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Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30 1979) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. 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, that sold twenty million copies worldwide and received eight Grammy Awards. Jones's second album, Feels like Home, was released in 2004 to high sales, and in 2006 she released an album as part of the country band The Little Willies.

Education and musical influences

Norah Jones was born as Geethali Norah Jones Shankar in New York City, but later changed her name officially to Norah Jones at age 16. She is the daughter of 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 Dallas, Texas, when Norah was four. She has always liked the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday among others from the 'oldies' section. Norah has had a profound appreciation for the music and finds it intriguing and relieving. 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; 'You Go to My Head', that was my favorite..."

Jones began singing in church choirs, taking piano lessons, and even briefly trying out the alto saxophone. She attended Interlochen Arts Camp, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, and the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano, and won Best Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996). In 1999, two years into the program, Norah left for New York City.

Career and accolades

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 including "September in the Rain" and "I Can't Get Started", and later that year she appeared with McPartland again 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.

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 single "Don't Know Why" hitting number one on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003.

Jones walked away from the Grammy Awards of 2003 with eight awards. By receiving "Record of the Year", "Album of the Year", "Song of the Year", and "Best New Artist" honors all in 2003, Jones was the first artist to sweep the "Big Four", or the four most prestigious Grammy awards, since Christopher Cross did so in the Grammy Awards of 1981. The "Song of the Year" award went to Jesse Harris for writing "Don't Know Why", but because Jones performed the song, she is associated with winning "Song of the Year" as well. Of the eight awards that came from Come Away with Me at the 2003 Grammy Awards, Jones personally received five awards with the other three awards attributed to the album itself. "Don't know why" was also performed at 'Sesame Street', in which Norah changed the lyrics to "Don't know why Y didn't come" and thereby introduced the letter Y to the young audience.

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. In that same year, Time magazine listed Jones among the most influential people of 2004.

Jones received three awards at the Grammy Awards of 2005, two for her "Record of the Year" collaboration with Ray Charles on the song "Here We Go Again". That year, Norah Jones appeared on the self-titled record by Amos Lee.

In the latter part of 2003, rumours emerged that veteran Indian filmmaker Dev Anand was planning to make the film Song of Life, inspired by Norah Jones's troubled relationship with her father, Ravi Shankar. Both Jones and Shankar were enraged by the rumors and Jones's comments were, "He [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."

Norah 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.

In February 2006, Screen International reported that Norah 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.

Awards

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

These are Jones' 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)

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.

In 2004, Jones toured globally again, to promote her Feels like Home album with the Handsome Band and the addition of backing singer Daru Oda.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Compilations

• Artist's Choice: Norah Jones

Albums Featured

• 2001 - Songs from the Analog Playground (album by Charlie Hunter. Jones performs on covers of Roxy Music's "More Than This" and Nick Drake's "Day Is Done".)
• 2003 - Just Because I'm a Woman (Dolly Parton tribute album. Jones performs cover of Parton's "The Grass Is Blue"; Parton subsequently reciprocated by appearing on Jones' Feels like Home album on the song "Creepin' In".)
• 2003 - The Love Below (album by OutKast, Jones features on "Take off Your Cool".)
• 2003 - Lonesome, On'ry and Mean: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings (album by Various Artists, Jones features on "Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want to Get over You)".)
• 2003 - New York City (album by Peter Malick.)
• 2004 - NuBlu Sessions (album by Wax Poetic, performing vocals on "Tell Me" and "Angels".)
• 2005 - In Your Honour (album by Foo Fighters, performing vocals on "Virginia Moon".)
• 2005 - Jacksonville City Nights (album by Ryan Adams, performing vocals on Dear John.)
• 2006 - Peeping Tom (collaboration album by Mike Patton (as Peeping Tom), Jones performs vocals on "Sucker".)
• 2006 - Ear Drum (Talib Kweli album, on a song produced by Madlib).

DVDs and videos

• Live in New Orleans
• Live in 2004

Interviews

• Maximum Norah Jones
• Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

The Little Willies

The Little Willies is a band formed in 2003. It features Norah 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. The group of five friends, who were at the time all involved in individual projects of their own, booked a gig at The Living Room on New York's Lower East Side presumably as an excuse to play music together and shortly after this performance, the band was formed. Although Norah Jones is better known for a jazz-influenced sound, her input on the The Little Willies album showcases her country influences. The album features covers of tracks by Willie Nelson, Fred Rose, Townes Van Zandt and Kris Kristofferson.

Discography

• The Little Willies (2006)

Filmography

• My Blueberry Nights (directed by Wong Kar Wai)

References

See also

• Best selling music artists - World's top-selling music artists chart.

External links

• Official Norah Jones website
• Norah Jones video footage: Performing on the Jools Holland Show, May 2005, BBC2
• Norah Jones biography, CD and concert reviews by cosmopolis.ch

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