At the more commercial end of the market, I’m told, things are hotting up.
Rob Mallows has just sent me this about the X-Factor
I’m reviewing Diana Krall’s Albert Hall gig next week.
And in the Evening Standard, David Smyth has written a piece entitled Battle of the year’s biggest albums.
Among his six categories -Robbie Williams being a genre to himself (uh?)- come “the Jazz Smoothies.”
Are you sitting comfortably? Now read on. I’m curious about ragtime (?) And is anyone out there confessing to a black turtleneck?
Two of the biggest crossover successes in jazz are back in November.
Norah Jones seems destined never to match the success of her debut, Come Away With Me, which went seven-times platinum in the UK alone, so her fourth album, The Fall (Blue Note/Parlophone, 16 Nov), is being billed as her “experimental” one.
Though it shares a producer and guitarist with gruff horse-frightener Tom Waits, in truth this album is as smooth as ever, albeit heavier on the guitar and lighter on the tunes.
Jamie Cullum’s The Pursuit (Decca, 9 Nov) has a jazzier feel thanks to plenty of dextrous piano, his slick croon and a ragtime feel to tracks such as You and Me Are Gone, yet it’s essentially a pop album, more likely to appeal to Keane fans than the black turtleneck crowd.
If you buy one, make it: The Fall by Norah Jones.”
Categories: miscellaneous
Norah Jones has the kind of talent that will give her (if she wants) a thirty or forty year career in the music industry. Long after most of the current artists are forgotten, Norah Jones will still be making music.
I adore Norah's voice and her music is gorgeous.