Norah Jones
Biography, concert and CD reviews of Not Too Late and Come Away With Me
Sheet music by Norah Jones.


Added on May 11, 2012
In 2012 new by Norah Jones is her album Little Broken Hearts, produced by Danger Mouse (Brian Burton). Get the album Little Broken Hearts as an MP3 from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de.


Added on November 17, 2009: Norah Jones: The Fall. Order the deluxe double-CD from Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com (import), Amazon.ca. Norah Jones has written all songs herself or with the help of co-composers. She presents herself with a new band. In addition to the piano, she now also plays the guitar. Incidentally, the great guitarist at her side is Marc Ribot.

In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Blick, Norah Jones said that she had to leave her Brooklyn flat after a US-newspaper had published a photo of her door with her address on its front page. Next to it was a photo of Saddam Hussein under the title Hunt and Destroy. She was forced to move to a loft in Manhattan.


The new album Not Too Late, released on January 26, 2007. Order the CD now from Amazon.de, Amazon.com, Amazon.fr or Amazon.co.uk.

Added on January 24, 2007
Norah Jones' new album Not Too Late is pensive and calm, with a touch of soul and country music. For the first time, she has composed or co-written all the songs on the album. The thirteen compositions celebrate the principle "less is more". Some of her lyrics are pessimistic - influenced by America's disaster in Iraq? -, whereas Sinkin' Soon was written with a sense of humour. Critics may find Not Too Late boring and monotone, fans however will admire it as an inspired whole. On the CD, both the singer and her band are convincing. It remains to be seen whether they have improved live on stage. On Not Too Late, the singer not only plays the piano, but also the guitar. In interviews she stressed that the string instrument offers her a more direct contact with the public. Not Too Late has no rough edges. It is an album for people who love the style of Norah Jones.

Added on November 17, 2006
On January 26, 7007 Norah Jones will release her third studio album: „Not Too Late“. It will feature thirteen songs, for the first time all written by herself. She said that some of the songs are very dark, even cynical, but the message is one of hope, hence the title  „Not Too Late“. The album is produced by her longtime bass player Lee Alexander. In addition to her band members, guest musicians include M. Ward, Richard Julian as well as Jeffrey Zeigler of the Kronos Quartet. The first single „Thinking About You“ will be available as a commercial download on December 5, 2006. The new album Not Too Late will be released on January 26, 2007. Pre-order it now from Amazon.de, Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

Article added on March 12, 2003 
At the age of 23 at the Grammy ceremony in New York City in February 2003, Norah Jones won stunning eight Grammies. Her debut album Come Away With Me was considered Best Album of the Year and the ballad Don't Know Why, written by Jesse Harris, Best Song of the Year. According to a press release, the Grammy avalanche has helped to more than triple her sales. Come Away With Me has become #1 in the Billboard charts, in other words, it is currently the best sold album in the United States.
 
Come Away With Me
 

Norah Jones: Come Away With Me. EMI/Blue Note, 2002. Get the CD from Amazon.de, Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Citydisc Schweiz.

On her debut album Come Away With Me, Norah Jones is accompanied by famous jazz musicians such as guitarist Bill Frisell (but only on The Long Day Is Over) and drummer Brian Blade. However, this does not make the likeable young lady a jazz singer. Her ballad album is a mix of pop, soul, jazz, country, folk-pop and other styles. Most compositions were written by bassist Lee Alexander and guitarist Jesse Harris. The best of the album's fourteen songs is not the Grammy awarded Don't Know Why by Jesse Harris, but the title song Come Away With Me which was written by Norah Jones. She also composed the ballad Nightingale which deals with somebody who is searching his way. Maybe  Norah Jones herself? Let's hope that's the way it is because, despite eight Grammies, Come Away With Me is not a masterpiece, but ”only” a promising debut. The number of awards just testifies to the fact that the competition is weak. The young lady with the distinctive voice will surely offer us better albums in the future. 
 
Norah Jones: vocals, piano and Wurlitzer electric piano; Lee Alexander: bass; Dan Rieser: drums; Jesse Harris: guitar; Adam Levy: guitar. They are among the musicians with whom Norah Jones has been playing live since fall 2000 in New York. Her special guests on Come Away With Me include the guitarists Bill Frisell and Kevin Breit, the drummers Brian Blade and Kenny Wollesen, violinist Jenny Scheinman, accordionist Rob Burger as well as Sam Yahel on Hammond B-3 organ.
 
Biography of Norah Jones
 
Norah Jones was born on March 30, 1979 in New York City. At the age of four, she moved with her mother Sue Jones to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas. Norah is the illegitimate daughter of the Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar, with whom she has had almost no contact. Norah's half sister, Anoushka Shankar, is also a musician. She plays the sitar like her father. The breakup between Sue Jones and Ravi Shankar came when the Indian married the mother of Anoushka.
 
Norah Jones began singing in church choirs at the age of five and had her first piano lessons at seven. By the way, in junior high, she briefly played saxophone. At fifteen she enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where musicians such as soul singer Erykah Badu and trumpeter Roy Hargrove studied too.
 
While still in high school, Norah Jones won the Down Beat Student Music Awards for “Best Jazz Vocalist” and “Best Original Composition” in 1996. She earned a second Down Beat Student Music Award for ”Best Jazz Vocalist” in 1997. After graduation, Jones entered the University of North Texas where she majored in jazz piano. Norah also sang with a band called Laszlo, playing what she describes as “dark, jazzy rock.”
 
In 1999, Norah Jones moved to New York City and appeared regularly for about one year (beginning in December 1999) with the funk-fusion band Wax Poetic. But she soon assembled her own group with guitarist and songwriter Jesse Harris, bassist and songwriter Lee Alexander and drummer Dan Rieser. In October 2000, this lineup recorded a selection of demos for Blue Note Records. This EMI label signed her in January 2001.
 
By the way, Norah Jones sang two songs (Roxy Music’s More Than This and Day Is Done by Nick Drake) on guitarist Charlie Hunter’s Blue Note album Songs from the Analog Playground. She also frequently performed live with Hunter’s band.

Sheet music by Norah Jones.

Added on January 30, 2007
Norah Jones plays her first film part in Wong Kar Wai's first English language film My Blueberry Nights, to be released in 2007. She will play alongside Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman and David Strathairn. - Order the DVD My Blueberry Nights from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de.




Norah Jones: Feels Like Home. Album, EMI/Blue Note, February 2004. Get the CD from Amazon.de, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.ca, Citydisc Schweiz.
 
Concert at the Kaufleuten, Zurich, Switzerland, October 15, 2002
 
Norah Jones, piano/vocals - Adam Levy, guitar - Lee Alexander, bass - Andrew
Borger, drums - Daru Oda, tourmanager/vocals.

The Zurich concert began with a bluesy version of Turn Me On. Norah Jones' voice immediately caught you, in contrast to the band, which remained rather pale. With the following Hank Williams title Cold Cold Heart, the mood became jazzier. Again, it was the singer who convinced with her warm, sensual and partly smoky voice. The instrumental part was again disappointingly simplistic - and remained such throughout the rest of the evening. At least in Zurich, Norah Jones' piano playing too needed substantial improvement.
 
In the performance of her own composition Nightingale the singer sounded clearly better live than on CD, simply enrapturing. In the following One Flight Down written by Jesse Harris it was again Norah Jones' (this time penetrating) voice which was the dominating element. For the first time, the quartet managed to produce an acceptable sound.

Two titles written by bassist Lee Alexander followed: Feelin' The Same Way and Seven Years. In the latter song, the drummer Andrew Borger had some impressive passages. Norah Jones' balanced ballad voice convinced with its natural narrative style.
 
After a composition written by their "good friend" Jesse Harris, the band played a new song. According to the song list handed to the reviewer after the concert by the sound technician, it was entitled In The Morning. It had no sleepy edge at all. On the contrary, the band, for the first time at the center, offered a rousing rhythm which carried away the public.
 
Norah Jones began her ballad Come Away With Me with a piano solo effort. Again, her singing was even more impressive live than in the version burned on CD. In the instrumental part, the guitar had the leading role. Afterwards, the singer announced a song which can only be found on the Japanese version of her debut album. According to the song list, it is entitled What Am I To You and it contains lyrics such as "I love you when you are blue" and "looking in your eyes I can feel butterflies".
 
After the other band members had left the stage, Norah Jones played Peace. At the end of her piano solo, she urgently and repeatedly sang: This Is For Everyone; this was on October 15, 2002, well before the hot discussion about a possible war against Iraq.
 
Painter Song, a jazz and folk inspired duet with her guitarist followed. And folk music remained the guiding theme in Lonestar in which the duo was enlarged to a trio by the band's road manager Daru Oda. In the following ballad The Worst by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, the singing road manager was again part of the band.

After a few technical difficulties, which were not the group's fault, I've Got To See You Again by Jesse Harris was performed. For once, the instrumental and the singing part both filled the reviewer with equal enthusiasm. Calmer sounds followed with the catchy ballad Don't Know Why. It was even arranged a little too catchy. Subtlety and refinement of play where not ingredients of the evening. In this regard, only the voice of Norah Jones was convincing, also in this Grammy awarded ballad.
 
Lee Alexander's Toes Just Touch The Water, another new song, not yet on CD, followed. Norah Jones could not help giggling when guitarrist Adam Levy had to fight with hiccups during his solo. At the end of the concert, the band offered Ride On with the lines "we share the good times and the bad". As a singer, guitarist Adam Levy made a sorry figure.
 
The first encore was another new composition, Moon Song, a catchy ballad in which Norah Jones' piano play stood out positively. Before the second encore, the twentieth song, which ended the concert definitively, the singer asked rhetorically: "Do you like AC/DC?" A stamping, intensifying rhythm to "I am so lonely, but I know what I am gonna do, ride on" followed. The band stood at the center of attention and managed to set the public on fire again, also with a longer and mind-blowing instrumental part.

Today's deals at Amazon.com. - Sheet music by Norah Jones.


Norah Jones 2009 photoshooting The Fall. EMI photo Copyright: Autumn de Wilde.


Norah Jones 2009 photoshooting The Fall. EMI photo Copyright: Autumn de Wilde.