Norah Jones
Jones at Bright Eyes at Town Hall, May 29, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Geethali Norah Jones Shankar
Born	(1979-03-30) March 30, 1979 (age 33) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, blues, pop, folk, country, vocal jazz, soul, roots rock, alternative rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, actress
Instruments	Vocals, piano/keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, saxophone
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Blue Note
Associated acts	The Little Willies, El Madmo, Liberation Prophecy, Wax Poetic, Peter Malick, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Q-Tip, Peeping Tom
Website	norahjones.com

Norah Jones^[1] (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. She is the daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. She is also the paternal half-sister of Anoushka Shankar.^[2]

In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, a fusion of jazz, pop, and country music, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies.^[3][4][5] The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist.^[6] Her subsequent studio albums, Feels Like Home, released in 2004, Not Too Late, released in 2007, the same year she made her film debut in My Blueberry Nights, and her 2009 release The Fall all gained Platinum status after selling over a million copies^[4] and were generally well received by critics.^[3] Jones' fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts was released on April 27, 2012.

Jones has won nine Grammy Awards and was Billboard magazine's 60th-best-selling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade.^[7] Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.^[8] Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.

Early life[link]

Born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York to Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and American concert producer Sue Jones.^[5] After her parents' separation in 1986, Jones spent her childhood with her mother in the Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas. She attended Colleyville Middle School and Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. While in high school, Jones sang in the school choir, participated in band and played the alto saxophone. At the age of sixteen, with her parents' consent, she officially changed her name to Norah Jones.^[1][9]

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 began singing in church choirs and took piano lessons as a child. She still attends church. She considers herself spiritual and appreciates the rituals of her church but does not consider herself the religious type.^[10]

She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers. 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).^[11]

Jones attended the University of North Texas (UNT), where she majored in jazz piano and sang with the UNT Jazz Singers. During this time, she had a chance meeting with future collaborator Jesse Harris. She gave a ride to a band playing at the university whose members happened to be friends of Harris. He was on a cross-country road-trip with friend and future Little Willies member, Richard Julian, and stopped to see the band play. After meeting Jones, Harris started sending her lead sheets of his songs. In 1999, she left for New York City. Less than a year later, she started a band with Harris, which made her famous.^[12]

Musical career[link]

[edit] 2001–2004: First Sessions and Come Away with Me

Jones moved to New York City and signed to Blue Note Records, a label owned by EMI Group. The signing came as an indirect result of Jones performing background vocals for singer-songwriter Victoria Williams.^[13] Shell White, the wife of Williams' producer JC Hopkins, worked in Blue Note's royalties department and passed Jones's 3-track demo on to the label's president Bruce Lundvall and its A&R Brian Bacchus. The demo featured two jazz standards and a song by Jesse Harris.^[13] Lundvall and Bacchus immediately agreed Jones had great potential and although initially unsure about what direction her music would follow, particularly since Blue Note was a jazz label, they nevertheless decided to sign Jones. Bacchus told HitQuarters: "We let her find her own direction ... We knew that if she could develop her songwriting and we could find great songs, it would work."^[13]

Jones was first teamed up with experienced producer and engineer Jay Newland. Bacchus thought that Newland's experience in jazz, blues, rock, country and folk would give him a "feeling for her sound".^[13] Together they cut around nine demo tracks, of which six formed her debut Blue Note release, the sampler First Sessions, while the rest were set aside for her debut album.^[13] "First Sessions" was released in 2001.

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist.^[14] Prior to releasing her first album, she performed with Wax Poetic, Peter Malick and jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter.^[15][16][17]

Released in February 2002 debut album, Jones' Come Away with Me, was celebrated for its blending of mellow, acoustic pop with soul and jazz. Debuting at #139, it reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The single "Don't Know Why" hit #1 on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003 and #30 in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

In 2003, she won five Grammy Awards, which were Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for the album and Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Don't Know Why" at the 45th Grammy Awards. This matched the record for most Grammy wins by a female artist in a single night (tying with Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys). That night, Jesse Harris won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for composing "Don't Know Why", Arif Mardin won Producer of the Year, primarily for his work on Come Away With Me, and the album also received the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.^[5][6]

The album received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 22, 2002, and went on to become a diamond album on February 15, 2005.^[18] It remains Blue Note's biggest-selling album.^[5]

[edit] 2004–2006: Feels Like Home and collaboration with Ray Charles

Jones released her second album, Feels Like Home, on February 9, 2004. It was influenced by country music. Within a week of its release, Feels Like Home had sold over a million copies. It sold 4 million copies in the United States and reached quadruple Platinum status, selling ten million copies worldwide. Jones toured globally, promoting the album with the Handsome Band, and backing singer Daru Oda.

Time magazine included Jones on the Time 100, a list of the most influential people of 2004.^[19] The album debuted at number one in at least 16 countries around the world.^[20]

In 2005, at the 47th Grammy Awards, Feels Like Home was nominated for three Grammys. It won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Sunrise", and had nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for her duet with Dolly Parton, "Creepin 'In".^[21]

She won two more Grammy Awards that year, for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for her collaboration with Ray Charles, "Here We Go Again", which was the first track on Charles' last album, Genius Loves Company. Genius Loves Company won the Album of the Year award.^[22]

[edit] 2007–2008: Not Too Late and Film debut

Jones in 2007

Jones released her third album, Not Too Late, on January 30, 2007. The album was her 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.^[23] Not Too Late was mostly recorded at Jones's home studio and is her first album without producer Arif Mardin, who had died in the summer of 2006. Jones described the sessions as "fun, relaxed and easy" and without a deadline; Blue Note executives reportedly did not know she was recording an album. The song "My Dear Country" is political commentary; she wrote it before the United States Presidential election day in 2004.

Not Too Late reached the #1 position in twenty countries. Not Too Late had the third-best first week of sales in 2007, behind Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing and Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight. It reached #1 in the U.S., selling 405,000 copies. EMI announced that Not Too Late reached gold, platinum or multi-platinum in 21 countries as of February 2007.^[24] The album has sold 4 million copies worldwide.

By 2007, Jones had sold over 36 million albums worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Jones made her film debut in 2007 in the romance/drama film My Blueberry Nights, directed by Wong Kar Wai, co-starring Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman. Jones as Elizabeth is a young woman who goes on a soul-searching journey across America to resolve her questions about love, and finds along the way a series of curious characters. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007 and United States in April 2008, It went on to gross more than $21,967,587 worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 2009–2011: The Fall and ...Featuring

Jones's fourth studio album, The Fall, debuted at number three in November 2009, selling 180,000 copies in its first week. It was Jones's first album to not reach #1 in the United States. The album received critical acclaim.^[25] As part of the promotional drive for the album, she performed on Dancing with the Stars, Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America and other television programs.

"The Fall," featured the Saint Bernard, Ben, on the cover.

The album's lead single, "Chasing Pirates", peaked at #13 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and #7 on Jazz Songs.

Billboard's 2000–2009 decade awards ranked her as the top Jazz recording artist, at #60 best Artist. Come Away With Me was elected the #4 album and #1 jazz album. Jones earned a platinum certification by the RIAA for sales of 1 million copies of The Fall. The album sold 1.5 million copies worldwide and was certified gold or platinum in 14 countries as of 2010. "Baby, It's Cold Outside", a duet with Willie Nelson, was nominated in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.

Her fourth world tour began March 5, 2010.

Jones released ...Featuring, a compilation album of collaborations she has done with well-known musicians, including the Foo Fighters, Willie Nelson, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Outkast, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Belle and Sebastian, Ray Charles, Ryan Adams, Dolly Parton, Herbie Hancock, M. Ward, and others. Jones said, “It's so exciting and flattering and fun when I get asked to sing with somebody that I admire...It takes you a little bit out of your comfort zone when you're doing something with another artist. You don't know what to expect—it's kind of like being a little kid and having a playdate.” The 18-track Blue Note disc was released on November 16, 2010.^[26]

Jones recorded a Christmas duet Home for the Holidays^{[disambiguation needed ]} with Cyndi Lauper.

[edit] 2012–present: Little Broken Hearts

After working with Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi on some of the tracks of their album, Rome, Jones teamed up with Danger Mouse for her fifth studio album Little Broken Hearts, which was released on May 1, 2012.^[27] Jones played the album at SXSW 2012 in its entirety.^[28] American Songwriter has referred to Little Broken Hearts as the "most dramatic and rewarding departure she’s made in her career."^[29]

Additional projects and collaborations[link]

Jones and jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter covered the Roxy Music song More Than This for Hunter's 2001 album Songs from the Analog Playground.^[30]

Jones made a cameo appearance as herself in the 2002 movie Two Weeks Notice which starred Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. The film shows her briefly at the piano, singing for a charity benefit.^[31]

Jones appears on the track "Ruler of My Heart" (a cover of an Irma Thomas song), on the 2002 Dirty Dozen Brass Band album, Medicated Magic.^[32]

Norah Jones playing at the Blaisdell Arena.

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."^[5]

Jones appeared on OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album, on "Take Off Your Cool". This album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year (Jones was not credited).

Jones appeared in the 2004 special Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On.^[33]

Jones appeared on Ray Charles' final album, Genius Loves Company, in 2004, on "Here We Go Again".

Jones formed The Little Willies in 2003 alongside Richard Julian on vocals, Jim Campilongo on guitar, Lee Alexander on bass, and Dan Rieser on drums. The alt country band released its eponymous first album in 2006 and a sophomore set, "For the Good Times" in 2012.^[34]

Jones has done three Grammy-nominated duets with Willie Nelson: "Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want To Get Over You)" in 2003,^[35] "Dreams Come True" in 2005^[36] and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in 2009.^[37]