Posted February 10, 200718 yr http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k107/DAVELOVESHAKI/likesshakira.jpg I wonder which songs she likes the most... :kink:
February 10, 200718 yr Author It’s Not Too Late: Norah Jones has her say 01:00 AM EST on Monday, January 29, 2007 By JON PARELES New York Times News Service Musician Norah Jones, whose third album, Not Too Late, comes out tomorrow. Danny Clinch A local musician couldn’t ask for a more appreciative audience than the petite, black-haired woman in blue jeans who was one of about two dozen people at Marion’s Marquee Lounge on the Bowery in Manhattan a few Mondays ago. As the guitarist Tony Scherr led a trio through his bluesy, slightly skewed songs, she tapped her foot, giggled at his stage patter and vigorously applauded his solos. Every few tunes, she whispered, “I love this song!†Between sets she walked over to hug band members and chat about gigs. She’s part of a circle of New York singers and songwriters who play one another’s songs and swap backup musicians. Sometimes she visits Lower East Side karaoke bars and belts out songs by Shakira or Guns N’ Roses. ^_^ She’s also a member of various bands — the Sloppy Joannes, the Mazelles, the Little Willies — who show up as opening acts at no-cover-charge places like the Rodeo Bar. But she’s far better known by her own name: Norah Jones. In a few days Jones, 27, would resume her main career: the one that has sold millions of albums and made her almost too popular for the 3,000-seat theaters she prefers to arenas. Her third solo album, Not Too Late, is due for release tomorrow, and, like her first two, it offers the intimate sound of a handful of musicians in a small room, the sound of places like this one. Not Too Late is also the first full album of her own songs, and it is darker, thornier and sometimes funnier than the albums that made her a star. “On the first album I was saying, that’s just one part of me,†she said. “And then I was thinking, well, am I going to hide the rest of me now just because I’m afraid of something? No. I’m just going to be myself.†At Marion’s Marquee Lounge, she wore no makeup and had no entourage: only her boyfriend and songwriting collaborator, Lee Alexander, with whom she traded grins throughout the evening. They had rushed over after a long day of rehearsals to hear the night’s opening act: Jason Crigler, a guitarist and singer-songwriter recovering from a 2004 brain aneurysm. Jones had headlined a benefit concert for his medical expenses, and she watched his set with sisterly concern and increasing relief. Between sets, she pointed out the other musicians in the room, offering praise and updates on their albums in progress. While she’s by far the best-known musician from this circuit, she’s still immersed in it. Here she was just another working musician among peers, the exact opposite of a diva. She has little interest in high-profile celebrity, and the tabloids generally ignore her. “I think I just never interested people that way in the beginning,†she said. “I don’t think I’m that boring, but I think, to an outsider, ‘OK, she’s in a stable relationship, she’s not a drug addict. She wears clothes, she wears underwear.’ †She shrugged. “There’s no facade,†she said. “I wish there was sometimes.†Back onstage, Scherr eased into an unhurried vamp, and Jones almost purred with pleasure. “I love slow music,†she declared. Of course she does. She has thrived as a ballad singer, alternately celebrated for her finesse and dismissed as bland. Many listeners, she admits, consider her albums “background music.†On Not Too Late, the instruments are still mostly unplugged, and the tempos stay moderate; its first single, “Thinking About You,†is a soul-flavored love song Jones had hesitated to record because it was “too pop.†Yet her newer songs don’t always provide the comforts of her first two albums. The change is clear in the album’s first song, “Wish I Could.†It’s a gentle guitar waltz, and as it begins, the singer frets about how she can’t bear to go into an old favorite place “without you†— the kind of situation listeners might expect in a Norah Jones song. But then a girlfriend pulls her in, grieving that her man, a soldier, has been killed in the war. The song deepens from plaintiveness to irrevocable sorrow. Jones wrote it, she said, while thinking about a soldier she dated soon after she arrived in New York City in 1999. She recently tried to find information on him, with no results. “I’m worried about him,†she said. “I’m not a very dark person,†Jones said. “The darkness on this album comes more from just being aware of what’s going on around us.†Much of Not Too Late was recorded in the home studio at the loft Jones shares with Alexander. They met when she was looking for a bass player for a brunch gig singing jazz at the Washington Square Hotel, where she was also a waitress. Adam Levy, who’s still the guitarist in her band, gave her a list, “and I lucked out because I think the list was alphabetical,†Alexander said. He had just gotten a cell phone; Jones’ call was the first to come through. The studio’s big windows survey the Lower East Side; there are guitars in neat racks overhead and two elegant antique pianos — a baby grand and an upright — among the keyboards. The doorway into the studio is flanked by vintage concert posters of members of Jones’ musical pantheon: Duke Ellington, Hank Williams, Ray Charles and Patsy Cline. Jazz, country and soul were all folded into Jones’ 2002 debut album, Come Away With Me. In a pop universe full of whiz-bang electronic bombast and frantic vocal acrobatics, she arrived like an emissary from some subtler dimension. She sang modestly, with discreet jazz syncopations, accompanied by a few hand-played instruments. “It’s not that things are left out very carefully,†she said. “It’s just that we never thought about putting them in.†The songs, most of them written by her band members, were filled with wistful longing and, tucked behind it, the serene assurance that she’d never have to shout for attention. Or so it seemed. Actually, in three years singing on the New York club circuit, Jones had tried showier styles and decided she couldn’t pull them off. “I sang in some bad blues band for a while, and I heard a recording of myself,†she recalled. “I thought, ‘God, I’m oversinging, and I don’t sound like Aretha Franklin, so I shouldn’t try.’ And I think I scaled back a little bit more than maybe I meant to.†Jones has a musical pedigree; her father is the sitar master Ravi Shankar. Norah’s mother, Sue Jones, and Shankar broke up soon after Norah was born, and Norah was raised in Texas, in touch with Shankar but not close to him. “I didn’t really grow up with much of a relationship with him,†she said. “Now that we’re in a good place, I think: ‘Wow, he’s 86. I should ask him all these questions about music.’ “I was just interested in having a dad for a long time, and I was almost annoyed that he was a famous musician. And now I’m like: ‘Oh, my God, John Coltrane came to him for a lesson. Forget George Harrison. I want to know about his afternoon with John Coltrane.’
February 10, 200718 yr ^^ :lol: I think it's pretty cool though, I cant imagine Norah singing HDL though if im honest :lol:
February 10, 200718 yr Author i am glad she doesn't like x tina and beyonce... I don't think she sings HDL maybe fool or the one.
February 11, 200718 yr Norah Jones actually has good music! Been randomly listening to her 1st album - its quite good! Nice and relaxing music! Its so cool and nice when other celebs mention Shaki!
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