| Norah
Jones, developed her unique blend of
jazz and traditional vocal pop with
hints of bluesy country and contemporary
folk due in large part to her unique
upbringing. Born March 30, 1979, in New
York City, the daughter of Ravi Shankar
quietly grew up in Texas with her
mother. While she always found the music
of Billie Holiday and Bill Evans both
intriguing and comforting, she didn't
really explore jazz until attending
Dallas' Booker T. Washington High School
for the Performing and Visual Arts.
During high school, Jones won the Down
Beat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz
Vocalist and Best Original Composition
in 1996, and earned a second Best Jazz
Vocalist award in 1997. Putting her
vocal talents on the back burner, Jones
worked toward earning a degree in jazz
piano at the University of North Texas
for two years before accepting a
friend's offer of a summer sublet in
Greenwich Village during the summer of
1999. Although she fully intended to
return to college that fall, the lure of
the folk coffeehouses and jazz clubs
proved too strong and she soon became
inspired to write her own songs. Jones
appeared regularly with the trip-hop-electronica
band Wax Poetic and assembled her own
group around songwriters Jesse Harris
(guitar) and Lee Alexander (bass), with
Dan Rieser on drums.
In October of 2000, the group
recorded a handful of demos for Blue
Note Records and on the strength of
these recordings, Jones signed to the
jazz label in early 2001. Following an
appearance on Charlie Hunter's Songs
From the Analog Playground, Jones spent
much of 2001 performing live with
Hunter's group and working on material
for her debut. Come Away With Me,
recorded by Craig Street (Cassandra
Wilson, Manhattan Transfer, k.d. lang)
and legendary producer Arif Mardin
(Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, the
Bee Gees), was released in early 2002
and garnered much public attention. The
combination of her striking beauty and
the fact that she was the daughter of an
internationally renowned musician placed
Jones in the awkward position of
defending her music from those who
dismissed her as another pretty face
(the same argument used by those opposed
to Diana Krall) and/or another riding
the coattails of her musical royal
heritage (see Natalie Cole, Miki
Coltrane, Corey Parker). Although not by
any stretch a "jazz" album (the label
chose to call it "jazz-informed"), it
featured jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and
session drummer Brian Blade, and
indicated a new direction for Blue Note
combining jazz aesthetics and talent
with a pop sensibility. Come Away With
Me eventually went multi-platinum,
selling 18 million copies worldwide and
winning Jones eight Grammy awards.
In 2004, Jones released her highly
anticipated follow-up album, Feels Like
Home. Pairing once again with producer
Arif Mardin, Jones pursued a similar
approach to Come Away With Me, mixing
'70s singer/songwriter-style tracks with
blues, country, and her own mellow take
on piano jazz. |
