Norah Jones was born March 30, 1979 in New York City. When she was four years old, Norah and her
mother Sue moved to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas. Norah's earliest musical influences
came from her mother's extensive LP collection and from "oldies" radio. She began singing in
church choirs at age five, commenced piano lessons two years later, and briefly played alto
saxophone in junior high.
"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..."
When Jones was 15, she and her mother moved from Grapevine to Dallas' central city, where Norah
enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. (Soul singer
Erykah Badu and trum-peter Roy Hargrove are also Washington alumni.)
Norah played her first gig on her 16th birthday, an open mic night at a local coffeehouse, where
she performed a version of "I'll Be Seeing You" that she'd learned from Etta James' treatment of
this Billie Holiday favorite. While still in high school, Norah won the Down Beat Student Music
Awards for "Best Jazz Vocalist" and "Best Original Composition" in 1996, and earned a second SMA
for "Best Jazz Vocalist" in 1997. She also sang with a band called Laszlo, playing what she describes
as "dark, jazzy rock." After graduation, Jones entered the University of North Texas?nationally
renowned for its music programs, where she majored in jazz piano.
In the summer of 1999, Norah accepted a friend's offer of a summer sublet in Greenwich Village.
She came to Manhattan... and never returned to North Texas State.
"The music kept me here. The music scene is so huge?I found it very exciting. I especially enjoyed
hearing amazing songwriters at little places like The Living Room. Everything opened up for me."
For about a year begin-ning in December 1999, Norah appeared regularly with the funk-fusion band Wax
Poetic (now signed to Atlantic). But she soon assembled her own group with Jesse Harris, Lee Alexander,
and Dan Rieser. In October 2000, this lineup recorded a selec-tion of demos for Blue Note Records.
On the strength of these recordings and a live showcase, Jones was signed to Blue Note in January
2001. Norah sang two songs (Roxy Music's "More Than This" and "Day Is Done" by Nick Drake) on
guitarist Charlie Hunter's Blue Note album Songs from the Analog Playground, and has frequently
per-formed live with Hunter's group.
Norah began recording the songs on Come Away With Me in May 2001, doing preliminary work with
producer Craig Street at Bearsville Studio in Woodstock, New York. In August 2001, the singer
and her musicians went back to work?this time with Arif Mardin at Sorcerer Sound in Manhattan.
2002 Two Weeks Notice
Character played: Herself
2002 Saturday Night Live: Robert DeNiro
Character played: Musical Guest
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Alyssa Milano
