karriem Riggins (drums),  John Pizzarelli (guitar) , Michael Mainieri  (vibraphone), Anthony Wilson (guitar) and Alan Broadbent  (conductor/arranger)  will back Paul McCartney for the Capitol live stream event.  The album was produced by Tommy LiPuma and features Diana Krall and the musicians above, minus Joe Walsh.

On February 10, Diana Krall performs three songs at one of the most prestigious events held during Grammy^® week, the MusiCares^® Person of the Year tribute which will celebrate Paul McCartney’s artistic achievements and philanthropic work. 

As the finale for Grammy^® week, Diana Krall has been invited to perform at the 54th Annual GRAMMY^® Awards which will take place live on Sunday, Feb. 12 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m. ET/PT.

The celebrated musician, Krall, has not stopped since the release of her 2009 Grammy-winning, platinum album Quiet Nights.  She has been travelling the globe, touring in Canada, Europe, UK, USA, Russia, Australia, South America and the Middle East, performing on almost every continent. 

In addition to her touring and appearance schedule, the acclaimed musician took a short break to produce her first record for another artist, Barbra Streisand's Love Is The Answer, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart upon its release.

Never slowing down, Diana Krall contributed a track “Simple Twist of Fate” for the Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International released last month.

And Diana Krall has much more already planned for 2012, more details to be announced soon. 

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Show Cancellation

Diana Krall at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino

Chicago, IL (August 23, 2011) – The Horseshoe Casino announced today that due to scheduling conflicts, Diana Krall will not be performing at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino on Thursday, September 15.

Ticket refunds can be obtained at the point of purchase.

ABOUT CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT CORPORATION

Caesars Entertainment Corporation is the world's largest casino entertainment company. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada, more than 70 years ago, Caesars has grown through development of new resorts, expansions and acquisitions, and now operates casinos on four continents. The company's resorts operate primarily under the Harrah's®, Caesars® and Horseshoe® brand names. Caesars also owns the World Series of Poker® and the London Clubs International family of casinos. Caesars Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its guests through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. Caesars is committed to environmental sustainability and energy conservation and recognizes the importance of being a responsible steward of the environment. For more information, please visit www.caesars.com.

ABOUT HORSESHOE CASINO

The all new $500 million Horseshoe Casino, a Caesars Entertainment Corporation, just 20 minutes from downtown Chicago is the premier entertainment and gambling destination in Chicagoland. Where legendary gaming lives on, Horseshoe boasts more than 350,000 square feet with over 3,000 slot machines, over 100 table games, one of the largest poker rooms in the Midwest, and more. The Venue at Horseshoe Casino is proud to offer the ultimate concert and entertainment destination and premier experience in a flexible space that can hold up to 3,300 guests. Dining elegance is not overlooked and guests can choose from a variety of dining options including; Jack Binion's Steak House which overlooks Lake Michigan and recent winner of the 2009 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, around-the-globe variety at the Village Square Buffet, and a taste of Chicago at Benny's Pub and Eatery.

For more information, please visit: www.chicagohorseshoe.com.

Must be 21 years or older to gamble or attend events at The Venue. Know When To Stop Before You Start^® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-9WITH-IT © 2011 Caesars License Company, LLC.

Horseshoe Media Contact:

Victoria Kent, XA, The Experiential Agency, 312-239-2358, victoria@expagency.com

James Sims III, XA, The Experiential Agency, 312-239-2356, james@expagency.com

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