Norah Jones is only 33 years old but she has already sold well over 50 million records worldwide. That is an amazing figure by itself, but if you read up on her life and her direction, you could have easily prognosticated that Jones was always going to be a shining star in the universe of musicians.
Besides the natural talent and the gene pool she has come from (her Dad is Ravi Shankar), you could see she had the creative drive. At 16 she ditched her legal first name of Geethali, continued winning awards in high school, and then a chance meeting got her involved with songwriter Jesse Harris.
That fortuitous get-together led to her first album Come Away With Me which gave her the financial ability and music business clout to make whatever music she desires.
Jones follows her muse and the performance she gave to The Sydney State Theatre audience this past Friday night was a mosaic of her influences and her art.
The diminutive singer, who has just released an album produced and co-written by Modest Mouse, entitled Little Broken Hearts, showcased a good portion of that record this evening.
The effortless and beautiful singing of Jones was stunning throughout the set and the first third of the set featured the title track of the new release, a gorgeous rendition of Tom Wait’s “Long Way Home” with some excellent guitar picking by the bouncy Jason Roberts, and the poppy but not so satisfying “Chasing Pirates”.
Jones and her band shifted seamlessly between genres throughout the evening. Strapping her Fender Mustang on early in the night, she played delicately and smoothly along with her awe inspiring vocals on “Broken” from Not Too Late.
Jones and this new band of musicians then launched into some deeper rock and roll. The twin guitars combined with the psychedelic keys of Pete Remm, which made for a memorable moment with her song “All A Dream”.
Immediately following that Jones launched into a new song and then ventured closer to her love of country with the Hank Williams classic “Cold, Cold Heart”, sounding nothing like Hank at all.
The interplay between her vocals and piano and the upright bass and drums was terrific and you could hear a pin drop as the recital continued.
With Roberts, bassist Josh Lattanzi, and drummer Gregg Wiz all adding back-up and harmony vocals, the music was intriguing to listen to and there was always something to capture your ears.
“Out On The Road” really gave Wiz the chance to work his vocal chords with Jones, who in turn displayed her breathy and uncomplicated delivery again on the hit “Don’t Know Why” – if you closed your eyes you could be in a jazz lounge just about anywhere.
With the set winding down, Jones ripped into a smoldering version of “Stuck” and before the audience could come to their feet with applause, she announced the next song as a Gram Parsons cover and brought out her support act, Corey Chisel and Adriel Harris, to add vocal gusto.
This was an onslaught of beautiful voices. With Chisel and Harris both taking a verse of “Hickory Wind” that took the top of your head off, the harmonies on the chorus were just icing on the cake.
With that closed off and the crowd standing, there was the simple matter of the encore and one song that needed to be played.
With the band huddled around one microphone, looking almost like a small bluegrass outfit, Jones played her biggest hit, “Come Away With Me”, in a laid back, down home, country style.
Norah Jones has a lengthy career ahead of her where she could probably release light contemporary jazz records to her following forever. But based on this romp through indie-rock, country, and more, Jones will more than likely continue to follow the music that keeps her heart and soul alive.
Her love of playing and music will not allow her to stay in one place and for lovers of excellent musicianship; this will be a fun career to continue to follow.
