TOO SHY

For Norah Jones, Nights Are Made for Sentiment and Slow Dancing (BEN RATLIFF, 6/26/03, NY Times)

Halfway through Norah Jones's concert on Tuesday night at the Beacon Theater, her five-member band left her alone onstage. She sat at the grand piano and played Duke Ellington's "Melancholia," singing her own lyrics about not missing a lover who had checked out. "Melancholia" is one of Ellington's slow, exotic songs with chord changes that make it too weird for standard repertory. And Ms. Jones's voice--bright, precise and drawling--did very well by it.

Then the band reappeared, and the concert--her first major theater concert in New York since winning five Grammys in February--became a crashing bore again, just as the first half had been. There was a sense in Ms. Jones's show--expressed in the songwriting, in the arrangements (such as they were) and in the basic elements of stagecraft--that the kids had taken over and weren't sure what to do with their power. If ever a singer and a band could benefit from the guidance of elders, it is this one.

For sure, one quality that makes the 24-year-old Ms. Jones so likable is her unpretentiousness. I don't think I've seen a headlining pop star who has sold 14 million copies worldwide of a first record seem less sure about what to say to her audience. But would she be betraying that likable personality by using more effective arrangements, some changes in key and tempo?

Perhaps we'll find out on her second album, but for now--during a three-night sold-out stand at the Beacon and the rest of a national tour--her job is to play the songs and the style of the first one, her Grammy-winning "Come Away With Me."

For whatever reason, early success in sports is an indicator of greatness but in music and literature it's often an omen of doom. Who will ever forget the heart-rending evening on Solid Gold where they announced that Kajagoogoo was breaking up because of "creative differences", never to be heard from again. One would hope Ms Jones does not become the Hootie and the Blowfish of the aughts. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 26, 2003 8:09 AM