4/5
A Jones For Tokyo.
We meet again. It's been a long time, and we shouldn't have left the live show. But corona quarantined us at a social distance and concerts were cancelled like everything else scheduled for 2020. Fortunately for us in solidarity, superstar, 9 time Grammy winning legend Norah Jones 'Picked (Us) Up Off The Floor' with her album of that calendar, just after the lockdown hit. Coming hot-off-the-heels of the time, she told us to 'Begin Again'. Releasing even more music at a crazy clip. From Puss N Boots collaborations for Christmas, to her own holiday album that gets the deluxe wrapped treatment just in time for the season trees that are about to be cut down.
Norah even gave us a live album for our gig Jones, ''Til We Meet Again'. Thankfully, it wouldn't be as long as we first thought. In the year of her 20th anniversary of her undisputed, diamond (nobody mines diamonds any more) classic, 'Come Away With Me', Jones returns to our shores for a world tour. Big in Japan where she has performed at stops in Sendai (I hope you checked out the Daikannon), Sapporo and Tokyo (twice). One being last night's powerful performance at the historic Nippon Budokan, between shrines and trees that blossom with cherry in the abundance of Sakura season. A legendary venue for one of the greats. Records were made and broke here in the former judo home of the Tokyo Olympics...in 1964. But none for air conditioning. Tonight she takes a Shinkansen to Osaka, before returning to Tokyo tomorrow (certainly not cost-effective when you look at the price of just a single ticket, but I'm sure she'll be OK), one more time on a bullet train like Brad Pitt. Get your tix.
But what a night last night was for my girlfriend's first gig before the pandemic (with Maroon 5 and (maybe) Bruno Mars (fingers crossed) next) and my second after the race to see Lady Gaga, last month. And maybe also for an old friend that I'm sure was there at least one of the nights ('til we meet again). After her summer US tour that kicked off at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, she gave her all to us. Many hollering,"I love you's" donned in their genius 'I Have A Jones For Norah' t-shirts (the best since the 'Go Haim Or Go Home' of those 'Women In Music'), like me (in the tee, I've learnt not to scream, shout and let it all out eternally since a Louise Redknapp gig when I was 10). Miss Jones loved it and requested for it to keep going. Which it did in good, albeit Japanese trademark polite nature.
Supported sublimely by the great and gracious Rodrigo Amarante who also encored with Norah on a few tracks, Jones shined bright like a diamond in a mirror ball suit-jacket below a flag of the rising sun that sparkled in stage lights. Performing her most recent 'Floor' fillers and 'Day Breaks' before a 'Nightingale' took us away. Weaving through the rich tapestry of her decadent, definitive discography like a King, Carole. Highlights included of course the sweet 'Sunrise', which always awakes the oohs, a piano version of her 'Young Blood' from 'The Fall' of over ten years ago (the last time I met her in concert, in London) and the title-track from her diamond anniversary with the most beautiful lyric of all-time ("come away with me, and I'll never stop loving you"). Sure, we may have wished upon a star for some live takes off her 'I Dream Of Christmas' LP (especially as the deluxe comes out swiftly, this Friday), or her Empire State of mind Beatles covers. But as we found nothing like that under the tree, we just let it be. Because Norah didn't disappoint. Especially as she drenched our hearts in wine like the Budokan in beautiful cheers like we 'Don't Know Why' (serving an even better tour tee that had coins pouring). Finally, with borders open after all this time, we got to come together once again since a 2020 where we couldn't even get an Olympics. Jonesin' no more now Norah's back. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Set-list Picks: 'Sunrise', 'Young Blood', 'Don't Know Why'.
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