Grammy award-winning jazz artist Diana Krall has set a Sept. 18 release date for her first career retrospective, "The Very Best of Diana Krall," which will be issued by Verve Records.

The album culls 15 tracks from her previous 11 albums, as well as 3 previously unreleased covers: Tom Waits' "The Heart of Saturday Night," Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn's "Only the Lonely" and American songbook classic "You Go to My Head."

As previously reported, Krall is currently on the opening leg of a summer-long tour with Chris Botti.

-- Taylor Grimes, N.Y.

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Singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco will embark on a seven-city U.S. tour starting July 11 in San Diego, Calif., backed by bassist Todd Sickafoose and drummer Allison Miller. All tour dates are listed on Difranco's Web site; tickets for most shows are currently on sale.

The tour comes in support of "Canon," Difranco's first career retrospective release due Sept. 11 via her own Righteous Babe Records. As previously reported, the double-disc, 35-song set will include new renditions of "Napoleon," "Shameless," "Your Next Bold Move," "Both Hands" and "Overlap."

In addition, Seven Stories Publishing will release "Verses," DiFranco's first ever book of poetry and paintings, in November.

-- Mariel Concepcion, N.Y.