OTTAWA - It was a relaxed and wise-cracking Diana Krall who entertained a capacity crowd of more than 5,000 at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival in Confederation Park last night.

At one point early in her show, the Vancouver-born pianist raised her hand and asked if anyone in the audience had a Band-Aid. Jumping up from her piano seat and running up to retrieve it, she laughed to herself.

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me," she said. "So Canadian."

Musically, Krall, who can tend to be awkward and stilted on stage, was reliable magic, if somewhat subdued and entirely low-key. Perhaps when she joked she and her band have been on tour since 1963, that they were actually on the legendary cross-Canada Festival Express, she really meant they're just a little tired.

Krall and quartet clearly came to perform and when they did it together they were in perfect sync.

Then there were the lengthy and generous solos, with guitarist Anthony Wilson showing his stuff on Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Bassist Robert Hurst shone repeatedly.

Krall was best during the haunting title track to her 2004 album The Girl in The Other Room, a tune she wrote with her husband Elvis Costello and "he wrote with his wife."

The highlight, for me, was when Krall played the Louie Armstrong-inspired Janis Joplin tune Little Girl Blue. It was the perfect sort of song for her, for the night, her silky voice weaving gently between her piano's notes. It also gave Hurst several moments to shine.

She cracked wise in between tunes from throughout her career, like the snazzy, "shoo-be-dooby" Deed I Do and the show opener, the tender I Like Being Here With You.

But Krall also had a tendency to resort to an irritating, barely audible mumble between songs.

She went casual for the night, eschewing her little black dress for a summer blouse and rolled up jeans.

Joking about her appearance, she cautioned the crowd when they jeered a set of photographers being led away after the first two songs.

"Be nice to them," she cautioned. "They can make you look like this (she smiled) or like that (contorted her face)."

At one point, Krall mock-ruminated about "enchanted nights" and "motorcycles," referring to a nearby two-wheeled vehicle she'd had to spar with vocally moments before.

"I love to play outside," she said. "I only want to play outside. Well, kinda."