Anoushka on Nora\'s trail - Page 2

Background information
Birth name	Geethali Norah Jones Shankar
Born	March 30, 1979 (age 27)
Origin	New York City, New York, USA
Genre(s)	Folk Soul Jazz Country Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s)	Vocals Piano/keyboards Guitar
Years active	2001–present
Label(s)	Blue Note (2002–present)

Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.

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, which sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received eight Grammy Awards, including the "Grammy Award for Best New Artist". Her second album, Feels like Home, was released in 2004, clocking more than a million sales in the first week. In 2007, she released her third album -- Not Too Late -- which went #1 on the charts.

Biography

Jones was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar in New York City, New York, but later changed her name officially to Norah Jones, at the age of 16. She is the daughter of the 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 Jones was four. She has always liked the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday among others from the 'oldies' section and considers Willie Nelson her idol. 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."

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, Jones left for New York City. Since about that time she has been romantically involved with bassist Lee Alexander.

Musical career

Early days

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist. 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 Andr 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 such as "September in the Rain" and "I Can't Get Started," and later that year she appeared again with McPartland 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.

Debut Album — Come Away with Me

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 the single "Don't Know Why" hitting number one on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003. She made a cameo appearance in the 2002 movie Two Weeks Notice playing the piano and singing "Nearness of You" at the fundraiser.

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.

Second Album — Feels like Home

Her second album, Feels like Home, was released on February 9, 2004. Rather than repeat the softer, jazz mood of Come Away with Me, her second album was influenced by country music. Within a week of its release, Feels like Home had sold over a million copies, making it the highest-selling album in the history of Blue Note Records. Jones toured globally again, to promote the album with the Handsome Band, and the addition of backing singer Daru Oda. Time magazine listed Jones among the most influential people of 2004.

Third Album — Not Too Late

Her third album, Not Too Late, was released by Blue Note Records on January 30, 2007, and has become the 800th album to reach the top spot in the UK charts. On February 11th, 2007 Jones appeared on 60 Minutes for an interview with Katie Couric. During the interview she claimed that this album was different because unlike previous ones, Jones wrote every song on the album. She also said that because she wrote all the songs, some are much darker than the previous albums. The song "My Dear Country" is a political satire, she wrote it before the United States Presidential election day in 2004. As of Valentine's Day 2007, Not Too Late held the title of #1 most listened to album on Rhapsody Music Service.

The first single was released on called Thinking About You. It peaked at #82 in the Billboard 100 and it's higest chart peak was in Italy at #5.

The album has sold (according to certifications all around the world, see Not Too Late ) more then 2.2 million copies in 3 weeks. Though mediatraffic states that she sold 1.6 million copies.

Nominations and awards

Come Away with Me was heavily nominated for the Grammy Awards of 2003. By receiving Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist honors all in 2003, she became only the second person to win the "Big Four" of the Grammies in one year (the other being Christopher Cross in 1979). Of the eight awards for Come Away with Me, Jones personally received five, with the other three attributed to the album itself. "Don't Know Why" was also performed on an episode of Sesame Street, in which Jones changed the lyrics to "Don't know why Y didn't come," and thereby introduced the letter Y to the young audience.

Jones received three awards at the Grammy Awards of 2005, including "Record of the Year" and "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" for her collaboration with Ray Charles on the song "Here We Go Again". She personally earned her eighth Grammy (and eleventh overall) for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for her song "Sunrise". That year, Jones appeared on the self-titled record by Amos Lee.

Jones also collaborated with the Foo Fighters on their 2005 record In Your Honor, singing vocals with Dave Grohl on "Virginia Moon". The song was nominated for a "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" in 2006.

But why??? thats something i cant understand 😕 Anoushka was giving some really good fusion music...hope thats not lost. fusion music composers with classical background r bit hard to find these days. and the ones present... if even they start straying away then it would be a big loss for such fusion music.