Manhattan nightclub and art space Le Poisson Rouge is hosting singer/songwriter Norah Jones for a five-night residency, Sept 10-14.
The 800-cap venue and accompanying art gallery sit on the site of the former Village Gate nightclub, at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village. Created by musician David Handler and senior music director Brice Rosenbloom, Le Poisson Rouge has earned a reputation for delivering high-end artist underplays by acts like Iggy Pop, Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peaceand Yo-Yo Ma and collaborations with the venue's own LPR Orchestra for artists like David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors and Mica Levi of Micachu & the Shapes.
"The idea is to push the popular palette as far and often as possible," explained Handler, who signed on with ticketer Eventbrite earlier this year after operating its own ticketing platform for nearly a decade. After purchasing Ticketfly in June, Eventbrite is now the largest independent ticketing company in the world with new clients that include PopGun Presents' Elsewhere in Brooklyn, as well as Brooklyn's National Sawdust and The Empty Bottle and Thalia Hall in Chicago.
"We never want to take a chance selling out the show," Handler explained of the move to Eventbrite, especially as it takes on higher demand on sales. Tickets for the Norah Jones residency go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. ET and cost $55 and $75.
Rosenbloom said he first booked Jones in 2000 at Makor, a former Jewish cultural center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where she played 40 shows in one year as part of an early residency.
"When she first started her Wednesday night shows, there were maybe a dozen people in the room," he said. "By the time she finished, the room was packed every night" -- and she had a record deal with EMI imprint Blue Note Records.
"We're very artist-friendly, and a lot of the artists she works with prefer playing at Le Poisson Rouge for our sound and the fact the venue is run by artists," Rosenbloom said.
Jones will perform songs from Day Breaks with drummer Brian Blade and bassist Chris Thomas. This week she is also playing Festival Jazz a l’Hospitalet (July 27) in Narbonne, France; Jazz in Marciac (July 28) in Marciac, France and Cap Roig Festival (July 29) in Barcelona.
