STACK #210 Apr 2022

FEATURE MUSIC

in numbers Come Away With Me

includes the remastered original album produced by Arif Mardin, 22 previously unreleased tracks including her original demos, the complete first-session demos she made after signing to Blue Note, and the first version of the album recorded at Allaire Studios with Street. “It’s been a bit like time-travelling to some alternate universe of the album that nobody ever heard,” Jones explains of the newly packaged album. “When I approached

8 Number of Grammys Norah and her team won at the 2003 awards for Come Away With Me (Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Engineered Album Non- Classical, Producer of the Year Non-Classical), and its lead single Don't Know Why (Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) 22 Norah Jones' age when Come Away With Me was released 20 Number of countries in which the album hit #1 30 million: Number of copies Come Away With Me sold across the world

No one, including the label, had any idea it would reach the success that it did

precisely that. A demo deal was signed,

and Jones entered the recording studio to lay

down a series of originals written by herself and her friends, guitarist Harris and bassist Lee Alexander. They couldn't have known that the first track they'd record would eventually trigger an avalanche of

Craig to tell him about it, he suggested we ask Tony Maserati to ‘balance’ the recordings. This brought my vocal to the front more, and I can finally

hear my little 22-year-old self trying new things and fitting into the music around me just fine. Revisiting these sessions after listening to them only once in the last 20 years has been a lovely surprise. I’m so glad to finally re-unite with Craig and get a chance to finish what we started together. I learned a lot from him, and I always think of that time upstate as a sort of dreamy fantasy, and I still get that feeling when I listen to these recordings.” “I was incredibly proud of this album and so thankful to everyone who made it with me,” she attests. “I figured it was a good first try and felt that it truly captured who I was – musically – at that time, which made me the proudest and is all you can really hope for when making a record. In the end I was so thankful that I got to explore a few different paths before putting them all together. No one, including the label, had any idea it would reach the success that it did. I’m forever grateful to Bruce and the very special team at Blue Note for giving me the chance to find my sound through all of it, and for never telling me who I had to be.”

accolade. “The very first song we did in those sessions was one of Jesse’s called Don’t Know Why , that we hadn’t yet played live,” Jones writes in the 20th anniversary Come Away With Me reissue liner notes. “We got it on the first try, and it just felt great – one of those magical, easy takes. When we walked back into the control room to listen, [engineer] Jay [Newland] was over the moon. It really built my confidence for the rest of the session and set the tone for what we were going for. After all was said and done, it was this version that ended up on the final record, with only some harmonies and a doubled guitar added to it.” Lundvall was gobsmacked with the results and quickly signed Jones up, then helped her assemble some of her favourite musicians to participate in recording sessions. “Cassandra Wilson’s New Moon Daughter had been a favourite album of mine and was a big inspiration for the kind of record I wanted to make,” Jones writes. “Since I loved the instrument choices (beautiful slide and acoustic guitars) and the production, I asked Bruce if I could meet with Craig Street, who produced it. Craig and I met a few times and got along really well. He liked the demos and said we should put those out as the record or use most of them, but I was really excited to explore a slightly different vibe, one I knew he could help me find.” After recording at Allaire Studios in Woodstock (upstate NewYork), the album went through a series of re-recordings to eventually result in the Come Away With Me we know and love today – but the full story has never been released until this month's 20th anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, a 44-track affair. It

The Come Away With Me 20th anniversary reissues by Norah Jones are out April 29 via Blue Note/Uinversal.

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