Geethali Norah Jones Shankar was born on March 30th of 1979, the daughter of Robbie Shankar (the famous sitar player) and concert producer Sue Jones. She moved from NYC to Texas in 1986 and grew up there with her mom. Showing an affinity for music very early on, by high school she was playing both piano and alto saxophone as well as singing in a choir and performance setting. At age 16, she changed her name officially to Norah Jones, and thus began a particularly interesting and unique career born of many different influences and origins.
Attending the University of North Texas for Jazz Piano, buzz about Norah began to culminate quickly upon her meeting Jesse Harris. Harris, seeing such a brilliance in her, became a vehicle for her musical career and the catalyst for Norah’s move back to New York in 1999. She formed a band with Harris and her presence in the music world was launched sky high. By singing backup vocals for Victoria Williams, her (and Jesse’s) demo wiggled its way up the ranks until her potential was very apparent to the label, and she was signed quickly after. Releasing a demo in 2001 titled First Sessions, she was already at an important tipping point in her career. Norah Jone’s debut album I Don’t Know Why was released in February of 2002, reaching #1 on the US billboards with ease. There was truly some unshakable factor to her music, unequivocally healing and richly melodic, she her found that perfect balance of genres in such a natural context that the album was mesmerizing to most. From that album on she truly laid her place in the crux of jazz, pop, country, soul, folk, blues, and more. Taking influences from jazz musicians such as Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, Norah coos into the microphone with such ease to her sound, a languid and rolling nature to the brush-played drums, tasteful piano, and weaving guitar parts. Winning 5 Grammy’s that year, with another 3 associated with I Don’t Know Why, Norah had corroborated that her potential was indeed even greater than anticipated.
Reaching quadruple platinum status with her second album Feels Like Home, she was seen as a worldly musician because of how malleable so many musical mediums were to her. Any given song from that era of her career contains her unmistakable jazzy piano playing, and her choice of notes in the vocals reflecting older singers rather than the new. This new artist brought a certain nostalgic element to modern popular music, invoking a distinct emotion that only her music holds. The only thing missing from her repertoire was great collaboration, and since then she has done work with countless brilliant musicians, including Jack White, the Foo Fighters, and legends of the last 50 years of jazz, such as Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock. This willingness to lend her particular sound to musicians with such diverse styles offers good insight into her appreciation of all music and its healing and unifying properties.
Norah Jones continues to experiment and will the fluidity of her origins into different shapes, leaning more towards jazz for a richer more complex sound, and wandering into many Indie sounds for a spunkier tone. Her approach to music mirrors that of the Berklee spirit, as she seeks constantly for a greater and more vast understanding of the great musical world available to us in this modern age. Dancing through the separate styles as one at a loom would simply switch colors to make the larger cloth. Meanwhile, jazz being her beginning and remaining her medium, she is perfectly jazz influenced.
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