"Is Blue Note striking off key?"

[Rooster_Ties]

All the album titles are in italics in the original article, but I'm much too lazy to replicate that here. You can read the original HERE.

Is Blue Note striking off key?

By signing acts such as Norah Jones, Van Morrison and Al Green, critics are worried the prestigious jazz label has turned its back on its tradition

By GUY DIXON

Globe and Mail Update

The hard bop saxophonist Hank Mobley is wearing a knit blazer, possibly Brooks Brothers, which on anyone else would have carried hopelessly conformist, Father Knows Best undertones.But in dark Ray-Bans under the album's title No Room For Squares, the photograph of Mobley by Francis Wolff channels everything that was hip then in the world. And as purveyors of cool iconography, Mobley's label Blue Note Records may have been the hippest of them all.

Mobley is shot through a round piece of minimalist decor, creating the effect of a smoke ring around his face. There's also Mobley's long and manicured nail on his middle finger protruding under the cigarette held to his mouth -- all subtle, key details juxtaposed against the unsettled, happy-discordance of his music and all are part of Blue Note's legacy.

Then there's Dexter Gordon's Our Man in Paris, one of jazz's most genius allusions given that Gordon was based in Europe at the time. Gordon is in Harry Belafonte mode, looking like a model foreign correspondent, as the album whiles away with Gordon's loose-embouchure, down-home lyricism and pianist Bud Powell's gifted self-assuredness.

Today, Blue Note has singer and pianist Norah Jones looking wistfully downward on the cover of her second album, Feels Like Home, with songs likely to continue her country-tinged, intimate cabaret style. Although she was trained as a jazz musician, few serious jazz fans consider her one. What does this mean for Blue Note's image?

The label's other top releases by soul singer Al Green and folk rock stalwart Van Morrison are even further removed from traditional jazz. Is Blue Note running the risk of turning its jazz background into a kind of classy accoutrement, a seal of quality in order to sell pop records?

"No, I think Blue Note has maintained its tradition. We have in my opinion the best jazz roster [of new acts] of any jazz label," said Blue Note president Bruce Lundvall, not surprisingly.

Yet Jones's success breeds a similar kind of success. When Lundvall signed Jones immediately upon hearing her demo tape, he expected her to record an album of jazz standards, he said. But with her vague move toward country ballads and the massive success of that debut album, Come Away With Me, other acts that are barely within the parameters of anything remotely to do with jazz have also beaten a path to Blue Note's door.

"I've had everyone from Kenny Loggins to rap acts wanting to be on Blue Note. I certainly drew the line [with those]. But what happened with Van Morrison is that he said directly to me, I've never been a rock and roll artist. I've always been a blues and jazz artist. I will not be with your company [blue Note's parent label EMI] unless I can be on Blue Note. And what am I going to say? No?" Lundvall laughed. "And the same thing happened with Al Green. He said, I want to be on Blue Note."

The label will have to see if other artists looking to be signed by EMI make similar demands, he added. But he insisted that Blue Note isn't looking to increase its roster of non-jazz acts. He also noted that since Jones came aboard, the label has signed banner jazz names Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard.

In the past, especially in the hard bop and post-bop fifties and sixties, there was the deluge of Blue Note titles, all classics of the genre and which are continually re-emerging as CD reissues: McCoy Tyner's The Real McCoy, Horace Silver's Song For My Father, Andrew Hill's Smokestack, Donald Byrd's Slow Drag, Bobby Hutcherson's Stick-Up! Each carry the indelible Blue Note stamp -- clear, mid-20th-century bop delivered by legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder and minimalist album cover artwork by designer Reid Miles. Yet the music in each also took Blue Note's modern jazz message in countless directions. To a fan, that variety can seem infinite.

Since its re-emergence in 1984, after its initial near-demise a few years earlier, Blue Note has gradually built a roster of new acts, including non-traditional jazz performers such as the jazz-hip-hop act Us3 and contemporary rap producer Madlib, along with funk-jazz jam bands from Soulive and Medeski Martin & Wood to the dance-minded saxophonist Karl Denson.

These are the kind of artists that make sticklers reared on the old guard cringe and worry about how Blue Note is maintaining its legacy. Jones and Van Morrison only add to the controversy.

"When you have a really major hit record like Norah Jones, two things happen," said London-based jazz critic Richard Cook, who wrote a history of the label Blue Note Records: The Biography, co-authored The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD and was also head of jazz for Polygram Records for six years in the mid-1990s. "One is that there is pressure on you to try and duplicate that success, either with the same artist or engaging other artists of a similar nature. That would be perhaps the more unfortunate side of it.

"But the rather more interesting side would be if the profits on that were somehow reinvested and used to pay for more hardcore jazz signings. And here too we've seen the situation where Blue Note has had success, big records like the Us3 record a few years ago and the Cassandra Wilson records of the early 1990s. You had the feeling that these were used to pay for the rest of the roster," Cook said.

Indeed, behind all the attention lavished upon Jones, Blue Note still has many artists pushing the boundaries of jazz from the experimentalism of French trumpeter Erik Truffaz to those reinventing the myriad nuances of traditional jazz (if such a thing exists), such as saxophonist Greg Osby, Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and even Jacky Terrasson, a pianist who favours old standards with an easily approachable style, a little like a young André Previn.

"That's a great jazz roster!" Lundvall said. "So I have no apologies to make whatsoever for having Al Green and Van Morrison and Norah Jones. I think it's great. I think it's also great that they sell enough records that we make a very substantial profit which will allow us to keep artists that lose money."

However, jazz as a genre continues to suffer, he added. "This music is incrisis when it comes to the marketplace. It's in absolute crisis."

To maintain its raison d'être as a jazz label, Lundvall insists on keeping musicians such as Osby or Terrasson on the label. "When you sign Jacky Terrasson after he wins the Monk competition [the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 1993], and you are up against Verve and Warner Bros. and Columbia -- all of whom wanted him -- you end up paying a premium because he's an artist everyone else wants. And now . . . the sales are not what they should be to make money, I'm not dropping him -- he and others, I don't want to make an example of him."

The lure of adding pop performers to pay the bills is common practice. Verve Records, for instance, has recent releases by R&B singer Aaron Neville, Natalie Cole, soul-jazz singer Lizz Wright and adult contemporary phenomenon Diana Krall. More than just helping to buttress the jazz business, they are changing the genre altogether.

"What in the world is happening with instrumental jazz?" pondered Billboard writer Dan Ouellette in a recent article in the music industry magazine. Vocalists have overwhelmed instrumental jazz sales, he wrote, "because vocals offer instant gratification, while instrumental music requires focus and a willingness to settle into the subtleties as well as the surprises."

Who's to say then that jazz -- a music that has always been about freedom and appropriating disparate ideas -- isn't evolving away from a purist's notion of the genre? Still the trouble is that the pressure to find the next Jones or Krall can distract the industry and lower its tolerance for taking on too many lower-selling acts.

"It's the kind of thing that's not confined to Blue Note. But because of the tremendous pressure of Norah Jones, Blue Note has to face up to this in perhaps a more specific way than perhaps some of their competitors have to do," Cook said.

"So my feeling overall is that in the short term, I'm quite glad to see any album with a Blue Note label on it succeed, because I think that, fundamentally, the spirit of the original label does endure there. Five years from now? It may be a different story. But at the moment, I remain optimistic," Cook said.

By the way, for the record - I don't have a problem with Norah being on Blue Note, or Al Green and Van Morrison either. I don't own Norah's CD (or Al's or Van's), but I borrowed the Norah disc from a friend several months ago, and I rather liked it, actually. Nothing I normally get all that excited about, but for what it was - I thought it was quite nice. (And I don't mean that in a bad way, like I usually do when I say something is "quite nice" )

You generally won't find me bashing Norah, just fans of hers like Musicboy!!!

Edited January 13, 2004 by Rooster_Ties

[ghost of miles]

Whew... I'm just glad that they didn't sign Kenny Loggins.

[Rooster_Ties]

WORD!!!!

[Alexander]

Well, speaking as someone who owns all three albums under discussion (Norah, Van, and Al), I think that these are all quite worthy CDs which any major label would be proud to release. Remember, Blue Note started recording boogie woogie and hot jazz. What do you think all those hard-core trad fans thought when Lion started signing the likes of Monk, Powell, and Miles?

[Ed S]

I've got all three as well and enjoy them all to varying degrees. I have no problem at all with them being Blue Note artists because I buy into the fact that they help the label retain jazz artists. I like seeing that Lundvall is aware of the need to draw lines in the acts he signs. So far, for me, the lines he has drawn are satisfactory.

I'd like to actually see some jazz albums aside from reissues be released by Blue Note. It seems that the Green, Morrison and now Jones - along with Madlib - have been getting most of the press at the BN site these days. I know they were quite busy in the summer and fall of 2003 with jazz releases, but it seems to be a little slow right now.

I'd also like to see them add to their roster of jazz artists if that's possible. I know they picked up Blanchard - whom I really like - and Marsalis. But it seems that with the likes of Shim, Javon Jackson, Brian Blade, Charlie Hunter etc now gone - they could use some fresh young talent to add to the mix. No more jam bands please.

Edited January 13, 2004 by Ed Swinnich

[Late]

I'm sure there are (probably many) reasons to tell against it, but it would seem a no-brainer to sign former Blue Note artists like Andrew Hill and Sam Rivers. What excitement that would generate!

Is Greg Tardy signed with anyone now? He might be a good choice for a younger musician to sign to Blue Note. It'd be great to see someone like Ori Kaplan get signed too, but that's probably unlikely.

[Jim Alfredson]

Gosh, all Van Morrison had to do is say, "I want to be on Blue Note"? I've been saying that for years... what gives?

[.:.impossible]

So I guess this Jacky Terrason character is being dropped...

I'd love to see Blue Note use their mega-series to push their jazz as well. For those of you who own the megas, are they including inserts advertising other releases?

I'd like to hear Jeremy Pelt (Rooster?) record on Blue Note. BN needs to go out there and offer people deals RIGHT NOW. Organissimo included. B)

[Rooster_Ties]

I'd like to hear Jeremy Pelt (Rooster?) record on Blue Note. BN needs to go out there and offer people deals RIGHT NOW. Organissimo included. B)

HELL YEAH!!! -- on both counts.

[CJ Shearn]

I'm not big on Norah myself, but in a way it's good that she, Al Green and Van Morrisson are on BN b/c their sales could help BN get out more things that are of interest to hardcore fans like Conns, and items that please both hardcore and casual like RVG's. After all, would the One Night With Blue Note DVD have come to fruition had Norah Jones not been a big seller or signed to BN? I thought to myself when that was announced and eventually releasedd, "people like Norah make this possible"

[Rimshot]

The industry has changed a lot. The A&R people and the execs that make the decisions have decided to lump other forms of music that don't fit ito the "rock","pop","punk", "rap/hip hop", "country" and "classical" into the jazz catagory. They have lumped "folk" and "world" music into the newer catagory-"roots". The catagory of "R&B" is gradually being dissolved into the "jazz" catagory.

I also have no problems with Nora Jones music, in fact Ilike it. But I certainly wouldn't catagorize it into jazz. It's much more like old Joni Mitchell style, singer/songwriter music. Pleasant enough to listen to over dinner with friends that have varying tastes.

Blues was almost lumped into the "jazz" catagory, but the frenzy over Martin Scorsezze's(sp?) big program gave "blues" a shot in the arm.

I hear about this all of the time from my co-band mates that actually waste their time going to all of the conventions like TAXI.

Then there are the people that I refer to as the "Jazz Amish" that don't want to hear anything that doesn't sound exactly like what was being recorded before the late 1960's. Jazz is a viable and ever growing artform. It should never forget where it came from, but it should never stay in one place either.

That doesn't mean that the answer is to let it die and go into forms like the R&B of Al Green, or the folky sound of Nora Jones. But there should be room for it all.

I live in a suburb of NY. New York has traditionally been a jazz center. We don't have one jazz station in NY (I don't count cd101.9 which plays mostly that easy listening Kenny G type of stuff). The only place to hear good jazz on the radio is from WBGO out of Newark, NJ. Thank God for that anyway. There are still a few good jazz clubs, but they're booking more and more of the "easy listening yuppie jazz". I'll take Nora Jones over that any day.

[chris]

There's something to that. I would put Norah Jones in the same category as artists like Aimee Mann... I'm glad to see her on Blue Note, just as I am glad to see name authors on a publisher's offerings, which I know subsidizes some of the mid-list and lower authors that I am more interested in...

[Jim Alfredson]

There's something to that. I would put Norah Jones in the same category as artists like Aimee Mann...

Yet unlike Aimee, Norah can sing in tune.

[PHILLYQ]

Rimshot,

WKCR(89.9) plays a lot of jazz- well worth checking out.

[Jazzmoose]

I really don't understand the article. I really don't think of the Blue Note of today as being the same entity as the Blue Note of the fifties and sixties. The Blue Note then was a record label; the Blue Note today is a marketing term used by EMI. Pretending that they're this small jazz label on the cutting edge seems to be a bit odd. There are other labels that fill that niche today; the Blue Note name is primarily a marketing tool.

[Dan Gould]

I really don't understand the article. I really don't think of the Blue Note of today as being the same entity as the Blue Note of the fifties and sixties. The Blue Note then was a record label; the Blue Note today is a marketing term used by EMI. Pretending that they're this small jazz label on the cutting edge seems to be a bit odd. There are other labels that fill that niche today; the Blue Note name is primarily a marketing tool.

I generally agree with Moose. Blue Note changed a long time ago, when Alfred left and then irrevocably when Frank died. The artists who were signed and the records that were produced that we now cherish were entirely a result of the singular vision of its owners.

Now, BN has gone through numerous owners, with varying commitment to the "original vision" of the label, and its the label that matters, its image as "cool".

At the same time, I do not feel that any of the three artists "belong" on the label Alfred and Frank created but as Lundvall is quoted,

However, jazz as a genre continues to suffer, he added. "This music is incrisis when it comes to the marketplace. It's in absolute crisis."

So its not surprising that in the wake of Krall and now Norah-mania that there is an emphasis on not-quite (or not even close) jazz vocals.

BTW, I wouldn't expect too much in "subsidization" from the vocal successes the company has toward support of reissues. What they're really talking about is subsidizing the current jazz roster with the big-time vocal albums, not reissues. The reissues market is pretty well-known. We're not going to suddenly see monthly or quarterly reissues on Norah's account.

I'll leave you with a review of another not-exactly jazz vocalist now signed to Verve, Aaron Neville. Seems he was booked into the world-famous Blue Note in New York. Here's an excerpt from today's Times review by Ratliff:

Mr. Neville, the New Orleans pop singer and a member of the Neville Brothers, was there to perform jazz songs, or at least songs that jazz musicians have historically played, from his new album, "Nature Boy" (Verve). But he wasn't there to stretch out songs or improvise; he played close to the vest and barely smiled. The songs' arrangements, played by the pianist Rob Mounsey and the bassist David Finck, stuck to medium-slow efficiency, and each tune shut down promptly in a few minutes. As jazz it was fairly thin, and even as cabaret it had a strangely ascetic feeling. The whole thing ended in under an hour, with Mr. Neville making an uncomfortable comment here and there. I'm sure there is a relationship between Aaron Neville and jazz, but on Friday they seemed to be out on a blind date.

[Parkertown]

I'd like to hear Jeremy Pelt (Rooster?) record on Blue Note. BN needs to go out there and offer people deals RIGHT NOW. Organissimo included.  B)

HELL YEAH!!! -- on both counts.

Wow, I had no idea Rooster was a musician. Just checked the AMG bio. I'll have to check out yer stuff, RT.

[Rooster_Ties]

I'd like to hear Jeremy Pelt (Rooster?) record on Blue Note. BN needs to go out there and offer people deals RIGHT NOW. Organissimo included.  B)

HELL YEAH!!! -- on both counts.

Wow, I had no idea Rooster was a musician. Just checked the AMG bio. I'll have to check out yer stuff, RT.

Uuuhhhh, yeah (I wish!!!), but NO - Pelt ain't me, and I ain't Pelt.

I think Impossible was just trying to call me into the conversation, since he knows I'm a fan of Pelt's.

Here's some pics of Pelt...

And here's one of me and Andrew Hill...

Edited January 14, 2004 by Rooster_Ties

[EKE BBB]

Who are you and who is Andrew Hill?

[Dan Gould]

Andrew would be the guy saying "This guy's got his arm over my shoulder and Whitey's on the Moon"

[EKE BBB]

Andrew would be the guy saying "This guy's got his arm over my shoulder and Whitey's on the Moon"

[Parkertown]

Thanks for clearing that up, RT. Hey, you were a celebrity for about 10 seconds!

[.:.impossible]

It would be funny to find out that Rooster was Jeremy Pelt after so heavily endorsing his work!

[Dave James]

I guess you could send yourself around the bend trying to decide if Blue Note is still Blue Note. Here's my rationale. If it weren't for Norah Jones, maybe "Passing Ships" (or other obscure recordings) never see the light of day. Didn't Blue Note go through the same thing years ago with Lee Morgan? Only then it was "The Sidewinder" instead of "Come Away With Me." Point being, one you don't care about may very well beget others that you do. That's all I need to know to sleep well at night.

Up over and out.

Edited January 14, 2004 by Dave James

[Jim Alfredson]

sign organissimo!

clem

Let's start a petition... an Organissimo Street Team if you will.