Grade: B+ | Genre: Holday/Vocal Jazz Summary: Diana Krall fulfills her tremendous promise that jazz aficionados have sensed was simmering in her for many moons. She's given us reason to get giddy about Christmas music again. It was the week before Thanksgiving, and I was at the local outlet mall looking to beat the Christmas shopping madness. Though I managed to escape the feeding frenzy, there is no escaping the Christmas music. They already had it going strong in every store I ducked into as if there were hypnotic suggestions woven into the lyrics to assist us in loosening our wallets. Now I don't have a problem with Christmas music on the whole. Nat King Cole, Harry Connick, Alvin & the Chipmunks are artists clearly meant to accent the season. My issue is that you have a couple hundred songs getting played over and over and over again like some demented Santa's top 40. I still wake up in cold sweats trying to escape the hour loop of modern Christmas tunes, needled into me from doing an ill-advised stint at the GAP one holiday season. So though Christmas music should be avoided like the plague, there are a handful of "must have" disks to tone down the chaos of family dinners, serenade present opening, or perhaps be the seduction mix of your role-playing as Santa and the bad elf.

Welcome Diana Krall to this mix. The smoothest voice in jazz hasn't been a complete stranger to the holiday verse, releasing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Jingle Bells" for past compilations. These merely hinted at what was to come from this entrancing songbird. Diana Krall takes on the classics with Christmas Songs. It's a set that dances between the joyously upbeat ("Frosty the Snowman") and songs of quiet contemplation ("Christmas Time is Here"). It seems to capture the ebb and flow of the season, wrapped in its tempo changes.

The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra accompanies her, and man... do they come to play. They add the kick and charisma to gas up these tunes. Just as importantly, they know their place -- backing Diana. Other Christmas albums just completely forget to grab hold of the reins, and the big band just somersaults out of control, bleeding over everything. Connick's When My Heart Finds Christmas seems to come to mind.

Krall has selected a classic set that include all our sentimental favorites without getting a wild hair to take chances with the material. It's Christmas. We want those familiar favorites we sang carols to as children and listened to those nights when Christmas Eve grew old. Whether its "The Christmas Song" or "I'll Be There for Christmas," Diana captures all the magic of a child breathlessly waiting for Santa and a family setting aside their differences and bridging the miles that separate them, to come together as one.

The only casualties of this collection await us in the disk's closing moments. "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" are fair tracks, buoyed by Diana's effervescent vocal glow. They don't necessarily detract from this collection, but sit as fat on the Butterball turkey that could have been trimmed. Her two shining moments are "Christmas Time is Here" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." "Christmas Time," or the Charlie Brown Song as it tends to be informally known, is quiet and poignant. It just seems to whisper to the night's sky to loose its grip on the powdered snow while the fire rages from the hearth. It comes draped in that blanket of warm fuzzy feelings. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" starts out so intimate, Diana tiptoeing in with the piano. Then the band nuzzles up beside her, dressing her heartfelt plea. It's a beautiful piece.

Diana Krall fulfills her tremendous promise that jazz aficionados have sensed was simmering in her for many moons. She's given us reason to get giddy about Christmas music again, which is a pretty tall order. Finally, Wham's "Last Christmas" will have new friends to play with. Now if we could just get the disturbing image of her making out with mismatch extraordinaire, Elvis Costello, under the mistletoe, we'd really be doing well.

Release Date: November 1, 2005