This week’s review is dedicated to one of the most critically praised best-selling debuts in the 2000s. It is also dedicated to the artist herself, who brought back jazz into the commercial spotlight. If it wasn’t for her, we probably would have never met Amy Winehouse.
In times when Grammy award was still a relevant and reverent accolade, it was an enormous accomplishment to win 8 of those in just one night. And Norah Jones did just that with her illustrious debut Come Away With Me which went on to sell more than 25 million copies around the globe. Who would think it has already been 15 years since we first heard Don’t Know Why, a hit single we now consider a classic.
Norah Jones s a daughter of legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar. The production of her debut was rendered in collaboration with Arifa Mardin, a guy who became famous working with Aretha Franklin. Come Away With Me presented her as a young, sensual pop singer and pianist tentative to reach modern zeniths of commercial jazz. She started singing when she was five years old, and fell in love with jazz in high school. Later on, she pursued a degree in piano, although she did not earn it as she was busy composing and performing with the funk band Wax Poetic.
When she moved to New York, Norah started visiting all the supreme jazz clubs in where she absorbed the sounds that would subsequently appear on her debut. What was impressive about Come Away With Me was that the juvenile talent decided to write all of her songs. Such an idea gave birth to the record saturated with music influences. The key influences were country music of Hank Williams, which is particularly audible in Cold Cold Heart, and J.D.Loudermilk whose aura radiates on Turn Me On. Vast majority of the songs are product of Norah’s piano magic.
Come away with me and we'll kiss On a mountaintop Come away with me And I'll never stop loving you And I want to wake up with the rain Falling on a tin roof While I'm safe there in your arms So all I ask is for you To come away with me in the night Come away with me
These lyrics hint what is the dominant theme on the whole record. Norah writes wholeheartedly about love. It is almost always positive. Even when she offers a slightly gloomy perspective on romance, it never sounds like a pathological melancholy. Collaboration with bassist Lee Alexander erected Feelin The Same Way and Lonestar, songs with simple lyrics and simple blues melodies that perfectly fit the gestalt of Norah’s affluent music sections.
On the other hand, when you listen carefully, you can spot the weak spots of her poetic expression.
Like the desert waiting for the rain Like a school kid waiting for the Spring I'm just sitting here waiting for you To come on home and turn me on And my poor heart, it's been so dark Since you've been gone After all you're the one who turns me off But you're the only one who can turn me back on
A bit sleazy, right? Still, fairytale-like Nightingale proves that Norah had numerous tricks up her sleeve to seduce the listener and win 8 Grammys. My personal favorite on Come Away With Me is hands down I’ve Got To See You Again which successfully hides Tom Waits in its shadow. It is a combination of bubbly vocal and gypsy jazz violin that evoke funereal mood which will succeeding turn into a dense nostalgia on Painter Song.
The Nearness Of You closes the record and it portraits a jazz standard that only Norah was able deliver at that time. Simple, coherent, non-pretentious.
Come Away With Me was not a pure jazz album. It was much more than that. Its strength lies in the manner in which Norah let her voice touch the listener. She was, and still is, able to completely suck you in. This throwback is an homage to the time when she catapulted into a sonic stratosphere.
