Jazz in B.C. is flourishing, and two performances at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival's opening gala on Friday (June 24) boldly underlined its strength. Brad Turner-recently voted musician of the year at the National Jazz Awards-treated the audience to a wonderfully articulate and inventive set of his piano compositions. Opening for Diana Krall, the multi-instrumentalist and his trio played with elegance, fluidity, and bursts of fire. Turner's fingerwork on the uptempo "Question the Answer", from his recent album of the same name, bubbled with imagination. Later on, Krall confided "I'm shy; it's hard to play in your hometown". If so, the singer and pianist hid it well. Dressed in jeans and a short white jacket, she looked and sounded very relaxed, and the performance of jazz standards and Krall's own numbers brimmed with warmth. She lamented the absence of husband Elvis Costello, who, she said, "was deep in the mud at Glastonbury". He felt very present nonetheless. Krall's singing on their cowrites, including her solo encore, "Departure Bay", had an extra dimension of intimacy.