Celebrity crush: Norah Jones (revised)

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Here's another entry long past due for a revision, the original entry for her going back almost two years.

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Name: Norah Jones (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Born in the New York borough of Brooklyn but after her parents' separation was raised in the Fort Worth, Texas, area from about age 7 up, according to her Wikipedia profile. Her father is famed Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, the guy who taught the instrument to Beatle George Harrison, and her mother is concert promoter Sue Jones. Younger sister Anoushka Shankar produces music closer to their father's roots.

(Her full birth name is Geethali Norah Jones Shankar. Geethali means "song" or "melodious," according to her IMDB profile.)

Best Known For: Melding jazz, pop, and a little bit of country music in a series of solo recordings and side projects, while also branching out into faux punk (donning a blonde wig to sing with El Madmo) and straight-ahead country music (with The Little Willies).

Norah has also become a go-to featured singer for a variety of artists, ranging from OutKast and Q-Tip to Willie Nelson (several duets) and Foo Fighters. Many of those appearances have been collected on her recent album ... Featuring, and so aren't listed individually for sale below; most of what I list under "As Guest Vocalist" are things not on that album, including her Mental Nomad Podcast-featured duet on Noam Weinstein's "I Could Lie to You."

Humble Beginnings: High school saw her singing in choir and playing the alto saxophone, but she majored in jazz piano at the University of North Texas and sang in a jazz choir there. An eventual move to New York City brought her a gig singing backing vocals for folk singer-songwriter Victoria Williams, various lounge performances, and a variety of collaborations with other people that would emerge both before and after her breakthrough as a solo artist.

Come Away With Me, her debut solo album, landed in February 2002 and racked up five Grammys in 2003. And ever since then, it's been Norah Jones' world, and the rest of us have just been living in it, trying -- with varying levels of success -- not to leer too obviously at this combination of visual and musical beauty.

The Exact Opposite of the Courteney Cox Factor: As opposed to all the actresses who pop up in music videos -- or actresses who cut a (usually bad) album or two before returning to their day job -- Norah is a musician who has, on occasion, turned in an acting gig. Sometimes it's as jazz singer Norah Jone (30 Rock, an adorable take on "Don't Know Why" on Sesame Street), sometimes playing a fictitious character (her lead role in My Blueberry Nights, a cameo in Wah Do Dem).

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: She has a beautifully warm voice, a charming demeanor, and the sort of good looks that could cause a traffic pile-up if she went walking down a sidewalk. Plus, you have to admire someone so musically adventurous -- El Madmo, The Little Willies, duets with Dolly Parton and Elmo and Ryan Adams, all that has made her far more than just a great jazz singer. (Which, I should add, is a perfectly wonderful thing in itself.)
Music Videos (alphabetically): "Chasing Pirates" (iTunes) * "Come Away With Me" (iTunes) * "Don't Know Why" (iTunes) * "Life Is Better (Q-Tip and Norah Jones)" (iTunes) * "Sinkin' Soon" (iTunes) * "Sunrise" (iTunes) * "Thinking About You" (iTunes) * "Those Sweet Words" (iTunes) * "Until the End" (iTunes) * "What Am I to You?" (iTunes) * "Young Blood" (iTunes)

Woman at right is unknown. (Just kidding.
Everyone loves Dolly Parton.)

Selected TV and Web Series Credits: 30 Rock, season 3: "Kidney Now!" (Amazon | iTunes) * Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... season 1: "Rosanne Cash/Norah Jones/John Mellencamp/Kris Kristofferson" (Amazon | iTunes) * Austin City Limits, season 33: "Norah Jones" (Amazon | iTunes) * Live From Abbey Road, season 1, episode 11 (Amazon | iTunes)

Selected Film and TV-movie Credits: MusiCares Tribute to Neil Young (2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Greatest Ears in Town: The Arif Martin Story (Amazon | iTunes) * Wah Do Dem (Amazon | iTunes) * Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Play the Music of Ray Charles (Amazon | iTunes) * Life. Support. Music. (Amazon | iTunes) * Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Man Standing Live (Amazon | iTunes) * My Blueberry Nights (Amazon | iTunes) * Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons (Amazon | iTunes) * Norah Jones and the Handsome Band: Live in 2004 (Amazon | iTunes) * We Are the Future (2004 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Genius: A Night for Ray Charles (Amazon | iTunes) * Sesame Street/Elmo's World: The Street We Live On (Amazon | iTunes) * Willie Nelson and Friends: Alive and Kickin' (Amazon | iTunes) * Norah Jones: Live in New Orleans (Amazon | iTunes) * Two Weeks Notice (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * Live From the Bonnaroo Music Festival 2002 (TV special) (Amazon | iTunes)

With El Madmo.

Albums as Main Artist: ...Featuring (Amazon | iTunes) * The Fall (Amazon | iTunes) * iTunes Originals - Norah Jones (iTunes) * Deep Cuts EP (Amazon | iTunes) * Butterflies with Laszlo (Amazon | iTunes) * Not Too Late (Amazon | iTunes) * El Madmo with El Madmo (Amazon | iTunes) * New York City: Deluxe with The Peter Malick Group (Amazon | iTunes) * Feels Like Home (Amazon | iTunes) * The Little Willies with The Little Willies (Amazon | iTunes) * Come Away With Me (Amazon | iTunes) * The First Sessions (Amazon | iTunes)

Compilation Work: "Change Is Gonna Come" (Wretches & Jabberers soundtrack) (Amazon | iTunes) * Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Music of Ray Charles (Amazon | iTunes) * "I Walk the Line" (with Joel Harrison, Nu Jazz Anthology) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Tennessee Waltz" (with Joel Harrison, 100 Tubes Lounge Music) (Amazon | iTunes) * "That's What I Said" (NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack - Vol. 2) (Amazon | iTunes) * "The Story" (My Blueberry Nights soundtrack) (Amazon | iTunes) * "American Anthem" (The War: A Ken Burns Film soundtrack) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Easy" (Breathing Under Water by Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Hottest State soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * "My Blue Heaven" (Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Love Me Tender" (duet with Adam Levy, The Princess Diaries 2 soundtrack) (Amazon | iTunes) * "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (Higher Ground: Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Peace" (A Very Special Acoustic Christmas) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Why Can't He Be You?" (Remembering Patsy Cline) (Amazon | iTunes) * "The Grass Is Blue" (Just Because I'm a Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want to Get Over You)" (Lonesome, On'ry and Mean: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings) (Amazon | iTunes)

As Guest Vocalist: Rome by Danger Mouse and Danielle Luppi (Amazon | iTunes) * "Ill Wind" (Sophisticated Ladies by the Charlie Haden Quartet West) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Speak Low" (Duets II by Tony Bennett) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Longing for You" (All My Friends Are Here by Arif Marden) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Dreamgirl" (Incredibad by The Lonely Island) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Cry Me a River" (Heaven Is Creepy by Jim Campilongo) (Amazon | iTunes) * "I Don't Want Anything to Change" (Bonnie Raitt and Friends) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Lonely Lament" (Last Exit Angel by Liberation Prophecy) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Rita" (Peach Pony by Rachel Loshak) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Sucker" (Peeping Tom by Mike Patton) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Any Other Day" (Carnival, Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant by Wyclef Jean) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (Those Were the Days by Dolly Parton) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Wild Horses" (The Rolling Stones Project by Tim Ries) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Angels" (with Wax Poetic) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Dreams Come True" (It Will Always Be by Willie Nelson) (Amazon | iTunes) * American Hips by the Jim Campilongo Electric Trio (Amazon | iTunes) * "What Makes You" (The Secret Sun by Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos) (Amazon | iTunes) * "I Could Lie to You" (Above the Music by Noam Weinstein) (Amazon | iTunes) * "In the Dark" (More Friends - Small World Big Band Vol. 2 by Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra) (Amazon | iTunes) * Songs from the Analog Playground by Charlie Hunter (Amazon | iTunes)