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Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, keyboardist, guitarist, and occasional actress of Anglo-American and Indian-Bengali descent. She is the daughter of sitarist Ravi Shankar and the half-sister of Anoushka Shankar.
Jones' career was launched with her 2002 debut album Come Away with Me. It is an adult contemporary pop/vocal jazz album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold 25 million copies worldwide and received five Grammy Awards, with Jones winning "Best New Artist".
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Quotations
He wasn't done yet.
The coolest thing I've gotten to do in the past few years is guest star on Sesame Street.
I felt like I went to somebody else's birthday party and I ate all their cake. Without anybody else getting a piece. That's how I felt.
On winning all the awards in every category she was nominated in the Grammys 2003
You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people.
On her father Ravi Shankar in an interview
Encyclopedia
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, keyboardist, guitarist, and occasional actress of Anglo-American and Indian-Bengali descent. She is the daughter of sitarist Ravi Shankar and the half-sister of Anoushka Shankar.
Jones' career was launched with her 2002 debut album Come Away with Me. It is an adult contemporary pop/vocal jazz album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold 25 million copies worldwide and received five Grammy Awards, with Jones winning "Best New Artist". Her second album, Feels like Home, was released in 2004. In 2007, she released her third album, Not Too Late.
Jones' sold 16 million albums in the US and 36 million records worldwide.
Early life
Born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar in Brooklyn, New York, she officially changed her name to Norah Jones at the age of sixteen with the blessings of her parents.
Jones is the daughter of the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and Sue Jones. Jones spent her childhood with her mother, who moved to the Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas, when Jones was four. She attended Colleyville Middle School, followed by a short period at Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. Her only formal vocal training was her stint in the choir at Colleyville and Booker T. Washington. While at Colleyville, she also participated in band and played the alto saxophone.
Jones always had an affinity for the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, among other 'oldies.' She once said, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set, I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again." She considers Willie Nelson her mentor.
Jones began singing in church choirs and took piano lessons as a child. She attended Interlochen Arts Camp during the summers. While at high school, she won the for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996).
Jones went to the University of North Texas at Denton, where she majored in jazz piano. It was during this time she had a chance meeting with future collaborator (and her own catapult to fame) Jesse Harris. She was picking up a band that was playing at the university that also happened to be friends of Harris' who was making a stop on a cross-country road-trip with friend Richard Julian to see the band play. After having met Harris was sending her lead sheets of his songs. In 1999, after two years of struggling in the program at the university, Jones left for New York City. Less than a year later she started a band with Harris.
Musical career
Early days
Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist. She played with artists and bands including Wax Poetic and the Peter Malick Group. She performed frequently with guitarist Charlie Hunter in 2001.
Debut album: 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 jazz. 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 and #30 in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. She made a cameo appearance in the 2002 movie Two Weeks Notice playing the piano and singing "The Nearness of You" at the fundraiser.
Second album: 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. "Feels Like Home" debuted at number-one in most countries around the world and has sold 13 million copies.
Third album: Not Too Late
Her third album, Not Too Late, was released by Blue Note Records on January 30, 2007. 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. Not Too Late was mostly recorded at Jones's home studio and is the first album Jones recorded without producer Arif Mardin, who died in the summer of 2006. Jones described the sessions as "fun, relaxed and easy" and without a deadline; executives at Blue Note Records reportedly did not know they were recording an album. The song "My Dear Country" is a political satire; she wrote it before the United States Presidential election day in 2004.
Not Too Late reached the #1 position in twenty countries. It is the third best first week album sales of 2007 after Avril Lavigne's third album The Best Damn Thing and Linkin Park's third album Minutes to Midnight. The album became the 800th album to reach the top spot on the UK chart. It also reached #1 in the U.S. with 405,000 copies sold. According to a press release from EMI, Not Too Late is certified gold or platinum in twenty-one countries as of February 2007. The album has sold 5 million copies worldwide.
Another song of hers,"Turn Me On", featured in the British comedy 'Love Actually' Soundtrack in 2003.
Additional Projects
Jones appeared in the comedy track Dreamgirl in the debut album from The Lonely Island, Incredibad (featuring SNL performer Andy Samberg). The first half of the song pays hommage to a cerain fictional female, but the second half goes on tangent, paying yet another hommage to Chex Mix.
The Hank Williams project
Jones is one of the participants in the so-called Hank Williams Project being overseen by Bob Dylan, and reportedly including contributions from Willie Nelson, Jack White, Lucinda Williams, Javier Turienzo Alvarez, and Alan Jackson. On March 31 2008, Jones commemorated the 10th anniversary of with a midnight performance at the intimate Manhattan music venue where the singer got her start. She played a new song, titled "How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart" and explained that it originated from newly-found Hank Williams lyrics that she was asked to put music to. Jones also performed the song in late 2008 on Elvis Costello's talk/music television series, Spectacle: Elvis Costello With...
Tours
Throughout 2002 and 2003 Jones appeared on stages, globally, for her first tour with the Handsome Band, travelling throughout Asia, America, Europe and Oceania. The tour was received with numerous sell-out concerts and positive critical acclaim.
Jones began a United States concert tour to promote her third album, Not Too Late, on April 13, 2007, and ending with a free concert in New York City on July 6, 2007. Pre-sales of tickets to the shows were available to her fan club members, and many sold out well before the performance date. She began her European tour on July 9, 2007 in Paris, and finished with a concert in London on August 27, 2007, in Sopot on August 31 and in Reykjavík, Iceland on September 2, 2007.
While playing with the Handsome Band, Jones & co. are known to play several known hits from her albums, modified for stage performance with guitar solos and additional percussion. Additionally, shows may also feature several covers of country, jazz, blues, or folk songs, ranging from the ubiquitous to the obscure. Artists covered have included, among others, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, John Prine, Randy Newman, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, and Tom Waits.
Jones is working with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2007 summer tour. She also performed at Bryant Park on July 6 as part of Good Morning America's Summer Concert Series.
On screen
Norah Jones's cameo in the 2002 movie Two Weeks Notice came just as her career was beginning to expand. The film 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."
Jones appeared in the 2004 special Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On. Jones changed the lyrics to her famous song "Don't Know Why" to read "Don't know why Y didn't come," thereby introducing the letter Y to the young audience.
In February 2006, Screen International reported that Jones would make her acting debut as the protagonist of a film directed by Wong Kar-wai. The film, My Blueberry Nights, was the opening film for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as one of the 22 films in competition. Jones wrote a song for the movie.
In January 2007, Jones recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road. The episode, on which John Mayer and Richard Ashcroft also appeared, was aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 in March 2007 and in the USA on the Sundance Channel in June 2007.
She appeared twice on the PBS series Austin City Limits, on November 2, 2002 and October 6, 2007. The latter appearance was the season opener.
Filmography
Discography
DVDs
EP's
Concert tours
Awards
See also
External links
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