Norah Jones, Auckland NZ, 2019

Norah Jones

23rd April 2019
ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Mike Beck. Photography by Chris Zwaagdyk.

Norah Jones just so happened to hit one out of the park with her debut album Come Away with Me, it’s easy mix of jazz and country balladry selling an absolute truck load of units; twenty-seven million to be exact. That one release gained her a whopping five Grammy awards including record of the year and best new artist, and she’s managed to pick up another four since.

Despite some criticism over her initial success – which labelled her somewhat of a middle of the road mainstream act – Norah Jones has since both musically evolved and branched out. She also has a decidedly cool factor with her father being the infamous sitar master Ravi Shankar, and her half-sister being the renowned composer Anouska Shankar. With that substantial musical lineage in mind – to her great credit – Jones chose to use her two middle names to represent herself in the music biz (her birth name being Geethali Shankar). And then of course there was her first music video where she inserts an eight track into her car stereo. Very hip indeed.

Jones’ appearances are rare in this part of the world. In fact, it’s been fourteen years since she was last in NZ, and this time around she’s arrived fresh off the back of her brand new seventh solo studio album Begin Again released earlier this month. So, with much anticipation from her sold out audience at Auckland’s ASB Theatre, there was both at once a surprising wait and first act.

Opening the evening was a seemingly unlisted stand-up local comedian by the name of Melanie Bracewell who began by sauntering on stage and announcing “No, I’m not Nora Jones.” Her set was politely received, Bracewells’ brand of humour concentrating on flipping gender stereotypes. Exclaiming that her relationship status was single; “I’m on all the usual dating sites, Tinder etc and Trade me, adding lots of positive feedback/would happily trade with again” she interacted with the audience over who the parents in the house were before stating “I don’t have any [children], well none that I know of, I’m a bit of a player.”

When Jones eventually took the stage – after the scheduled start-time was significantly delayed – it seemed rather fitting then that she began with ‘My Heart Is Full’, the opening song off Begin Again. Something the initiated would have picked up on is that Jones’ song-writing had changed notably upon the arrival of her previous long-player Daybreak, with Jones seemingly adding an element of awareness, as well as a more political slant to her writing. As she proclaimed in ‘My Heart Is Full’, “Are we broken? If we love, then we can love without hate.” It was a brooding mood setter, which matched the all black attire of Jones – complete with sequined shrug – and her four-piece backing band.

Another one off her latest quickly followed; ‘Uh Oh’ demonstrating that her all-male band had much musical versatility and were going to support her throughout the evening with both tasteful and classy playing. Between the four of them, they covered an astounding array of instruments including electric and acoustic guitars, pedal steel, piano, Hammond organ, electric and upright bass as well as drums.

‘Nightingale’ was next, which returned the timeline back to Jones’ debut; its sparse arrangement showcasing the quality and depth of her voice. It also highlighted the excellent sound mix – her vocals dominant over the backing instrumentation – as well as the theatres high end sound production and overall facilities which were perfect for such a sophisticated act.

‘A Song with No Name’ introduced pedal steel from guitarist Dan Elken, floating over Jones’ relaxed piano. Then it was time for one of her biggest hits; ‘Sunrise’ off 2004’s Feels Like Home seeing Jones move from behind the piano and onto acoustic guitar, while bassist Josh Lattanzi switched from electric to upright bass.

Enter the title track from Begin Again and it would seem Jones’ musical journey has seen her shift from writing love songs about lovers, to love songs about humanity. The lyrics both questioning while making a statement about a need for change; “Do you know how we got here? Can a nation built on blood find its way out of the mud? Where the people at the top, lose their way enough to stop, can we begin again?”

The contrastingly sweet ballad of ‘Those Sweet Words’ soon followed, juxtaposed by the much darker ‘Black’ (a collaboration with Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi), before Jones returned to her second record again for a stripped back ‘Humble Me’. The duet version (with pedal steel accompaniment), displaying the tonality of Jones’ voice and its depth to carry a song.

One of the shows highlights arrived in the form of an empowering version of ‘Flipside’ from the album Daybreak. Jones experimented with its arrangement, bookending it with a half-time feel. This was one noticeable example of changes in her song configurations, as well as the way Jones phrased her vocal lines. Its poignant and very relevant lyrics read; “I saw your reflection all over the news, put the guns away or we’re all gonna lose.” The spirit of Nina Simone seemed to be in the house.

Throughout, Jones spoke to the audience infrequently; this was to be expected by reports of her shyness. Almost all the songs performed were not introduced, but the next one was; “We’re gonna play a Tom Petty song”, the lesser known ‘Angel Dream’ off Petty’s She’s the One Soundtrack. A mention here for Hammond organ, keys and piano-man Pete Reem, who embellished each song with an exemplary level of expertise and taste.

There was only one representative from Broken Little Hearts during the evening; ‘After the Fall’ given an extra layer by the double-time brush groove provided by drummer Josh Adams, who delivered some great touch playing throughout, whether on brushes, mallets, light sticks and even hands.

Soon it was back to where it all started for Norah Jones, with a triple offering from Come Away with Me. The title track seeing Jones alter the usually smooth ballad by surprisingly picking up the electric guitar. Jones’ approach to ‘Don’t Know Why’ was to strip it back to a classic jazz trio of piano, bass and drums. She’s well accustomed to this format, having previously released a live performance with Brian Blade and Christopher Thomas at Ronnie Scott’s. ‘I’ve Got to See You Again’ providing another opportunity for Adams to showcase his versatility with some timbre perfect hand drumming.

The gentle waltz of ‘Carry On’ closed off Jones’ set, followed by a low-key departure and return for a single encore; ‘Just A Little Bit’ – rather fittingly the last song off Begin Again – featuring the recurring vocal line “I’m On Fire’’ concluding the evening on a memorable note.

The overall performance certainly had a short and sweet feel about it, which was undoubtedly compounded by the fact that the shows commencement was withheld (for reasons unannounced). Despite this however, there is no denying that Jones is a class act, who together with her band delivered an immaculate performance of her respectable and artistically improving repertoire. As good as the players were (and they were very good), Jones’ voice stood out as the lead instrument, such was the command, projection and freedom she had over it.

Were you there at the ASB Theatre for this magnificent Jazz Folk-Pop gig? Or have you seen Norah Jones perform live somewhere else? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Setlist:

1. My Heart Is Full
2. Uh Oh
3. Nightingale
4. A Song With No Name
5. Sunrise
6. Begin Again
7. Those Sweet Words
8. Black
9. Humble Me
10. Flipside
11. Angel Dream
12. After The Fall
13. Come Away With Me
14. Don’t Know Why
15. I’ve Got To See You Again
16. Carry On
17. Just A Little Bit [encore]

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