Jones was born in Brooklyn and grew up singing and playing piano in Dallas with her Oklahoma-born mother, who played Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Joni Mitchell records for her. She attended the same high school for the arts in Dallas as Erykah Badu, where she dove into jazz, absorbing the piano subtleties of Bill Evans and the classic musicianly vocals of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Nina Simone. She went to the University of North Texas as a piano major for two years before dropping out to seek her musical fortune in New York.
Oh, by the way, her father is Ravi Shankar, with whom she appears to have a quite distant relationship. His name isn't mentioned anywhere in her official bio, and is only mentioned in two articles I could find: a brief but deeply appreciative bio/interview in the NY Times Magazine, and an album review in the Washington Post. Once you know it you can see the resemblance - "vaguely exotic" look explained - but Shankar would appear to have about zero musical influence upon her: Jones's beguiling potpourri features nary a vedantic ping, not a raga in sight.
Come Away With Me just flows out of the speakers, an early-summer float down a fragrant winding stream with outstanding Nashville-jazz originals from her guitarist Jesse Harris ("Don’t Know Why," "Shoot the Moon," "I've Got to See You Again"), L.A.-meets-Western Swing originals from her bassist Lee Alexander ("Seven Years," "Feelin' the Same Way," "Lone Star"), her own intensely intimate, beautiful title track; and covers of Hoagy Carmichael’s "The Nearness of You," and a striking acoustic bass-driven version of Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart." She is something.
Article comments
1 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Jazz goes mainstream again. Norah is a very talented singer and one of the few female artists to get to this hoary ole' hard rocker. Just found out she is playing London, but both gigs are already sold out!
2 - Mark Saleski
...now if silly radio stations would play something beside "Don't Know Why".
by the way, Norah was also in a group called Wax Poetic, a sorta groove-based band.