With a busy 36-city U.S. tour on the horizon, Diana Krall [ tickets ] shows no signs of slowing down. Her most recent release, "The Look of Love" (Verve) is Billboard�s No. 1. Jazz Album, and sits at No. 74 on the magazine�s overall album chart.

Produced by Tommy LiPuma, the record finds Krall collaborating with arranger-conductor Claus Ogerman, the London Symphony Orchestra, and a host of seasoned jazz veterans like guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Christian McBride, ex-Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine, and legendary percussionists Luis Conte and Paulinho Da Costa.

Krall first took up piano at age four in her native Nainamo, British Columbia. By age 15, she was playing standards for local weekend crowds. A two-year stint at Boston�s Berklee College of Music preceded a move to Los Angeles, where she befriended Hollywood Bowl musical director John Clayton, bassist Ray Brown, and the late Jimmy Rowles.

Since then, she has released one album ("Only Trust Your Heart") on the GRP label and three Impulse records, including "When I Look in Your Eyes," which in 1999 was the first jazz album in 25 years to be nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy. Her music has also been featured on HBO�s "Sex and the City," and in films such as "The Score," "Autumn in New York" and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

Krall took a few minutes to talk about making "The Look of Love."

LiveDaily: After the success of "When I Look in Your Eyes" and "All for You," did you feel pressure to repeat or top the success?

It�s interesting to me when people say, "You�ve had a great career, a platinum album, a Grammy award." To tell you the truth--I don�t forget those things, those things were very big moments in my life--but in the big picture, I see that everybody wants the same thing. For me, it�s to be able to do what I want, to make an honest record, to do what I do with integrity. It�s like, "Wow, we made a record because we wanted to make beautiful music, and it went platinum." So, no, I didn�t feel pressure to top the last album. I wanted to make a balanced record, artistically the best I could do for this time in my life.

How did the record start coming together?

A: Tommy [LiPuma] and I chose 23 tunes that I put down in the studio, just piano and voice. I think we recorded 15 songs, which were primarily exceptional ballads that Claus [Ogerman] wrote arrangements to. Claus and I worked together for a week before we recorded in January of 2001. We all decided that London would be an ideal place to record, because Claus is very comfortable with the London Symphony Orchestra--and he should be, they�re spectacular.

And you did the London Symphony Orchestra sessions at Abbey Road.

Every day, walking into that studio, was ... whoa. Just because of the history. You walk in, you know, it�s the same room the Beatles recorded in.

You�ve done quite a few records with LiPuma. What�s the connection?

Tommy is so into the music, so emotionally connected with it, it�s fun to watch him. In a playback in London, he would take out his hankie and just wipe his eyes and go, "This just kills me every time." It floors me that he has that reaction consistently after he hears the same song over and over again. I always say Tommy and I have a great love affair going on because it�s an affair of music and of having the same emotional connection with things.

You picked some really deep material. "Cry Me a River" and "Dancing in the Dark."

"Cry Me a River" was a suggestion of Tommy�s. I�m a huge fan of Julie London, and I�ve always liked it. I�d been thinking about doing "Dancing in the Dark" for a long time. When I mentioned it to Claus, he was immediately excited about it. He wrote an incredible arrangement.

What about "Love Letters?"

"Love Letters" is very special to me. Claus and I didn�t have to talk about it very much. I played the verse for Claus, and he wrote the most beautiful orchestral [accompaniment], and then he said that it was like a children�s song--and that�s exactly what I was thinking. It was strange.

What makes you gravitate to certain songs?

I�ve always just chosen songs that I like--lyrically, harmonically, melodically. Songs that I could find a story in. It�s a very emotional place. My job is to make people feel something, and to have them find their own stories. It�s not for me to tell them what the story is about. I�m going to tell it, and you can interpret it any way you want.

You talk a lot about emotion, things that move you.

Our job primarily is to move people. The reason I got into jazz is because ... it�s for the feel of it. When I first heard Oscar Peterson on "Night Train," I didn�t know what hit me. That feel. I would listen to the record, and put the needle back down again and again, and it still excites me to this day, to even think of that feel. I�m really lucky that I can work with people who understand that.