By Chris Varias
Enquirer contributor
A Norah Jones concert overflows with as much high-energy excitement as a 20-minute sitar solo, which is to say it actually doesn't rock too hard at all. But that just serves to make Jones perhaps the most unlikely rock star since her father, Ravi Shankar.
The 25-year-old singer and piano player's laid-back musical manner, displayed on her two smash CDs, has made Jones the soft-rock superstar of the moment, and she put on a pleasantly enjoyable show representative of those records at U.S. Bank Arena Friday night. The show was performed theater-style, with only half the arena used to make for a more intimate setting.
Moving between a baby grand and an electric keyboard, Jones led her five-piece band through an easy-does-it, 90-minute set that made the case for the power of understatement. In fact, the quietest spells were the strongest, such as her solo take on the standard "The Nearness of You." Another was her biggest hit "Don't Know Why." Instead of lacing the song with its familiar piano melody, Jones stepped away from the keys and fronted the band with a vocals-only performance, giving a tired song new life.
All of this quiet time doesn't mean Jones doesn't know her rock 'n' roll. She gave the crowd a choice of songs by either the Rolling Stones or Gram Parsons. And who knew Cincinnati was so hip? They voted for Gram, and Jones delivered a knockout version of Parsons' tribute to his mother, "She."
Jones cleverly approached the issue of asking people in the audience to shut off their cell phones. She had fellow Texan Hank Hill, from the animated TV show King of the Hill, do it via video screen. "I once saw her attack an audience member with a microphone stand," Hill warned would-be perpetrators.
Show opener Amos Lee's half-hour set accentuated the night's Lite-FM singer-songwriter vibe. The performance ran the acoustic-guitar-troubadour gamut from whispery coffeehouse neo-folk to soulful belting and funky riffing in the tradition of Dave Matthews. He saved his best song for last: "Caramel," a sugary send-up of soul music's falsetto-voiced lust-song tradition that earned howls and laughs from the crowd.
Lee played songs from a forthcoming album on Blue Note Records, Jones' label, due in March that's produced by Lee Alexander, Jones' boyfriend and the bass player in her band.
E-mail cv@fuse.net
