Norah in Concert

Went and saw Norah at the Entertainment Centre last night...

What did I think??? Well I have mixed feelings and reviews of the show... There were aspects of the performance that exceeded my expectations, but also areas that fell short... Prior to the show I already had a degree of hesistation going to see her perform at such a large and unintimate (is that a word??) venue...

Overall, as a performer, Norah isn't an exactly animated performer who carries and hold much stage presence, which is quite crucial for a performer who sits and plays at the piano on a large stage in a large venue... admittedly, this is due largely to her style of songs and performance, which is quite laid back and easy... not overly energetic and emotive...

Great piano artists like Sir Elton, Billy Joel, Jamie Cullum, Tim Freedman and Diana Krall are all very animated and expressive as they perform at the piano and are thus very much able to captivate, engage with and hold an audience's attention... Norah on the otherhand, seemed to me to be very much in her own world as she performed at the pianoforte... in fact so much was she in her own world and so little did she engage with the audience that even when it came to more upbeat and up tempo numbers, she struggled to get the audience involved to clap!!

From a jazz perspective, she did introduce a bit of improvisation in keeping true with the genre... however, much to my disappointment, most of the improv was left to her guitarists, while she just tinkered away filling in pads and keeping the groove... I would've liked to see more of her talent in jazz piano shine through some improving... but alas it was not to be...

I was especially disappointed that she didn't even play for Come Away with Me... :( a real chance there to showcase her talents...

She performed a good mix of songs from both albums as well as unrecorded numbers... I still very much prefer the stuff from her first album though i think...

Don't get me wrong.. on the whole it was a very tight performance... and a very enjoyable one at that... however, from a jazz purist's point of view.. I felt it lacked substance... I could've been at home in my lounge listening to a cd... I didn't feel moved much by many of the songs performed... which is what music and jazz is all about...

something that also may have contributed to my failed expectations was that in the intermission between the support act (i have no idea who he was, except he looked like heath ledger) they played Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on the PA... that was a very very risky move in my mind... it certainly hyped us up and got us in the mood and frame of mind for real quality jazz... and i think certainly heightened my sense of expectation for some real jazz... and thus, this led to my sense of disappointment when Norah was not able to in any way meet or exceed my expectations from listening to Miles before hand... so in my books that was a mistake to play such high calibre jazz as Miles (the father of modern jazz) before her performance...

On the whole it was an okay performance.. nothing to really write home about and rave about... I don't I'll see her again live, and definitely not in such a big and empty setting as the entertainment centre... mebbe somewhere more intimate like the basement or side on cafe...

i'm content with listening to her albums on my hi-fi...