MUSIC: Norah Jones on "60 Minutes"

As part of the rollout of her third album Norah Jones is going to be getting a lot of press. SAJAforum posted an item about a major NYT Sunday piece on Jan. 21, 2007, with lots of useful links, and she was the subject of a 12-minute segment on the top newsmagazine show, "60 Minutes," on CBS yesterday. The piece, called "The Humility of Norah Jones" featured sit-down interviews with correspondent Katie Couric (yes, she of "Evening News" fame), small snippets from concerts and lots of talking. And unlike most pieces by non-South Asians, they didn't shy away from the Ravi Shankar question.

Norah’s father is the famous musician, Ravi Shankar, the virtuoso Indian sitar player. "I knew who my dad was," she says. "I saw him sporadically until I was nine and then I didn't see him again or talk to him until I was 18."

Shankar never married her mother – their relationship, Norah says, was complicated and it ended when she was young. Her mother, she says, didn’t want her talking about him.

Jones acknowledges it was kind of a secret. "You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people," she says.

When Norah turned 18, she sought out her father, who was living in California with his daughter and second wife.   

Asked if she was angry or sought an apology from her father when they reconnected, Jones says, "Yeah. I might have. I might have wanted that."

Today she says they are close.

"Do you consider yourself part Indian?" Couric asks.

"I grew up in Texas with a white mother," Jones says. "I feel very Texan, actually and New York. New Yorker."

That was the desi part, but there was much more interesting stuff in the piece, which you can read about and watch major sections of here. Your thoughts in the comments section, please.

Comments

[shilpa]

norah jones can be whoever she wants to be - texan, new yorker, etc. - as long as she keeps making great music (love the new album, by the way)!! but i don't understand why she just doesn't embrace her success... all this pseudo humility stuff from billionaire award-winning celebrities just makes me want to puke.

[Meghna.]

Its an unfortunate question, I thought. This is an artist who has helped introduce jazz to an entirely new generation of music audience. She was conceived in part and abadoned wholly by her bio-logical father, who happens to be an Indian. Couldn't Couric have come up with a better question?

The question reveals a lot more about the renaissance India is experiencing, as far as the west's fascination with the giant country goes. It also shows that American mainstream media has an amazing ability to take a serious artist and find the most trivial/ gossipy things to talk about- anything that can create a buzz (A Saja discussion being a fine example).

Would it have mattered if she was part Sweedish or Norwegian.. or..? Did anyone ever ask L. Armstrong or D.Ellington or E.Fitzgerald or N.Simone or B. Holiday what ther biological roots were? How many music stars have a background of a broken families or abandonment?

It was a stupid question, it created a stupid buzz (atleast on this forum). Worse yet, there are throbbing hints of the South Asian (?) community somehow trying to take credit for Norah Jones' talents. It was most evident when she won-- quite deservingly-- 8 grammys (2003) and local desi papers in NY (that I know of) gloated Ravi Shanker's daughter's glory.

Ravi Shankar has a daughter, one that he raised, trained and is clearly quite proud of; and she isn't Norah Jones. But this thing-- over an over again-- of Norah Jones and her indian background.. is silly. (btw, is Mr. Shankar a wholesome Indian, and what defines that?). Norah Jones is one of those rare musical gifts, whose mother too spent much of her life in the arts world herself (to those who think Norah's talents are thanks to mr. shankar).

[Meghna.]

p.s. Shilpa, shouldn't we be glad that atleast there are some artists left who still want to focus more of their art rather than "embracing" their fame and fortune, which we have seen ruin a lot of other greats? :)

She is amazing.

[Rajshree menon]

I was working in a hotel in Trivandrum (south India) in 2000/2001. Mr. Shankar had come to perform there and his daughter Anousha had come as well. Anousha played with her father and was getting to be well known. Norah had come with them to India and she stayed in our hotel with her dad. I met her and both the sisters used to go to the beach. Norah wore Indian clothes as well at that time. She seemed so close to her father and he was so proud of her. I cant remember her as Norah, she was I think called Geeta or something like that. She is part Indian and she should be proud to be her fathers daughter.She says she is close to him now. How did that happen. How could he have abandoned her if she says that she saw him sporadically until she was 9. No one should blame Mr. Shankar unnecessarily without knowing the whole truth. May be her mother took her away from him.

[Ronita Torcato]

Being a great musician doesn't make you a good husband, father, son, whatever. Think Wagner, think Antonio Salieri.

The charming Mr Shankar used to be a favourite with ladies. Norah is the result of one such affair of the heart. Shankar also had an affair with Sukanya, the married lady who later became his second wife and gave birth to Anoushka. His first wife, the sitarist Annapoorna Devi maintained a dignified silence for long years, before going on record about marital discord.

What about sweet Anoushka? Till she was seven or so, Anoushka had no idea Mr Shankar was her father.She had thought her moom' first husband was her dad.

I remember reading an article where Tiger Woods objected at being straitjacketed as an African-American and said he was proud of his Chinese ancestry ( he is quarter Chinese)

If Norah prefers to identify with the white mother she has known all her life rather than her absent (Indian ) dad, why should we take umbrage?

Cheers
Ronita Torcato
Freelance journalist
Mumbai

[Sushma]

I am not only fan of her, I am crazy of her song.

[Kirit Desai]

RM's observation is just a snapshot in the life of Norah Jones. So how accurate it may be, it remains as irrelevant as Couric's interview because it is hard to predict the nature of dynamics of complex relationship of those individuals involved from a short conversation.

Her original name at birth was Geethali Norah Jones Shankar so she might have been called Geeta during her stay in Trivendrum. No one needs to blame parents entirely but there is some liability on Shankar's part for neglecting parental role in Norah's life, no matter how much fame & fortune one parent has in real life. Shankar left them and visited briefly & sporadically through out her life. He completely disappeared from her life during a decade of her teens.

She probably wants her father to render an apology to begin healing as her new album suggests "Not Too Late" in its title. It is her anger that is reflected in her response during the interview and no one should gauge her affinity towards her inherited cultures from such outbursts.

Kirit Desai
Philadelphia

[Cory]

Relationships can be so challenging to maintain. When they are interracial, that can pose more complexity. Some of them work, some of them don't. Personally, I feel people are generally happier when they date and marry their own kind. I also don't understand men or women who deliberately AVOID people of their own cultures or ancestries. It makes me think they dislike their own backgrounds and want to forget it forever. However, when we look in the mirror, we are reminded of who we are and there is no running away from it. Sorry.

I have never met anyone who stood proudly in front of me or others with parents of very different backgrounds. Whether they admit it or not, I feel some experience a certain shame in it and try to avoid the subject. Therefore, I don't think Katie Couric's question to Nora about being half Indian was so terrible.

I imagine Nora was born out of wedlock. Well, we can't control how we enter the world. What matters now is that Nora is a wonderful singer. At a certain point, I don't think she wants to discuss her ethnicity every 10 minutes, either.

[B.S.AHALYA]

I agree with Cory.Interracial marriages are very complicated. I know of a Indian woman whose girl child went away with her father. The woman is still pining for her.
These relationships have no firm foundation.

[panditjugalkishoreshastri]

happiness of a married man depends on people he has not married.

bravo. mr. shankar. You are the man.

[panditjugalkishoreshastri]

marriage is hardly a thing one can do now and then.....except in America.

Kirit and Torcato. Please respond. I prefer brute force to brute logic. That's why I insist on your response.

[Lantona]

Having a child is a committment to care and protect that child and be a positive part of that child's life. Nora is a great singer who did it on her own.

[ashishdimri]

Dear SAJA,
Norah is equally a talented musician.Its her right to decide her nationality.
How does it matter-if Norah is an Indian or American!
Afterall, she is a global artist.
yours,
ashish dimri