Ever since Norah Jones burst on the scene in 2002 with the Grammy award-winning Come Away with Me, she has attracted widespread critical and commercial attention with a mature and unassuming sound and persona.
Her debut combined the jazzy melodies and rhythms of Jones’ adopted New York home, and reflected the country roots of her Texas upbringing. Known for embracing disparate musical styles, like Ray Charles and others before her, she proved the seamless, harmonious compatibility of jazz and country is not only possible, but captivating. Underneath these obvious musical styles was also a subtle stringed counterpoint, no doubt inherited from her father, Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar.
While these myriad styles have made for a heady stew, Norah Jones’ continuous search for new sounds and new collaborators resulted in a varied career that seems to satisfy her enormous talents.
Along with her solo albums, she has two albums with the countrified Little Willies, which also includes her frequent collaborator and ex-boyfriend Lee Alexander, as well as Richard Julian, Jim Campilongo, and Dan Rieser. She has been involved in one-off albums including a tribute to Ray Charles with Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis, the Rome album with Daniele Luppi, Danger Mouse and Jack White and other projects. There are now also three releases from Puss N Boots, with Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper: the group’s debut album, a Christmas EP, and now its second full-length album.
The new Puss N Boots album Sister (Blue Note) differs only slightly from the group’s previous debut effort, 2014’s No Fools, No Fun. As on that album, this no-frills, edgy trio keeps things simple with a basic guitar, bass and drums approach, as well as lead vocals shared among the three and a musical base that grew out of live jamming.
The major difference is that there were seven covers and two songs from Catherine Popper, two from Sasha Dobson and one from Norah Jones on Puss N Boots’ debut. The new album includes only five covers, one collaboration between Dobson and Don Was, and three songs co-written by all three “sisters.” Both projects feature lots of harmony, lead and background vocals, but this new album feels more confident, unified, timely and personal.
Some of the highlights on Sister include a subtle, yet effective cover of Concrete Blonde’s hit “Joey;” an emotionally moving, spot-on cover of Tom Petty’s “Angel Dream” from the 1996 soundtrack to the Ed Burns film She’s the One, which included music from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; and Dobson’s “You and Me,” underpinned by deceptively sly melodies.
This is an album that sounds more serious and at times has a harder edge than the group’s debut. It’s a shame that the pandemic will keep Puss N Boots off the road, as Sister was made to be played live.
Norah Jones’ latest studio effort, Pick Me Up Off the Floor, also from Blue Note and her seventh solo effort, couldn’t be more different than this Puss N Boots release. Her solo album is very much a musical follow-up to 2016’s Day Breaks, which was a return to the kind of sound she had on her first three album. Her fourth and fifth albums successfully changed course to a sometimes more pop and electronic direction.
Pick Me Up Off the Floor is a beautiful, deep, piano-based affair. It’s interesting how in some ways Jones uses challenging piano-based jazz melodies to reflect her often confessional singer-songwriter compositions, a la Joni Mitchell in her post-folk, rock and pop period. Further bolstering this approach is drummer Brian Blade. The main constant on Pick Me Up Off the Floor, he plays on seven songs. Like Mitchell, who worked a great deal on her latter albums with Blade, Jones singing here is very much attuned to the rhythms.
While she doesn’t improvise or stretch out too much, there are also slight echoes on some tracks of the piano jazz elements of mid-to-late period Traffic, with Norah Jones exploring and expanding her keyboard vocabulary. She taps into her country roots on the Americana-sounding “To Live,” which recalls the Band in spots. Also, after recording a Wilco song on the Puss N Boots debut, Jones has a co-write here with Jeff Tweedy on both “I’m Alive” and the album’s ethereal album-closer “Heaven Above.”
Jones does not make many solo albums, but when she does, it is a musical event of note. Her collaborative projects, while few in number, are also worthy additions to her stellar catalog. A musician that transcends genres and musical eras, whether as a solo act or a group member, Norah Jones is an artist that is always welcome.
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