Genre blending was on the agenda from the off, yet Norah Jones has continued to play with more different styles in such a way as to be a true alchemist. Do such talents pose a dilemma, I wondered?
After her 4th album The Fall in 2009 proved to be a departure from the well known blend of blues-jazz-country-pop, Norah Jones received a fan letter:
“After I made The Fall, I received the sweetest letter from a fan in Argentina, but it was also criticising me as well. It said “I’m a really big fan but would you please go back to singing the ballads, because you do that better and I really need that from you”. It was a sweet letter but I decided then, you are never going to please everyone”.
As Norah prepared to release a box set 20th anniversary edition of her quietly colossal debut Come Away With Me, I invited her to talk with me on The Art of Longevity with the aim of exploring just how far she had come in the intervening 20 years, musically speaking. After all, when an artist achieves the sort of success Jones did with a debut record, there is no point trying to repeat it. Instead, with each new album since, she has moved forward, while collaborating with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists and producers. Genre blending was on the agenda from the off, yet Norah has continued to play with more different styles in such a way as to be a true alchemist.
Do such talents pose a dilemma, I wondered? Was 2009’s The Fall a deliberate rebellion against the mould? Yes and no seems to be the answer. Jones was always a creator without boundaries, it was simply her massive early following (including the author of that fan letter) that placed certain expectations on her music.
That said, after she made the hugely impressive Little Broken Hearts (2012, with Dangermouse) even her friend, mentor and boss Bruce Lundval, CEO of Blue Note, thought things had gone too far. He told Jones over lunch “I’ve got to be honest with you I didn’t really like this record at first. It’s not your thing”.
That lunch may have had more impact than the letter but only up to a point. The 2016 album Day Breaks brought back the jazz, but the experimental elements from working with Dangermouse had rubbed off, giving Norah’s work a depth, an edge - something to make the more ‘indie’ listener prick up their ears, if you will.
A key theme from our conversation is just how much Norah values collaborating with her producers, and what an amazing cast list she has worked with over the years - beginning with Arif Mardin (Come Away With Me, Feels Like Home) and then later Jacquire King, Dangermouse, Jeff Tweedy and Leon Michels (for her superb Christmas songs collection). Jones’ most recent offerings Begin Again and Pick Me Up Off The Floor bring together her original stylings but add syncopated beats, flurries of electronica and heavy doses of modern jazz. If Jones built her reputation in part by soundtracking a billion dinner parties with tasteful mood music, her more recent material might be more appropriately heard in the very coolest cocktail lounges. Like all artists of longevity, she has had the ups and downs and roundabouts of music industry machinations. She was asked to speak out against the industry’s digital nemesis Napster (she wisely declined) and has been a steadier going concern than her label (the iconic Blue Note has been close to the abyss at least twice) but somehow Norah has stayed on the level fame-wise, while getting better and better as an artist.
“I’ve been very, very lucky to avoid any industry horror stories. No one ever gave me horrible advice. I have a long-term relationship with my record label, with two bosses who never felt like bosses. We’re friends and music lovers and they get what I do, or even if they don’t they are honest about it”.
Revisiting Come Away With Me has brought something new for Norah. Early songs like Fragile have made a reappearance into the repertoire, and it’s the mix of those older formative numbers along with the newer material that make Jones’ summer live appearances an enticing prospect.
Our own fan letter to Norah would contain a somewhat different narrative. Never go back, keep moving forward and go even closer to the edge. Let’s see where she travels.