STACK #210 Apr 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

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With a voice both angelically present and awash with husky memory, Norah Jones was exactly what we didn't know we needed when she popped up amongst P!nk, RobbieWilliams and Shakira on the 2002 charts. Here's the story of Come AwayWith Me , a folk-infused jazz record that stretched genre limits and wrapped its arms around the world 20 years ago – now remastered and reissued to celebrate its platinum anniversary. Words Zoë Radas

After legally shortening her name as a teenager and completing two We got it on the first try, and it just felt great – one of those magical, easy takes Explorer the Norah

T o a tourist or a trucker passing through, the township of Grapevine, Texas is known for its vintage steam railroad and a plaque marking the spot Bonny and Clyde shot two Texas State Troopers in 1934. To young NYC-born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar, it was her adopted hometown; she lived amongst its convivial suburban avenues from age eight, after her mother (acclaimed concert producer Sue Jones) separated from her father (famed sitar-player Ravi Shankar). At Grapevine's Methodist church and within the school choir, Jones began to unveil a talent that would bring her into global acclaim.

crowd of singer-songwriters including country artists Jesse Harris and Richard Julian, who were busy cutting their teeth at the Lower East Side's Living Room. On her 21st birthday, as she was

years at the University of North Texas as a jazz piano major, Norah Jones hauled her life fromTexas back to her birth-city. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but jewels of

performing originals and covers at a jazz brunch, Jones was approached by one of the event's attendees with a marvellous proposition: Would she be interested in meeting Blue Note president Bruce Lundvall, to play a demo tape? Just a few weeks later, Jones was sitting at Blue Note HQ doing

happenstance began to click into place as soon as she connected with other young musicians making their way through the NYC live music scene. While she initially played only at jazz bars, Jones began to rub shoulders with a

12 APRIL 2022

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