"It feels like home when I'm here," she said, and that sense of affability and ease infused everything from her fleet-fingered piano playing and classy phrasing to a spot-on, standards-saturated set .
Krall is a self-assured band leader, and her nimble trio -- guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist John Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton -- followed her clean, uncluttered lead. "You Call It Madness," one of several tributes to Cole, was pared down to a muted, breathless elegy. The Gershwins' evergreen "S'Wonderful" swung so slow and sweet several couples couldn't resist falling into swaying embraces.
Krall, a seriously unassuming performer, cracked a rare smile when she messed up her solo during an effervescent read of " 'Deed I Do," and again while apologizing for her shapeless tunic. "They said the weight would come right off during breast-feeding. That's [expletive]," explained Krall, the mother of 7-month-old twins with husband Elvis Costello.
Motherhood also seems to have endowed Krall with extra weight of a more welcome sort. We felt it when she sang Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" in husky, bitter tones, and during a surprising, show-closing cover of the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" In stripping the song of its anguished melodrama, Krall discovered its desolate soul.
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com. For more on music visit boston.com/ae/ music/blog.
