Norah Jones

Hear Music is a small group of passionate music lovers creating CDs that help people discover all the great music out there. We came up with the idea for Artist’s Choice CDs because we always wanted to know what our favorite artists were listening to. We’re very grateful to Norah Jones for making this a terrific project. We caught up with Norah Jones in New York City where she took some time to sit down and talk to us about the musical influences in her life — the songs she heard in the car when she was a kid, the importance of Ray Charles, and why she loves the sound of Levon Helm’s voice. Spend an hour with Norah Jones’ record collection.

Norah Jones named her eighth proper studio set Visions because many of the musical ideas occurred to her in the middle of the night, right when her consciousness was hazy: they weren't fully realized so much as an apparition. That sense of dreaminess carries through to the finished product but not in ways that are commonly associated with such a description. Far from being an album constructed for twilight hours – a dimly lit excursion into mood music – Visions is clear and light, its textures vividly articulated and its rhythms mellow and fluid. It's music that feels alive, inhaling and exhaling with a gentle insistence; it's never rushed, never clipped. Despite the record's inherent relaxation, Visions never quite proceeds in a linear path.

Recorded live at the Ryman auditorium in Nashville Tennessee 2004, this second live DVD from Norah Jones is a much more accomplished effort. Directed by Hamish Hamilton, himself no stranger to filming a band live; working with the likes of U2, Madonna, Robbie Williams, & Brittany Spears to name but a few. Hamish employs a very stylistic approach when capturing an artist on stage. The venue is an excellent choice for this live recording, which he takes full advantage of.

Norah Jones' debut on Blue Note is a mellow, acoustic pop affair with soul and country overtones, immaculately produced by the great Arif Mardin. Jones is not quite a jazz singer, but she is joined by some highly regarded jazz talent: guitarists Adam Levy, Adam Rogers, Tony Scherr, Bill Frisell, and Kevin Breit; drummers Brian Blade, Dan Rieser, and Kenny Wollesen; organist Sam Yahel; accordionist Rob Burger; and violinist Jenny Scheinman…

It may be far too obvious to even mention that Norah Jones' follow-up to her 18-million-unit-selling, eight-Grammy-winning, genre-bending, super-smash album Come Away with Me has perhaps a bit too much to live up to. But that's probably the biggest conundrum for Jones: having to follow up the phenomenal success of an album that was never designed to be so hugely popular in the first place. Come Away with Me was a little album by an unknown pianist/vocalist who attempted to mix jazz, country, and folk in an acoustic setting – who knew? Feels Like Home could be seen as "Come Away with Me Again" if not for that fact that it's actually better.