Norah Jones

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Norah Jones
Background information
Birth name	Geethali Norah Jones Shankar
Born	March 30, 1979 (age 28)
Origin	New York City, New York, USA
Genre(s)	Folk Soul Jazz Country Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s)	Vocals Piano/keyboards Guitar
Years active	2001–present
Label(s)	Blue Note (2002–present)
Website	http://www.norahjones.com/

Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979 in Brooklyn, New York) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.

Jones's career was launched with her massively successful 2002 debut album Come Away with Me, a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, which sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received eight Grammy Awards, including the "Grammy Award for Best New Artist". Her second album, Feels like Home, was released in 2004, clocking more than a million sales in the first week. In 2007, she released her third album; Not Too Late debuted at #1 on the charts.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Musical career 2.1 Early days 2.2 Debut album — Come Away with Me 2.3 Second album — Feels like Home 2.4 Third album — Not Too Late 3 Tours 4 Nominations and awards 5 On screen 6 Collaborations 6.1 The Little Willies 6.2 Ryan Adams & the Cardinals 6.3 Peeping Tom 6.4 El Madmo 6.5 Foo Fighters 6.6 Outkast 7 Discography 8 Filmography 9 Awards 10 Trivia 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Biography

Jones was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar in New York City, New York, but later changed her name officially to Norah Jones, at the age of 16. She is the daughter of the Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and Sue Jones, and is the half-sister of musician Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar's daughter from his second marriage. She spent her childhood with her mother, who moved to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas, when Jones was four. She has always liked the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday among others from the 'oldies' section and considers Willie Nelson her idol. She has been quoted as saying, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set, I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again."

Jones began singing in church choirs, taking piano lessons, and even briefly trying out the alto saxophone. She attended Interlochen Arts Camp,Grapevine High School, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. While at high school, she won the DownBeat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996).[1] She then attended the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano. In 1999, two years into the program, Jones left for New York City. Since about that time she has been romantically involved with bassist Lee Alexander.

[edit] Musical career

[edit] Early days

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist.^[1] Jones played with numerous artists and bands including Wax Poetic and the Peter Malick Group. Jones performed quite frequently with guitarist Charlie Hunter in 2001 and appeared on Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album in a duet with André 3000 in 2003. While Jones is best-known for her sultry-yet-powerful vocal style, often compared to that of Billie Holiday or Nina Simone, her abilities as a jazz pianist have likewise been celebrated. On January 19, 2003 Jones appeared as a guest on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR, performing jazz standards such as "September in the Rain" and "I Can't Get Started," and later that year she appeared again with McPartland at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, performing more standards such as "Lover Man" and "Walking My Baby Back Home". She has performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in both 2004 and 2005.

[edit] Debut album — Come Away with Me

Main article: Come Away with Me

Her debut album, Come Away with Me, debuted in February 2002 and was instantly celebrated for its blending of mellow, acoustic pop with soul and country. It hit number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, with the single "Don't Know Why" hitting number one on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003. She made a cameo appearance in the 2002 movie Two Weeks Notice playing the piano and singing "Nearness of You" at the fundraiser.

[edit] Second album — Feels like Home

Main article: Feels like Home

Her second album, Feels like Home, was released on February 9, 2004. Rather than repeat the softer, jazz mood of Come Away with Me, her second album was influenced by country music. Within a week of its release, Feels like Home had sold over a million copies, making it the highest-selling album in the history of Blue Note Records. Jones toured globally again, to promote the album with the Handsome Band, and the addition of backing singer Daru Oda. Time magazine included Jones on the Time 100, a list of the most influential people of 2004.^[2]

[edit] Third album — Not Too Late

Main article: Not Too Late

Her third album, Not Too Late, was released by Blue Note Records on January 30, 2007, and became the 800th album to reach the top spot on the UK chart. The album is Jones's first for which she wrote or co-wrote every song, and according to her, some of them are much darker than those on her previous albums.^[3] The song "My Dear Country" is a political satire; she wrote it before the United States Presidential election day in 2004.

The album has sold more than 2.2 million copies worldwide, according to media traffic.^[4] The first single, "Thinking About You", became Jones's first single to chart on the U.S. Hot 100 since "Don't Know Why".^[5]

[edit] Tours

Throughout 2002 and 2003 Jones appeared on stages, globally, for her first tour with the Handsome Band, travelling throughout Asia, America, Europe and Australia. The tour was received with numerous sell-out concerts and positive critical acclaim.

[edit] Nominations and awards

Come Away with Me was heavily nominated for the Grammy Awards of 2003. By receiving Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist honors all in 2003, she became only the second person to win the "Big Four" of the Grammies in one year (the other being Christopher Cross in 1979). Of the eight awards for Come Away with Me, Jones personally received five, with the other three attributed to the album itself. "Don't Know Why" was also performed on an episode of Sesame Street, in which Jones changed the lyrics to "Don't know why Y didn't come," and thereby introduced the letter Y to the young audience.

Jones received three awards at the Grammy Awards of 2005, including "Record of the Year" and "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" for her collaboration with Ray Charles on the song "Here We Go Again". She personally earned her eighth Grammy (and eleventh overall) for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for her song "Sunrise". That year, Jones appeared on the self-titled record by Amos Lee.

Jones also collaborated with the Foo Fighters on their 2005 record In Your Honor, singing vocals with Dave Grohl on "Virginia Moon". The song was nominated for a "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" in 2006.

[edit] On screen

Norah Jones's cameo in the 2002 film Two Weeks Notice shows her briefly at the piano, singing for a charity benefit.

In the latter part of 2003, rumors emerged that veteran Indian filmmaker Dev Anand was planning to make the film Song of Life, inspired by Jones's troubled relationship with her father, Ravi Shankar. Both Jones and Shankar were enraged by the rumors; Jones commented, "[Anand] has no idea of our story, and he's not going to represent it in a truthful way, I'm sure. It's sad because it's personal stuff and nobody's business but ours."

In February 2006, Screen International reported that Jones would make her acting debut in a film by 2046 and Chungking Express director Wong Kar-wai. The film called My Blueberry Nights, would be Wong Kai-wai's English language debut and will be partly funded by StudioCanal and Jet Tone Productions.

[edit] Collaborations

[edit] The Little Willies

The Little Willies is a band formed in 2003. It features Jones on piano and vocals. The other members of the band are Richard Julian on vocals, Jim Campilongo on guitar, Lee Alexander on bass and Dan Rieser on percussion.

[edit] Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

Jones sang lead vocals with Ryan Adams in the song "Dear John" which is on the album "Jacksonville City Nights" by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, released September 27th, 2005.

[edit] Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom is an experimental collaboration album by Mike Patton released in 2006. Jones collaborated on the album, appearing on track 10 "Sucker".

[edit] El Madmo

On May 12, 2006; Jones (disguised in a blonde wig, heavy make-up, fishnets and short shorts) played guitar and sang vocals in the tongue-in-cheek punk band El Madmo.^[6] They opened for the band Pela. The band consists of "El" (Handsome Band's Daru Oda), "Maddie" (Norah Jones) and "Mo".

[edit] Foo Fighters

Jones contributed to the Foo Fighters' 2005 album In Your Honor. She played piano and sang (together with Dave Grohl) on Virginia Moon, an acoustic jazz track on the second disc of the album.

[edit] Outkast

Jones also played the piano for an instrumental track on Outkast's third album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Entitled "Take Off your Cool," Jones plays a jazzy number to a hip-hop beat.

[edit] Discography

Main article: Norah Jones discography

• First Sessions (2001) (demo EP)
• Come Away with Me (February 26, 2002) – 10x platinum (U.S.); 20 million (worldwide)
• Feels like Home (February 10, 2004) – 4x platinum (U.S.); 11 million (worldwide)
• Not Too Late (January 30, 2007) – 2x Platinum (U.S.); 2 million (worldwide)

[edit] Filmography

• Two Weeks Notice (as Herself, 2002)
• My Blueberry Nights (directed by Wong Kar Wai)

[edit] Awards

Jones has won multiple awards, most noticeably her Grammy Awards.

Grammy Awards:

• 2003 "Best Pop Vocal Album" — Come Away with Me
• 2003 "Album of the Year" — Come Away with Me
• 2003 "Record of the Year" — "Don't Know Why"
• 2003 "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" — "Don't Know Why"
• 2003 "Best New Artist"
• 2005 "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" — "Here We Go Again" (with Ray Charles)
• 2005 "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" — "Sunrise"
• 2005 "Record of the Year" — "Here We Go Again" (with Ray Charles)

[edit] Trivia

R.A. The Rugged Man mentions Norah on his track "Lessons", the lyrics are "I knew this chick named Norah a lounge singer, A year later she a six Grammy award winner"[2]

[edit] See also

• Best selling music artists

[edit] References

• [3] UK chart positions source
• [4] UK chart positions source #2

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Norah Jones Interview with Blender
• Myspace Fan Site
• Norah Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Norah Jones Interview