The 45th Annual Grammy Awards....Norah cleans up!

Well, could be worse....

Great night for Norah Jones; between her and her engineers and producer, she seems to have won everything for which she was nominated: Best New Artist, Pop Vocal Album, Record and Song of the Year, Best Engineered Pop Recording, Pop Producer...not a bad haul. Hopefully the New Artist award won't be the kiss of death for her as it's been so for many over the years...

Diana Krall won for Jazz Female Vocal(LIVE IN PARIS); excellent choice; man, does that one take repeated viewing and listening well...And of course Elvis Costello was in attendance; wherever she goes these days, he ain't far behind(control your jealousy and envy, Ed....)

For us old farts in the forum, this is heartening: Bruce Springsteen snagged three(Male Rock Vocal, Rock Song and Rock Album), B.B. King a couple for a Xmas album, Johnny Cash won for Male Country Vocal, and Tony Bennett for Traditional Pop Vocal. Carlos Santana--with Michelle Branch--won another to add to his expanding collection.

Also nice to see Robin and Barry Gibb getting a Legends award; got a standing O, very nice. N'Sync singing "Stayin' Alive" didn't excite me, but what the hell, nice homage anyway....

Overall, no great surprises, but not that many bad choices, either(it's nice to be ignorant and know almost nothing about most of the rest).

ED

 

Norah is great. I'm so glad.

The 4-way tribute to Joe Strummer was amazing too.

 

Norah's a fresh, natural talent; I can hardly wait for the next album. Thanks to tonight, that will now be a longer wait while Blue Note milks the current one for all it's worth(understandably).

And that was a great tribute to Joe; at least Mr. Costello wasn't just there as Diana's escort. Nice job by all!

Oh yeah, the Dixie Chicks(surprise)won a few, too. Not much better in mainstream country at the moment. Faith Hill won for "Cry," but that's pop, not country; so is she.

ED

 

I guess I'm becoming an old fart, because I couldn't agree more, Ed!

I'm really glad Norah got so much recognition tonight. What a fantastic artist she is.

 

We may be old, Arin , what can ya do , but Norah is so young...she was very easy to like. Maybe a safe choice by Grammy standards, but when you think of some atrocious winners of past years, I for one will not complain.

They've also better streamlined the program; less awkward moments than I've seen in ages. Barry Gibb struggled with his words a bit, but that was understandable; as he said, it's all been harder than they could have thought possible. But good of them to show up; Mo would have liked the award, and certainly they all deserved it.

ED

 

Fred Durst is the dumbest man on the planet!
I said that in another thread but I want my point heard.

It's just at the Bee Gee tribute right now where I live.

Dan C

 

Tell us how you really feel, Dan; don't be afraid to let it out!

Wait'll ya see Peter Gabriel; looks like he should be cast in the next Harry Potter movie.

ED

 

I see she just won for "Album of the Year". Interesting to see Ted Jensen - the mastering engineer - on stage with her too for this award - not something that I normally notice happen during an "Album of the Year" award presentation.

 

And now, crowning jewel, Best Pic, er , I mean, Album of the Year. I guess Blue Note is the new "pop" label.

Can't wait for this album to go SACD (scheduled for April I think)

 

I remember seeing her (Norah Jones) a year ago last Christmas as an opening act for Livingston Taylor at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA. I thought she was pretty good, but never would have predicted this.

You could tell that she was generally overwhelmed at the grammys, esp by Aretha Franklin and Bonnie Raitt!

BTW - I saw it on the HDTV feed with Dolby Digital sound via Dish Network, and it was FANTASTIC. The surround was great, mostly applause in the rears but great sound in the fronts.

That is the way to see and hear TV!!!

The presentation was good too, as it was mostly music. I got to hear some stuff I liked that I had never heard. It was great to see JT do Sweet Baby James, then have the 16 year old kid win and have James pat him on the shoulder!!

 

Who's Norah Jones?

 

You know, this guy on the radio today was saying how out of touch the Grammys are and he is right.

How many people here know someone in the record business? I don't mean artists, I mean record company people. If you do, you know what is wrong with the music "business." It is a "business." (No, I don't consider Steve a "record company people"!) Most record company people don't listen to music at all. Remember Jethro Tull winning over Metallica for heavy metal act? That was the same year Milli Vanilli won for something too, sorry I've forgotten Milli Vanilli's honor.

Anyway, I'm halfway through the show here, and I've seen some good acts, Norah Jones, James Taylor, some others. Avril Lavigne was great too. But why was Dustin Hoffman there? Simon and Garfunkel were disappointing. And why is Aretha Franklin so big? I blame the record business. And Italian food.

I'm really only watching this to see if anyone spouts off about the apparantly oncoming war against Iraq. I know this is a big can of worms, but what these people know about political issues could fit in a thimble. My favorite quote on this is from Homer Simpson: "Rock stars... Is there anything they don't know?"

Did Fred Durst just invent the word "agreeance" when protesting the war? Woo. Fred might do more to protest the war by not showing his ignorance. Just shut up and sing Fred!

Nice to see Sheryl Crow with the "O WAR" bass guitar strap; I'm glad to see she is strongly supporting our president!

Springsteen was cool, the Bee Gees bit put a tear in my eye, and Eminem was great. Haven't seen the Clash tribute yet.

 

A pretty fair singer and now with so many Grammys she can't carry them all; her friends will have to help her out.

She is refreshing; so many acts take winning as their due, but she was very overwhelmed, as noted, and humble. Imagine getting to hang with all those stars she'd never met. She'll never have another night like this; definitely to be savored.

ED

 

Daughter of Ravi Shankar, now recording on Blue Note, you'll see her plastered all over the papers tomorrow morning.

She won some Down Beat contest for young adults, something like "promising jazz vocalist" or something. Thing is, her recent album isn't really jazz. I'd like to see her cut a real jazz album, show us her chops. Nothing against pop, but if she's got jazz talent, I want to hear it.

 

I know that the one thing that I really liked from the whole evening was the tribute to Joe Strummer - the only reality in the show. (not that the rest sucked or anything - but it was the only time it felt like liberation! My fists were pumped!!)

 

Never agree with the Album of the Year selection and this year was no exception. (OK I agreed with the Dylan pic a few years back). I love Jazz vocals, but I don't think much of Norah Jones. Pure pop for the masses.

However, I am glad to see that Blue Note will be coming into some serious cash soon. Maybe now they will be less stingy in releasing some of the great Jazz in their vaults. (Tired of spending serious cash on Blue Note Japanese Imports!!)

BTW - LOVED the Clash tribute.

 

There is justice in this world! I can't believe that Norah did so well! This was well deserved and for once in this crazy world of pop music a true talent finally came out over the glut of mediocre pop-molded music. Congrats Norah!

I did have a secret hope for HOME as the best album though....

 

Norah Jones is cute, but her music puts me to.....



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Ben

 

Nice to hear that Doc Watson got the award for best traditional folk album. Don't know if he still tours but if you ever get a chance to see him play, go for it!

Jim W.

 

The Clash tribute was AWESOME!!!!!!!! Costello's a god amongst men.
It's nice to see Nora win but did she have to win EVERYTHING? Did Bruce win anything? Nothing? Shame! He was robbed.(edit:nevermind, he won three but somehow I missed that) Eminem was seriously dissed this year too, got just one I think. Not that I'm a fan or that I'm crying for him, but it's sort of an upset ain't it?

Was the Nelly bit in bad taste, someone asked? Yes, I think it was. It was horrible! Especially in light of the tragic events this week. Maybe I'm being dramatic, I thought it was wrong.

And Crow just couldn't let the "war" thing go, could she. Well at least she's consistent and seems to have thought out her reasoning. Unlike a certain Mr. Fred Durst.
The sound of Fred's brain forming a thought.........















Anyway, it was a fun show.
Oh, speaking of Em, did they blank out his potty words on the East coast? It was awkward sounding here. Why mute the whole program rather than just his vocal mic?

Oh yeah Ed, Peter Gabriel did indeed look like an instructor at Hogwarts. At least he trimmed that goatee. On the Today Show a while back he looked like Aleister Crowley's younger brother!

Dan C

 

Doc is one of, if not the best flatpickers out there...100% of all the acoustic bluegrass flatpickers were influenced by Doc..the list goes long...Nice to hear that! Doc was a huge influence in my very early flatpicking acoustic day's...So dynamic and powerful...

 

I'm not trying to dis Norah Jones here either, but does anyone really, truly believe that her album is better than Bruce's? To me, she's just Diana Krall with better marketing. (Think she's signing to Blue Note now?) It's fine for what it is, but there are a lot of better Jazz albums released every year. Bruce's album MEANT something!
And are all the Grammy voters on Social Security? It's like when Tony Bennett's "Unplugged" won.

Oh well...

James

 

No kidding? Good for her, then!

 

You're right to an extent, but she also didn't win anything for Jazz. Her album successfully crossed genres, which few do. Her Jazz/Country/Folk/Blues amalgamation became "pop"ular music. In part because of her album's popularity with "non-jazz" fans, folks are checking out people like Cassandra Wilson, Jane Monheit, Rebecca Pidgeon, Tierney Sutton, Karrin Allyson, Patricia Barber, etc. That is a good thing.

In my opinion of course.

 

Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust

Whoa nelly. Hang on folks. Ravi Shankar was basically a sperm donor. Nora Jones was raised by her mother. Ravi Shankar had nothing to do with her upbringing. She hasn't shied away from the fact that Shankar is her father, but my friend Gord just told me he recently read an article that says Nora Jones has only now begun to have a relationship with Ravi Shankar. He was not in her life up recently.
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Wow! Great peformance of London Calling by Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Steve "Silvio" Van Zandt, and Dave Grohl. I was impressed by pretty much all of the performances this evening including Dixie Chicks (who I'm not a fan of but they're growing on me), Nora Jones, Avrile Lavigne, Foo Fighters, Faith Hill, Cold Play and the NY Philharmonic, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen, Sherly Crow and the Ritchie kid, Eminem, and James Taylor and Yo Ma-Ma. The Simon And Garfunkel performance was OK,not great.

Overall IMO, the telecast was very disjointed because there was no host. I agree with the earlier post. Fred Durst, please stick to the recording studio and the live concert stage. The Grammy show producers should hire John Leguizamo to host the awards next year. His adlib about Leonard Bernstein's grandfather and that whole Spanish fagala thing was hilarious. I was busting a gut.

And the Grammy goes to (crowd......"Bruuuuuuuuuuuce"), "Nora Jones".

p.s. I Rebecca Pidgeon. Been a fan of her music with Ruby Blue going back to the late 1980s. Didn't need Ms Jones to point me in Rebecca's direction. I also admire her acting talents.

p.p.s. Nice to finally be able to put a face to Ted Jensen. He has done some great work with The Byrds remasters and a whole wack of other Sony Legacy titles.