Diana Krall: If I Had You

Diana Krall lets Benny Green take over the keyboard for this performance, and they send the rest of the rhythm section packing. Although this song is the closing track on a Nat King Cole tribute album, Green oddly decides to adopt a piano style from a generation before Cole, a four-to-the-bar stride that could have served as the first dance at your grandpa's wedding. But Green is such a stylish accompanist that your ear ignores the anachronisms, and focuses instead on the beauty of this intimate duet. Krall is always perfectly at home at these snail's-pace tempos, and she squeezes every last ounce of emotion out of these lyrics -- especially during the rubato interlude before the final coda. There is a little more soul than Cole in her delivery, but the finest tribute is sometimes putting your own spin on the traditions you inherit.