You would never guess Norah Jones' age from her voice: a melodious alto blend of Billie Holiday compression (she fills the notes like ideal air pressure in a tire), Diana Krall easy self-possession, and a hint of smoky Dusty-in-Memphis grit.

I first heard the voice last year on the brilliant 8-string guitarist Charlie Hunter's Songs From the Analog Playground, on which she appeared twice: a dazzling, bluesy rendition of Nick Drake's "Day Is Done"; and most remarkably, a jazzy bossa nova version of Roxy Music's ode to ennui, "More Than This," on which she brought to mind an idealized Phoebe Snow.

Then her CD, Come Away With Me, came out and I knew they had put the wrong person on the cover: big trouble in the art department. For staring out from the jewel case is a vaguely exotic, raven-haired, sensuous-lipped, college girl. There is no way that this voice of sly experience came out of that face. But it did, and does.

Though released by the historic, jazz-oriented Blue Note label, Come Away, produced by the legendary Arif Mardin is an unlikely but cohesive admixture of easy jazz, sophisto-pop, smooth soul, and countryish L.A. singer-songwriter stylings. No ragas, though (more on that later), and not one moment of diva-like histrionics, not a whiff of Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera begging you to hear ME ME ME above and beyond the SONG SONG SONG, which for them is just a vehicle for the real star of the show.

Norah is in control of her jazzy soul and devotes all of her prodigious talent to respecting the song: inhabiting it like a house, which she strolls about as a gracious host, pointing out its charming features. This artistic generosity and respect for the house displays maturity that most performers never achieve, let alone at 22. Who is this person? Where did she come from?