Norah Jones on Bluenote??

To me any vocal of any style is the one who has a controll over the music or to say more precisely over the song. It's a person that has maximum "synergy" over lyrics voice and music.
Norah has only grade 4 out of 10 in all of my criterias.

Figure Irmin Schmidt, Karoli, Suzuki and certainly Malcolm Mooney.
Figure also terrible one such as John Wetton(King Crimson).

All of these terrible vocals unites one thing: none can sing better a specific songs than they can. Who can sing better "In the Distance Lies the Future" than Malcolm Mooney? Chris De Bourgh? Pete Gabriel? Phill Collins?...

Can you spell any song that only Norah would sing its best??
Listening any song she sings, I just picture someone else on her place such as Krall, Willson or Schuur instead as much better match.

Hmmmm, I really don't see the link between cheap labour and Norah Jones on Blue Note. What I do see and hear is a young musician/singer who is at the beginning of what could be a long, diverse and successful career. Her abilities are still evolving and, hopefully, improving, and it will likely be many years before she reaches her peak as a vocalist or pianist.

Onhwy61 is SO RIGHT about jazz not being static, it is a continually evolving, shape-shifting genre with many idioms. We could argue until we're blue in the face about whether Norah's music really is jazz, but at the very least it incorporates a jazz influence, among others.

Dilettante is defined as - 1 : an admirer or lover of the arts 2 : a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge. Now call me crazy, but that does not seem to fit here. Norah is quite clearly a musician, and insofar as music is an art form, I would have to say she is also an artist. The fact that one does not like her voice or music does not a dilettante make her. As to a song that only she can sing: Come Away With Me.

Disclaimer - my brother the jazz musician (double-bass) has had occasion to converse with Ms. Jones and finds her to not only be very down-to-earth, but also knowledgeable about things musical, in addition to being quite proficient on the piano.

Will feature guests Garth Hudson, Levon Helm & Dolly Parton, should be interesting IMO, I'll be there.

Mghcanuck,
The link is very simple:
To compare with Britney's repertoire Norah's one is "too expencive". To compare with the rest of Blue Note repertoire seems to be "too cheap". To compare with compeeting during Gramys Bruce Springsteen, well, it's very close + or - imho.

The cheap in terms of investment to create a song or music, investment in terms of level of sophistication towards the vocal perception peak or capabilities. In most cases the cheap investment creates the largest profit as all of the commercial music had prooven. Some exeption is Freddy Mercury.

You're contraversing yourself saying that she's on developmental stage. Certainly there's no doubt that she will become better and better and will probably lean towards serious sophistication that will finally suit the Blue Note repertoire...

I've no jazz-musician brother, but cruising arround NY jazz and music clubs large or small along with large performing arts centers I'm sure I can distinguish vocal qualities. To me she's still just a nice girl who's part of commercial promotion of jazz.

If jazz(or any kind of real music) will be promoted to the commercial levels, I may positively agree that it will be much harder for cheap pop artists dive onto the waves of the show biz.

Marakanetz-seems like you are having a pop at Springsteen now too.

With all due respect you have to realise that personal response,interpretation or opinion without some kind of basis is pointless.
I've seen this a few times recently,it's like turning up here and saying X component is crap,it's worthless and yet people do it with music and aren't taken to task for it,the way they would with equipment analysis.

If you want to debate on the quality and worth of Springsteen's music,let's do it-I can explain in great detail why he is one of last centuries most important artists on a number of levels.

You are entitled to your love of more etheral music but part of being broad minded and being open to music is to consider all possibilities,even what you deem superficial.
It is impossible to like all music but I strive to understand why some things are successful,of course we are bound to dismiss some music as pap.
I'm not a particularly big fan of Norah Jones but I understand her popularity and recognise she has talent.
You have made a distinction between artists you have seen in Jazz clubs and Ms Jones.
Have you seen her live?
If not you are not comparing like with like.
Have you heard these small bands records?
If not you are not comparing like with like.

Your analysis between investiment and pop music is also widely awry,do not understimate the time effort and money spent making the pop hits,it is a skill in itself,it may not feature in your value system but you need to realise the number of pop artists that fail.
It's clearly an area you ignore therefore you are reduced to broad sweeps of uniformed criticism.

Finally nobody I know takes music more seriously than me,I have very strong opinions on music but it is not reasonable for any individual to define and state what is "real" music.
Some brilliant musician of the future may indeed be inspired (intially)by Norah or indeed Britney.

Having your own value system is crucial but keep it in perspective,you have to realise that the number of people who view music as art is vastly out numbered by those who consider it entertainment.
Any real study of music will also reveal that the lines dividing music as art or entertainment are blurred and largely self-determined.
It can be either or both.

By all means have strong opinions but some of your sweeping generalisations above indicate your value system has started to close your mind.