Norah Jones

[Scott Dolan]

That's definitely a highlight from that album, Jim.

As I said, I have always found it to be an enjoyable listen. My wife had the CD in her car player for about a solid year. The title track is one of my go to tracks when auditioning equipment.

[CraigP]

Haven't cared about her for a very, very long time now, but the lady has mad skills, and Puss n’ Boots, that's like hey, you think you gonna own this Puss, nah, WE own this Puss, so everything else starts from that, now, what were you saying?

You're one of a kind, Jim!

[paul secor]

This is what she was doing in local clubs when she was signed by Blue Note.

Whether or not it's "true jazz" or "right phrasing" or not, hell if I know. In hindsight, there's a lot of other things going on up in there if you're not listening with jazztunnelvisioned ears (which Lundvall obviously wasn't, not sure about most others) But this is what got their attention, her doing this like this.

I think that Lundvall was looking more than he was listening. But that paid off in $$$$.

[AllenLowe]

yeah, I find that version of Nearness of You kinda.... repulsive, hate to say. She has a lovely and pure voice for more folk-oriented things and country, but the jazz things like the above just sound to me like junior miss jazz. And she has that amateur tendency to think that nasality makes it funky.

and no, I wouldn't compare her off-phrasing to Monks; different world.

Edited August 1, 2014 by AllenLowe

[JSngry]

I've got no dog in the hunt about how good she is or isn't doing any one thing any good, I really don't care one way or the other, but I would point out that nasality when people talk will be naturally transferred to their singing voice unless they consciously decide for it to not be there, and then...truth? Or consequences?

Norah pretty much grew up in these parts, and the way "we" talk, you'd thing the larynx and the sinuses were parts of the same organ. Having never actually split anybody's head open (at least not from the front), I can't say with first-person conviction of proof that they aren't!

So, that part of it has no relevance to me, kind of a, how you say, argument with a strawberry dogman about who gets the short end of the cake. Everything else, like I said, I don't care.

[Scott Dolan]

yeah, I find that version of Nearness of You kinda.... repulsive, hate to say. She has a lovely and pure voice for more folk-oriented things and country, but the jazz things like the above just sound to me like junior miss jazz. And she has that amateur tendency to think that nasality makes it funky.

and no, I wouldn't compare her off-phrasing to Monks; different world.

No, Allen. There were purists at the time that claimed Monks phrasing was "all wrong", just as you are claiming Norah's phrasing is all wrong.

And I'm taking your claim as seriously as I would take theirs.

[7/4]

Some people don't actually give a hoot if she's singing jazz or not.

[AllenLowe]

that has, 7/4, nothing to do with anything I said; she was trying to be a jazz singer; she failed, in my opinion.

As for phrasing, c'mon Scott; you really thing that, as with Monk, she has found an ingenous way around the traditional way of showing harmonic rhythm?

though, as for Monk's phrasing, I honestly don't remember a single critique based on that aspect of his playing. We're gonna need examples.

As a matter of fact, Teddy Wilson, in the middle 1940s, called Monk "a rhythm master."

Edited August 2, 2014 by AllenLowe

[Scott Dolan]

I think she has her own style, and that it's pretty ridiculous to blast her for it.

Isn't that the goal of every musician?

And her success cannot be argued against.

[clifford_thornton]

I love it when people who don't care about Norah Jones argue about Norah Jones on principle.

[JSngry]

I'm arguing for a reality-based perception of nasality. Nothing more.

[clifford_thornton]

[AllenLowe]

I care about everything.

[7/4]

that has, 7/4, nothing to do with anything I said; she was trying to be a jazz singer; she failed, in my opinion.

How do you know what Nora Jones is trying to do?

[AllenLowe]

you're right; I am sure that in singing The Nearness of You she was trying to create a fusion of post-modernist opera/country/hillbill/rock/gospel/emo techniques. Silly me, I missed all the signs.

as for her style....she sings pretty; as I said, Iike the non-jazz stuff. Not sure she really has much of an individual style.

Edited August 2, 2014 by AllenLowe

[mikeweil]

I'm with Allen, I pretty much thought the same about her when her first albums were heard, and didn't care to follow. Have no idea what she's doing right now.

That said, this fair amount of jazziness is found in many singers today, but that doesn't make them jazz singers. Usually I'm not the one to find these differences in style to be of crucial importance, but in a time when the essence of jazz tends to get lost among popularisms, I do care. Norah makes some nice music but it's not jazz, that's all the point there is. Her label was an important jazz label but it remains one only on the virtue of its back catalog.

Remember why the Blue Note Bulletin Board was shut down?

[ArtSalt]

My understanding is that Norah wanted to be recorded on Blue Note to ensure the kudos as a jazz artist?

In any event the record industry could do with some more successes like her first album, it might even help fund some of the more niche specialist markets, like Mosaic Records.

[Scott Dolan]

you're right; I am sure that in singing The Nearness of You she was trying to create a fusion of post-modernist opera/country/hillbill/rock/gospel/emo techniques. Silly me, I missed all the signs.

as for her style....she sings pretty; as I said, Iike the non-jazz stuff. Not sure she really has much of an individual style.

I'm digging your "not in my back yard" belittling.

"You're real cute, Norah. Now run along, us real Jazz musicians have work to do."

[king ubu]

In any event the record industry could do with some more successes like her first album, it might even help fund some of the more niche specialist markets, like Mosaic Records.

That, alas, is not how it works (and not how it worked after Norah's debut had filled BN's pockets).

[Ted O'Reilly]

Was not Ms. Jones' debut recorded released on BlueNote only in N. America? Wasn't it on Capitol in the rest of the world?

[AllenLowe]

I am not belittling anything but her jazz singing; I actually have heard some of her songsterism and it is quite lovely.

she is not a jazz singer, but that does not mean I find the area of her talents to be inferior to jazz; just different. Many jazz singers could not sing it nearly as well as she does.

what annoys me is the sense of dabbling; the dilletanish-ness of her dip into jazz. For some of us this music is a serious thing and it is frustrating to see it minimized.

[Scott Dolan]

I've never understood artists, or fans for that matter, that take their preferred genre so damned seriously.

"This is serious business, and Norah is minimizing it!" *sniff*

Bullshit.

It's just another form of entertainment that she tried her hand at. If you don't like it, don't pay attention to it. Millions of others enjoyed it.

[jazzbo]

Word.

[Hot Ptah]

I don't understand the heated emotion that Norah Jones generates. If we started a thread on Grace Potter, I suspect that there would be no strong emotion expressed. It strikes me as a near pathology of more than one music board that the mere mention of Norah Jones brings out strong emotions. She didn't cheat people out of their life savings, or take part in war crimes, or say anything terribly insulting about anyone. Why anger and bitterness at the mention of her name? I don't get it.

[Scott Dolan]

I don't understand the heated emotion that Norah Jones generates. If we started a thread on Grace Potter, I suspect that there would be no strong emotion expressed. It strikes me as a near pathology of more than one music board that the mere mention of Norah Jones brings out strong emotions. She didn't cheat people out of their life savings, or take part in war crimes, or say anything terribly insulting about anyone. Why anger and bitterness at the mention of her name? I don't get it.

Because she invaded sacred territory and desecrated it! Don't you see?!

She took a hallowed art form and turned it into a plastic product for mass consumption.