Norah Jones on Bluenote??

I don't see how Norah Jones (as unremarkable as she is) affects the music of other jazz artists. The only thing that conceivably COULD happen is that the accountants start looking at the bottom line and start dumping less profitable artists. Now THAT would be criminal. Hank Mobley is Hank Mobley, and no amount of Norah releases from Blue Note will dilute him...or Kenny Dorham... or anyone else.

Now, that being said, I must say that the lineup at the Blue Note clubs is beginning to look decidedly mainstream, esp. on weekends, as is the whole Blue Note experience.

The new Van Morrison is also on Blue Note. I like Van and I'm glad Blue Note is able to pick up some more varied talent. It brings more money to Blue Note which allows them to do even more than they are now.

I don't think of Van Morrison as your typical Blue Note artist, but the colaboration is good for both of them. I wish all of my favorite artists would record on a better label. Blue Note does a great job. They take the time to put out quality recordings. Who wouldn't want better quality recordings? It might push mainstream labels to do a better job to retain artists like Norah Jones and Van Morrison, each of which sell LOTS of albums.

Rives your responses have been spot on, bettered only by Ben_campbell.

I read the initial post in this thread and a veritable host of thoughts came to me. Then I read the entire thread and discovered that Rives had stolen all of my "thunder". Thanks for saving me some time, Rives! :-)

For those of you who still are interested in this topic, there is something on this (along with a less than glowing review of Norah's new album) in the Feb. 2, 2004 issue of "Newsweek" (the one with John Kerry on the cover).

To quote one passage from the article:

"Last year...jazz sales were up slightly, but only because the pop-ish singer Norah Jones is classified on the charts as a jazz artist, largely because she records on the jazz label Blue Note. If you subtract the 5.1 million copies her debut album, "Come Away With Me," has sold nationally in 2003, jazz lost ground, too [the other is classical, as the article states earlier]. The labels' solution is to sign artists who appeal to broader tastes. Bruce Lundvall, president and chief executive of EMI Jazz and Classics who signed Jones to Blue Note, says the transition is liberating and necessary. And he's delighted to call Jones, whose new album debuts next week, a jazz artist."

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As for the album itself, the "Newsweek" reviewer refers to it as sounding "more like an amateur's debut that a top-of-the-pops follow-up..."