Norah Jones Biography

Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. Jones's career was launched with her massively successful 2002 debut album Come Away with Me, a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold twenty million copies worldwide and received eight Grammy Awards. Jones's second album, Feels like Home, was released in 2004 to high sales, and in 2006 she released an album as part of the country band The Little Willies.

Norah Jones was born as Geetali Norah Jones Shankar in New York City, but later changed her name officially to Norah Jones at age 16. She is the daughter of Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and Sue Jones, and is the half-sister of musician Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar's daughter from his second marriage. She spent her childhood with her mother, who moved to Dallas, Texas, when Norah was four. She has always liked the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday among others from the 'oldies' section. Norah has had a profound appreciation for the music and finds it intriguing and relieving. She has been quoted as saying, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set, I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again; 'You Go to My Head', that was my favorite..."

Jones began singing in church choirs, taking piano lessons, and even briefly trying out the alto saxophone. She attended Interlochen Arts Camp, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, and the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano, and won Best Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996). In 1999, two years into the program, Norah left for New York City.

Jones played with numerous artists and bands including Wax Poetic and the Peter Malick Group. Jones performed quite frequently with guitarist Charlie Hunter in 2001 and appeared on Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album in a duet with André 3000 in 2003. While Jones is best-known for her sultry-yet-powerful vocal style, often compared to that of Billie Holiday or Nina Simone, her abilities as a jazz pianist have likewise been celebrated. On January 19, 2003 Jones appeared as a guest on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR performing jazz standards including "September in the Rain" and "I Can't Get Started", and later that year she appeared with McPartland again at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, performing more standards such as "Lover Man" and "Walking My Baby Back Home". She has performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in both 2004 and 2005.

Her debut album, Come Away with Me, debuted in February 2002 and was instantly celebrated for its blending of mellow, acoustic pop with soul and country. It hit number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, with single "Don't Know Why" hitting number one on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003.

Jones walked away from the Grammy Awards of 2003 with eight awards. By receiving "Record of the Year", "Album of the Year", "Song of the Year", and "Best New Artist" honors all in 2003, Jones was the first artist to sweep the "Big Four", or the four most prestigious Grammy awards, since Christopher Cross did so in the Grammy Awards of 1981. The "Song of the Year" award went to Jesse Harris for writing "Don't Know Why", but because Jones performed the song, she is associated with winning "Song of the Year" as well. Of the eight awards that came from Come Away with Me at the 2003 Grammy Awards, Jones personally received five awards with the other three awards attributed to the album itself.

Norah Jones has won multiple awards, most noticeably her Grammy Awards

These are Jones' Grammy Awards:

Throughout 2002 and 2003 Jones appeared on stages, globally, for her first tour with the Handsome Band, travelling throughout Asia, America, Europe and Australia. The tour was received with numerous sell-out concerts and positive critical acclaim.

In 2004, Jones toured globally again, to promote her Feels like Home album with the Handsome Band and the addition of backing singer Daru Oda.