Norah Jones was born March 30, 1979 in New York City. When she was four years old, Norah and her mother Sue moved to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas. Norah's earliest musical influences came from her mother's extensive LP collection and from 'oldies' radio. She began singing in church choirs at age five, commenced piano lessons two years later, and briefly played alto saxophone in junior high. When Norah was 15, she and her mother moved from Grapevine to Dallas' central city, where she enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Thinking about you:Norah played her first gig on her 16th birthday, an open-mic night at a local coffeehouse, where she performed a version of I'll Be Seeing You that she'd learned from Etta James' treatment of this Billie Holiday favorite. While still in high school, Norah won the Down Beat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist and Best Original Composition in 1996, and earned a second SMA for Best Jazz Vocalist in 1997. After graduation, Jones entered the University of North Texas, nationally renowned for its music programs, where she majored in jazz piano. She also sang with a band called Laszlo, playing what she describes as "dark, jazzy rock." In the summer of 1999, Norah accepted a friend's offer of a summer sublet in Greenwich Village. She came to Manhattan and never returned to North Texas State. For about a year beginning in December 1999, Norah appeared regularly with the funk-fusion band Wax Poetic (now signed to Atlantic). But she soon assembled her own group with Jesse Harris, Lee Alexander, and Dan Rieser. In October 2000, this lineup recorded a selection of demos for Blue Note Records. On the strength of these recordings and a live showcase, Jones was signed to Blue Note in January 2001. Norah sang two songs (Roxy Music's More Than This and Day Is Done by Nick Drake) on guitarist Charlie Hunter's Blue Note album Songs from the Analog Playground, and has frequently performed live with Hunter's group. Sinkin' Soon:Norah began recording the songs of Come Away With Me in May 2001, doing preliminary work with producer Craig Street at Bearsville Studio in Woodstock, New York. Jones’ debut album, Come Away with Me, debuted in February 2002 and was instantly celebrated for its blending of mellow, acoustic pop with soul and country. It hit number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, with single "Don't Know Why" hitting number one on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003. Jones walked away from the Grammy Awards of 2003 with eight awards. By receiving "Record of the Year", "Album of the Year", "Song of the Year", and "Best New Artist" honors all in 2003, Jones was the first artist to sweep the "Big Four", or the four most prestigious Grammy awards, since Christopher Cross did so in the Grammy Awards of 1981. The "Song of the Year" award went to Jesse Harris for writing "Don't Know Why", but because Jones performed the song, she is associated with winning "Song of the Year" as well. Of the eight awards that came from Come Away with Me at the 2003 Grammy Awards, Jones personally received five awards with the other three awards attributed to the album itself. Her second album, Feels like Home, was released on February 9, 2004. Rather than repeat the softer, jazz mood of Come Away with Me, her second album was influenced by country music. Within a week of its release, Feels like Home had sold over a million copies, making it the highest-selling album in the history of Blue Note Records. In that same year, Time magazine listed Jones among the most influential people of 2004. Rosie's Lullaby:Jones received three awards at the Grammy Awards of 2005, two for her "Record of the Year" collaboration with Ray Charles on the song "Here We Go Again". That year, Norah Jones appeared on the self-titled record by Amos Lee. In February 2006, Screen International reported that Norah Jones would make her acting debut in a film by 2046 and Chungking Express director Wong Kar-wai. The film called My Blueberry Nights, would be Wong Kai-wai's English language debut and will be partly funded by StudioCanal and Jet Tone Productions
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