Norah Jones – Come Away With Me 20th Anniversary

Vor 20 Jahren, am 26. Februar 2002, erschien ohne große Promotion das auch musikalisch eher leise Album einer bis dahin unbekannten Künstlerin. Das schwer einzuordnende Werk der

22-jährigen Norah Jones wurde von Blue Note Records mit bescheidenen Erwartungen veröffentlicht, schließlich war es weder ein reines Jazzalbum, noch ähnelte es irgendetwas anderem in der Poplandschaft des Jahres 2002. Welches Publikum, welche Charts sollten damit erobert werden?

Diese Fragen wurden schon bald wie von selbst beantwortet: „Come Away With Me“ entwickelte sich zu einem globalen Phänomen, gewann 2003 acht GRAMMY Awards, darunter „Album des Jahres“, „Song des Jahres“ und „Beste neue Künstlerin“, erreichte Platz 1 in 20 Ländern und verkaufte sich bis heute fast 30 Millionen Mal.

Zum Jubiläum erscheint das Album jetzt in diversen Formaten als luxuriöse “20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition”, zum einen als brandneu remasterte CD- + LP-Originalversion, sowie als limitierte CD- + LP-Deluxe-Editionen mit 30 Bonustracks, darunter 22 unveröffentlichten. In den reich illustrierten Booklets blickt Norah Jones ganz persönlich auf die Entstehungsgeschichte des längst zum Klassiker gereiften Albums zurück.

Die Bonustracks der Deluxe-Editionen:

– 13 Tracks der von Craig Street produzierten Urversion des Albums („The Allaire Sessions“, davon 11 bislang unveröffentlicht)

– 11 unveröffentlichte Demoversionen

– 6 Tracks einer raren Promo-LP

Limited 3-CD-Deluxe: 44 Tracks, Hardcover-Digipak, 32-seitiges Booklet

CD 1 | Come Away With Me – 20th Anniversary Remaster

CD 2 | The Demos / First Sessions Outtakes / First Sessions EP

CD 3 | The Allaire Sessions

 

1. Don’t Know Why
2. Seven Years
3. Cold Cold Heart
4. Feelin’ The Same Way
5. Come Away With Me
6. Shoot The Moon
7. Turn Me On
8. Lonestar
9. I’ve Got To See You Again
10. Painter Song
11. One Flight Down
12. Nightingale
13. The Long Day Is Over
14. The Nearness Of You

1. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
2. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
3. World Of Trouble
4. The Only Time
5. I Didn’t Know About You
6. Something Is Calling You
7. Just Like A Dream Today
8. When Sunny Gets Blue
9. What Am I To You
10. Hallelujah I Love Him So
11. Daydream
12. Don’t Know Why
13. Come Away With Me
14. Something Is Calling You
15. Turn Me On
16. Lonestar
17. Peace

Tracks 1-11 previously unreleased / 12-17 previously released as PR-only EP

1. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
2. I’ve Got To See You Again *
3. What Would I Do
4. Come Away With Me*
5. Picture In A Frame**
6. Nightingale*
7. Peace*
8. What Am I To You*
9. Painter Song*
10. Turn Me On*
11. A Little At A Time
12. One Flight Down*
13. Fragile

*   alternate version

** alternate mix

All tracks previously unreleased except 1 + 5

Limited 4-LP-Deluxe: 44 Tracks, 140gr, Schuber, 12-seitiges Booklet

LP 1 | Come Away With Me – 20th Anniversary Remaster

LP 2 | The Demos (previously unreleased)

LP 3 | First Sessions EP (previously released as PR-only EP)

LP4 | The Allaire Sessions (previously unreleased except tracks 1+5)

 

1A

Don’t Know Why

Seven Years

Cold Cold Heart

Feelin’ The Same Way

Come Away With Me

Shoot The Moon

Turn Me On

1B

Lonestar

I’ve Got To See You Again

Painter Song

One Flight Down

Nightingale

The Long Day Is Over

The Nearness Of You

3A

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
World of Trouble

The Only Time

I Didn’t Know About You

3B

Something Is Calling You tabla version

Just Like A Dream Today

When Sunny Gets Blue

What Am I To You

Hallelujah I Love Him So

Daydream

 

2A

Don’t Know Why

Come Away With Me

Something Is Calling You

2B

Turn Me On

Lonestar

Peace

4A

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

I’ve Got To See You Again

What Would I Do

Come Away With Me

Picture In A Frame

Nightingale

4B

Peace

What Am I To You

Painter Song

Turn Me On

A Little At A Time

One Flight Down

Fragile

INFO

In February 2002, America was still emerging from the dark shadows of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and Norah’s voice and music—pure, warm, and reassuring—struck a deep emotional chord with listeners the world over. Norah had moved from Texas to New York City in 1999 after spending two years as a jazz piano major at the University of North Texas. While playing jazz gigs at restaurants around town, Norah also fell in with a circle of singer-songwriters including Jesse Harris and Richard Julian who played often at the Living Room on the Lower East Side and inspired her to broaden the creative pathways she might one day take.

On Norah’s 21^st birthday, EMI Publishing employee Shell White heard her performing at a jazz brunch and arranged a meeting with Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall. A month later Norah was in Lundvall’s office playing him her 3-song demo CD, which included two jazz songs: “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” and a remarkably self-assured version of the standard “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” that Norah had recorded in her high school band room accompanying herself on piano. The last song on the CD was one of Harris’ that leaned more in a singer-songwriter direction with Harris on acoustic guitar and Lee Alexander on bass.

Soon after, Lundvall signed Norah to a demo deal, and by the time she went into the recording studio she had decided to focus primarily on new originals written by Harris, Alexander, and herself. “The very first song we did in those sessions was one of Jesse’s, called ‘Don’t Know Why’ that we hadn’t yet played live,” Norah recalls in the new collection’s liner notes. “We got it on the first try and it just felt great, one of those magical, easy takes. When we walked back into the control room to listen, [engineer] Jay [Newland] was over the moon. It really built my confidence for the rest of the session and set the tone for what we were going for. After all was said and done, it was this version that ended up on the final record, with only some harmonies and a doubled guitar added to it.”

Lundvall loved what he heard and signed Norah as a Blue Note artist, and she began to prepare to record her debut album. “Cassandra Wilson’s New Moon Daughter had been a favorite album of mine and was a big inspiration for the kind of record I wanted to make,” Norah writes. “Since I loved the instrument choices (beautiful slide and acoustic guitars) and the production, I asked Bruce if I could meet with Craig Street, who produced it. Craig and I met a few times and got along really well. He liked the demos and said we should put those out as the record or use most of them, but I was really excited to explore a slightly different vibe, one I knew he could help me find.”

Norah and Street went into Allaire Studios near Woodstock in upstate New York with some of her favorite musicians including Bill Frisell and Kevin Breit on guitars, Brian Blade and Kenny Wollesen on drums, Rob Burger on accordion and organ, and Alexander on bass. “Nearly everything we recorded felt special. We re-recorded most of the songs from the demos to see where else we could take them,” Norah recalls. But during the mixing session Norah began to question whether they had gone too far with some of the songs and wondered if Street had been right about the strength of the demos.

After delivering the Allaire mixes to Blue Note, Lundvall came to the same conclusion that the new recordings had strayed too far from what was so special about the demos. It was decided that Norah should go back into the studio to start again with Arif Mardin producing. They ended up keeping three songs from the Allaire sessions (“Seven Years,” “Feelin’ The Same Way,” and “The Long Day Is Over”), two from the demo sessions (“Don’t Know Why” and “Turn Me On”), and recorded nine additional songs that hewed more closely to the spirit of the demos. The resulting album became Come Away With Me.

Now, 20 years later, Norah decided to release the Allaire version of the album. “It’s been a bit like time traveling to some alternate universe of the album that nobody ever heard,” she says. “When I approached Craig to tell him about it, he suggested we ask Tony Maserati to ‘balance’ the recordings. This brought my vocal to the front more and I can finally hear my little 22-year-old self trying new things and fitting into the music around me just fine. Re-visiting these sessions after listening to them only once in the last 20 years has been a lovely surprise. I’m so glad to finally re-unite with Craig and get a chance to finish what we started together. I learned a lot from him, and I always think of that time upstate as a sort of dreamy fantasy, and I still get that feeling when I listen to these recordings.”

As Norah reflects back upon Come Away With Me, she says “I was incredibly proud of this album and so thankful to everyone who made it with me…I figured it was a good first try and felt that it truly captured who I was – musically – at that time, which made me the proudest and is all you can really hope for when making a record. In the end I was so thankful that I got to explore a few different paths before putting them all together. No one, including the label, had any idea it would reach the success that it did. I’m forever grateful to Bruce and the very special team at Blue Note for giving me the chance to find my sound through all of it and for never telling me who I had to be.”