Jones's album, however, couldn't be more in vogue. A collection of soulful tunes released on the Blue Note jazz label, Come Away with Me has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, topped Billboard's pop-album chart for three weeks and obviously wowed the Grammy judges, who put Jones, 23, in contention for best album, best song (for her single "Don't Know Why") and best new artist.
With a voice that critics have likened to Billie Holiday's and Patsy Cline's, Jones—dubbed "the anti-Mariah" by the Los Angeles Times—stands out among the crowded field of octave-jumping vocal acrobats. "She's a breath of fresh air," says Sheryl Crow. And yet, adds the rocker, "she's kind of, in a strange way, a throwback to the stuff that I love, when they were incorporating blues and jazz into country."
For now, there's also no sign of a baroque rock lifestyle. Jones, who played for tips in Manhattan pubs last year, still lives in the tiny Brooklyn apartment she shares with her boyfriend and bassist Lee Alexander, 33, and a third roommate. "The past year has been totally insane," she says. "I never imagined any of this. I mean, you don't get into jazz to be famous."
Had that been her goal, she would have taken up the sitar. The daughter of Indian music master Ravi Shankar, 82, and music-promoter-turned-nurse Sue Jones, she was born shortly before her unmarried parents split up. Raised by her mom in Grapevine, Texas-"We were like the Gilmore Girls," she says, laughing, "only not as hot"-Norah saw her father only during his U.S. concert tours. Even so, says Shankar, "her mother and I knew she was very musical when she was 3 and would listen intently whenever I practiced."
"A total jazz head" as a teen, Jones says, she studied piano and played sax in the Grapevine High School marching band. She graduated from Dallas's famed Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and attended the University of North Texas music school before moving to New York City in 1999. Discouraged after a year of trying to hawk a demo of jazz standards, Jones phoned her mother to say she was packing it in. "My mom said, 'As much as I want you to come back, you should stay. Otherwise you'll feel like a failure.' "
Jones stuck it out, and within a year she was signed by Blue Note president Bruce Lundvall, who agreed to the deal before learning that she was Shankar's daughter, a fact the singer still downplays for fear of appearing to exploit it.
As Grammy night nears, Jones may ignore a stylist's list of recommended designer outfits and instead wear a dress that a friend gave her. "I like it," says Jones, "because it's kind of vintage looking and really simple." Besides, she quips, "I can't even remember those designers' names."
Steve Dougherty
Todd Gold and Kwala Mandel in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Todd Gold,
- Kwala Mandel.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
