...Featuring Norah Jones

Another side of Norah Jones' music career

Since Norah Jones reached out for wide audiences, which happened after the release of her debut album in 2002, public is excitedly watching every move in her career and expects her to release more and more quality records, which has all the right reasons. The talented singer’s solo albums come out quite steadily, yet, of course, not as often as her supporters wish they would. In the meantime, we all have to remember that Norah is not solely focused on her solo activities. For almost a decade, she’s been a vigorous collaborator working with many performers and having an open mind for experiments. Only one year from her brilliant release The Fall (2009), we are welcoming another CD with Norah Jones’ name on it. …Featuring Norah Jones is an intriguing collection of songs recorded by various artists at various times with the only thing that unites them – Norah’s participation in all of them. This is an amazing attempt to gather together most interesting pieces featuring this singer which you can not find on her solo records.

Music diversity in the right order

As soon as you see the names of those who recorded the tracks off …Featuring Norah Jones, you start to feel a little uneasy because it seems like someone simply stuffed the CD with songs you can not place together in one set almost physically. However, the sequence of the tracks does an amazing thing as the record goes smooth, without abrupt shifts, and seems quite a logically composed album. Some songs here were recorded by Norah as the leading performer with the support of guests, while the others, on the contrary, were made by other performers who involved Norah in the process. The trick is that practically every second number here are jazz and country ballads bringing up pleasant associations with Jones’ solo efforts. One of them opens the album. This beautiful piece called Love Me was recorded by Norah with her former band The Little Willies. One of the songs of the same kind is quite a rare thing named More Than This. It is remarkable for being executed by Norah Jones in duet with Charley Parker in 2001, before her debut release. A pure country number, Loretta, sounds like one of the collection’s worthiest diamonds.

This collection will be a holiday for all those who like this singer

The listeners will certainly pay attention to those compositions which do not resemble anything coming from Norah Jones’ solo records. Not all of them are equally successful. For example, potentially impressive, the tandem with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) in Virginia Moon sounds more like the rock band’s frontman’s solo effort. Quite the opposite is Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John. This one is taken from a Belle And Sebastian album, and Norah Jones’ voice adds in so much favor in here. A couple of tracks placed right in the center of the CD make the impossible possible. They feature Outkast, and Q-Tip, that kind of performers you can hardly place on your head next to Norah Jones. However, this contrast only highlights strengths of all parties involved. …Featuring Norah Jones is a record having in store lots of surprises for you and always having your attention on the figure of Norah Jones. Undoubtedly, this collection will bring hours of pleasure to all those who care about her music and help them while away the time until the release of Norah’s new solo long player.