Even Blue Note owner, the late Bruce Lundvall told me that it cannot be overstated how one single debut album by a female vocalist/pianist essentially “saved” a record label as well as the recording careers of tons of jazz artists. At the time when Norah Jones 2002 Come Away With Me came upon the world in 2002, Blue Note Records was surviving, but simply getting along, as were the plethora of jazz artists begging for sales to make at least 1000 copies.
Suddenly, after millions of record sales from a single album, jazz artists could rest easy, knowing that Blue Note had a reserve to allow artists like Joe Lovano, Charles Lloyd, Terence Blanchard or Jason Moran could find a recording haven.
What is in the Anniversary Edition is a multi-disc/vinyl set that includes an intriguing booklet with photos, a remastered take of the original album, a series of demos and outtakes from the first session including some standards such as “Spring Can Really hang You Up The Most”, “When Sunny Gets Blue” and “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” revealing a lady deeply rooted in the jazz tradition.
Most intriguing of all is the “alternate” album that almost became her debut. This includes alternate versions of “Come Away With Me”, “Nightingale” and “Turn Me On”, as well as other songs that didn’t make that debut on second thought, such as “Peace” and Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”. The casual yet intimate vocal delivery of Jones and her now-patented vocal delivery are still here in the fledgling stage of her recording career, with the listener seeing an impressive growth, maturing and confidence in the short span of these sessions. A real treat of the birth of a star.