Norah Jones has since 2002’s Come Away With Me been at the intersection between jazz and pop music, producing six more albums herself as well as providing guest vocals for other artists.
She launched her own podcast where she sits down with different guests every week for musical collaborations and candid dialogue. Additionally, she’s active as a philanthropist.
Her musical background
Norah Jones began singing and playing piano from an early age, later turning her focus toward jazz music while in high school. Additionally, she performed at local coffeehouse open mic nights. At University of North Texas she studied jazz piano performance.
She later signed to Blue Note Records, where her music has often been described as jazz-influenced. However, she also incorporates pop, R&B and country influences for an innovative sound.
Begin Again is her seventh album and features songs recorded spontaneously with collaborators including Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and pianist Thomas Bartlett.
Her first album
Norah Jones’ debut album, Come Away With Me, sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and she is often compared to Billie Holiday and Nina Simone singers; however her music defies easy classification.
Jones expands her musical palette on Feels Like Home by adding subtle country inflections, and shows that she can write songs as well as play piano. Jones collaborated with producer Arif Mardin – known for producing Cassandra Wilson and Dianne Reeves records – on this project.
Her second album
At 22 years old, Norah Jones made her mark on pop music with the release of her groundbreaking debut album Come Away With Me. Its smooth blend of jazz, folk, and country garnered both critical and commercial acclaim alike.
Feels Like Home, her follow-up record, established her signature style of lightly rustic acoustics even further. For its production she brought in several talented musicians such as Garth Hudson of The Band and Levon Helm from Levon Helm.
Norah is joined today by legendary singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff for an insightful discussion of their newly formed partnership, Visions.
Her third album
After her debut album Come Away With Me became a middle-class dinner-party standard for more than a decade, Grace Jones quietly released Feels Like Home; its expansion of musical parameters with subtle country overtones was often overlooked or written off as “more of the same”.
But with Little Broken Hearts, she regained respect for the three-chord songs that gave her her start. Although it won’t change anyone’s minds about her artistic maturity, the album shows positive progress.
Her fourth album
Norah Jones remains faithful to her trademark style while making some subtle modifications on this release. It begins with Norah’s signature piano and vocal combination as she opens with “We Belong Together”, before transitioning into new terrain with additional soundscapes such as guitar improvisation and orchestral pieces that add depth and texture.
Laufey, an Icelandic singer-songwriter renowned for her modern jazz sound that has amassed millions of followers on TikTok, joins her to discuss building a career while maintaining autonomy while playing several elegant originals and an inspired Lucinda Williams cover song.
Her fifth album
Jones found herself restless after the success of Come Away With Me at the end of the aughts and decided to experiment by working with various harder-edged musicians on 2009’s The Fall and 2011’s Rome albums.
Little Broken Hearts continues this trend by exploring all of the emotions and complications surrounding heartbreak. Jones teams up with producer Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse from Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells; his production provides her with an intriguing new sonic landscape for this release.
Her sixth album
Norah Jones has explored various genres since her Grammy-winning, multimillion-selling 2002 debut Come Away With Me. From honky-tonk country on 2004’s Feels Like Home to electric instrumentation on her 2012 concept record Little Broken Hearts produced by Danger Mouse – she has taken great strides forward as an artist.
Jones returns to her jazz-heavy piano-driven sound of her initial success with her new album. Additionally, she embraces nuance by including Townes Van Zandt cover versions, Dolly Parton collaborations, and Duke Ellington tributes – an impressive display of both maturity and range.
Her seventh album
Norah Jones returned to her roots with this piano-driven album. Her lyrics address such topics as love lost, heartache and depression with great candor and vulnerability.
Norah Jones proves her prodigy for poetic lyricism and sensitive piano phrasing across 11 songs on this album, which she won nine-times Grammy awards for. By ditching genre labelling altogether, Norah showcases both her extraordinary vocal talents as well as emotive songwriting talent to showcase them at their full potential.