Norah Jones is a 9-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and pianist. She has won multiple awards and has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has been residing in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn since 2009 in an 1840’s townhouse that she purchased. She was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents are the musician Ravi Shankar and nurse and concert promoter Sue Jones, who separated in 1986. Norah was subsequently raised in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas.
At age 15 she enrolled at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, heading to Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts for summer camp. When she was 16, she changed her name to Norah Jones, around the same time she began playing solo gigs in the Dallas area. Her first national notice arrived when she was granted several Down Beat Student Music Awards, taking home Best Original Composition and Best Jazz Vocalist in 1996, repeating the latter win in 1997. For a while, she majored in jazz piano at the University of North Texas.
Jones moved to New York City in 1999 and after arriving in Manhattan, started working lounges and clubs and also assembled her own group . Blues and jazz songwriter Peter Malick discovered Jones singing at the club The Living Room and hired her to sing several of his songs, along with a few covers, during studio sessions in late summer 2000.
In 2002, Jones launched her solo music career with the release of "Come Away with Me" , which was a fusion of jazz with country, blues, folk and pop. It was certified Diamond selling over 27 million copies. The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist. Over the past decade she has incorporated daringly modern musical elements into her albums, including adult alternative pop, while spending time with side projects where she sang country, punk and jazz -- an indication of her expansive taste and skill.
Among the charities Norah Jones supports are the Children's Cancer Association, MusiCares, Yele Haiti Foundation, United for Peace and Justice and Stand Up To Cancer. She co-wrote and recorded a song with Wyclef Jean , "Any Other Day" to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Her new album "Pick Me Up Off the Floor" is scheduled to be released this year.
Sources for this post: norahjones.com, allmusic.com, looktothestars.org, wikipedia, ny.curbed.com.