"It's not coy. It's not 'peel me a grape,' little girl stuff. I feel this album's very womanly � like you're lying next to your lover in bed whispering this in their ear."

She's not kidding. From Krall's refreshing version of "Where or When," to an utterly soul-stilling rendition of "You're My Thrill," the ten songs on Quiet Nights are disarming in their intimacy. Even those already familiar with the breathy vocals and rhythmic lilt in Krall's music � and now there are millions � will be taken aback by just how far the music pushes, unabashedly, into the realm of sweet surrender. "It's a sensual, downright erotic record and it's intended to be that way."

Krall is the first to credit the musical team she assembled � her loyal quartet, ace producer Tommy LiPuma, engineer Al Schmitt plus legendary arranger Claus Ogerman � for much of the seductive power on Quiet Nights. But there's a deeper, palpable sense of maturity that she brought to the recording as well. "Most of my singing and playing on the album is really just first or second takes. 'You're My Thrill,' was a second take � "Too Marvelous," first take."

"She's completely matured," says Tommy LiPuma, who should know, having first worked with Krall in 1994. "Even in the past few years. She approaches her vocal phrasing much more like an instrumentalist than a straight singer. It's in her reading of the lyrics, and the timbre of her voice, much more misty like Peggy Lee in her mature period." ("I didn't want to over sing -- I was drawing also from Julie London very strongly on this album," Krall confesses, noting that such influences are not always conscious on her part. "It just came out that way.")

As such, the Brazilian focus of Krall's new album could not have been a more natural next step. "She's been very sympathetic to this music for a long time," notes LiPuma. "When we did The Look of Love, we were very much leaning in the bossa nova direction. Quiet Nights is really a celebration of this music. Diana sings three Brazilian classics, she rhythmically turned four standards into that style, and three ballads. So really there are ten songs on the album of which seven are just straight up bossa novas."