We’ve been waiting a long time for Norah Jones to deliver a concert that lives up to what we feel palpitating in her best records. It finally happened: Tuesday night, she left her comfort zone and almost made the Wilfrid-Pelletier hall groove.
The small miracle happened a little before the middle of the concert. Confined until then to her white piano, Norah Jones stood up to take a seat behind a Wurlitzer piano that her technicians had just placed in the center of the stage. Standing behind the instrument, she launched I’m Awakea daydream with a playful groove taken from Visionshis most surprising album of his career and his best in a long time.
Read our five-part review of Norah Jones’ career
We have already seen Norah Jones standing in the center of the stage. However, we had never seen her abandon herself like that to the undulations of the music, letting herself be taken by the body and finally showing herself inhabited by her songs. It was not just a vision that quickly flew away: the singer continued, still at the Wurlitzer, I Just Wanna Dancea song during which a disco ball spun its light on the colorful stage set.
We would never have thought that we would one day write that there was a disco ball on stage at a Norah Jones concert. As we did not expect the soulful, retro and groovy turn taken on Visionshis album released in March and created with Leon Michels (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Els Michels Affair).
The spirit of freedom – not to say liberation – that we felt on this record was totally transported to the stage. Which is a very good thing.
We’d seen Norah Jones confine herself to the comfort of her piano bench a lot over the years, giving concerts so subdued that they were a little boring. It was beautiful, often bordering on perfection, but it was often too smooth to stir the guts. We feared it would be the same on Tuesday, as we scrutinized the arrangement of the instruments and noticed that there was no microphone on a stand at center stage.
Norah Jones had thus begun the concert behind a piano, a moment after a stage technician had placed a cup near her instrument. At first we thought of hot water with honey and lemon, a concoction good for the throat. The next moment, we wondered if it was not rather an ultra-caffeinated drink like Red Bull: there was already something more raw, almost nervous, as much in the musician’s singing as in her piano playing.
Backed by two backing singers and musicians (one of whom was, if I’m not mistaken, Sasha Dobson), the singer with 50 million albums sold pushed and modulated her voice like never before, making her interpretations captivating. Her piano playing did not get lost in the flourishes and kept the authenticity of the blues, well supported by bassist Josh Lattanzi and the exceptional Brian Blade on drums, cool and inventive, as always.
Norah Jones had no one to win over Tuesday during the first of her two concerts at the Montreal International Jazz Festival: the venue, completely sold out of course, was cheering her on before she even sang a single note. The crowd loudly expressed its joy throughout the evening, especially during oldies like Sunrisetaken from Feels Like HomeAnd Come Away with Methe title song of his first album, which was a huge and improbable success 20 years ago and some change.
The best part of all this is that the audience followed her with their eyes closed in her desires today.
Because Norah Jones didn’t just let loose for two songs at the Wurlitzer, she spent almost the entire second half of her concert at the center of the stage, electric guitar slung over her shoulder, to perform new pieces (two thirds of her latest album) and old songs (Little Broken Heartsin particular). She even gave herself a solo on Queen of the Seathat is to say !
Let’s not raise our expectations too much: Norah Jones has not transformed herself into a real rocker or a real soul singer. However, she let loose like never before and, even if she remains quiet, her pleasure was contagious. We had never tapped our feet or danced on our seats so much at one of her concerts. When the groove is there, it doesn’t lie!
Norah Jones is performing again to a sold-out crowd this Wednesday at Place des Arts.