4/5
Stay At Home With Me.
Pandemic shut behind the lid of her piano last year, singer/songwriter icon Norah Jones gave us more home concerts than we had Zoom meetings for her remote work in COVID-19's 2020. But that wasn't it. Imagine. The Grammy award winning classic jazz standard talent had already followed her new style 'Begin Again' playlist album with a Christmas card and 'Dear Santa' EP reunion with her Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper supergroup Puss N Boots in 2019. But to start a year we'll never forget (even though we don't want to remember), she was already on a tear before the virus hit and forced us to start a new hobby from the (dis)comfort of our own homes. Her big-three Boots act strapped theirs back on, following their EP under the tree with the 'No Fools, No Fun' country follow-up 'Sister'. And after this act before lockdown Jones was already putting the finishing touches on her latest smouldering solo set. So who else could have been better to 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor' than her? Now from the stage of the cutting room one it looks like Norah has more to tide us over before her next album, or live show...if we ever get to see one again. Despite deluxe adding some live takes and classics to the expanded edition of 'Pick Me Up', Miss Jones is back with a live album of stirring standards and inspired instrumental interludes set to keep you in your seats. Looking forward towards a time we can come together again like The Beatles for gigs in human touch concert that soaring like Springsteen will have us screaming more than showing up at Ed Sullivan for four bowl cuts. All under a spotlight and beacon of hope to heal amongst all this hurt and see a new day from behind these masks kept at arms length. All until we make it back where we belong...as one. All 'Til We Meet Again'.
"Come away with me in the night", Norah Jones once sang in the diamond days. If only. Could it all be so simple again? The New Yorker coming off a year of strange transmissions and something that wasn't "such a beautiful disease" brings back some of her best broadcasts on the live concert circuit. Giving this cold world Hank Williams' 'Cold, Cold Heart' to start from Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, California, circa 2018. Straight off her ten million seller for this Blue Note jazz first live album despite all the bonus tracks and the unofficial 'Live From Austin, Texas' for you bootleggers. It is 'It Was You' though that really captures us compellingly and the new start of 2019's 'Begin Again' we all wish we could see once more like a rebirth. From Dana Point to Perpignan, France for this au revoir to how things were. Yet it's 'Those Sweet Words' we want to hear that could bring us back like those three little ones in a world too addicted to likes to have the heart for something real. Giving Rio, Brazil a carnival of subtle beauty. Just like the French romantic gentle yearning of 'I've Got To See You Again' that is just pure Norah Jones 'je ne sais quoi'. In Milan, Italy 'After The Fall' we get a glimpse back of Norah Jones back at her enveloping pushing best when right now all we can do is sign, seal and deliver an e-mail. It's as potently powerful and poignant as the Motown legend Mavis Staples duet, 'I'll Be Gone'. Norah nuances in harmony with the stirring soul, "there's a place far from here/Gonna make it my home/It's where I long." Beautiful, but crucial words in a time where this crucified world needs that balm.
Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong for The Everly Brothers. The Peter Malick group. The Little Willies, Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi. Featuring Miss Jones, Norah has collected with everybody from Ray Charles to Talib Kweli. But it's here all alone with a piano and a microphone were she truly shines like a star as the spotlight stage is replaced with a lamplight and desk. This is more than a live greatest hits package for label profit. Its the symbol of an artist alive with a collection of classics. In these times we need so much more than music, but we are all still so aware of its power to heal the hurt and Jones does this more than 'Just A Little Bit', giving us bed bound souls somewhere soft to land after all this 'Falling'. For every 'Tragedy', there is a 'Sunrise' and those unmistakable "ooh's". On the 'Flipside' the original Norah is back like what we hope the world will once be again as 'Day Breaks'. You can hear it on the first song we ever heard coming away with her, 'Don't Know Why'. We may have a myriad of questions right now, but Norah Jones remains undeniable without a single query to her legendary name. Staring down the 'Black Hole Sun' of Audioslave, auditory meditative cover of the late, great Chris Cornell at the Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan for this catalogues curtain. If you can't feel the love tonight like another piano maestro, I'd check your beats. This one could more than meet you halfway until the end of time...or I'm sure the next album she'll have out this year for the record. This is an ode to you from one of our generations greatest, hands down on the ivory. Play it again. And to the one who got away like last year at home where the heart is and the place we should always stay, I'd love you to 'Come Away With Me'. But that's a different way. A different time. Be safe and take good care. Until we meet again my love. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Cold, Cold Heart', 'Begin Again', 'Black Hole Sun'.
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