Already the stuff of legend, the 20-million-album-selling international star brought the many facets of her “adult contemporary” universe to a packed Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Awe-inspiring.
As soon as they entered the hall, the journalist who had previously been relatively oblivious to the Norah Jones phenomenon noticed the merch stand: $45 for a t-shirt! In the audience, gray heads sporting a Bob Dylan effigy here, an old Pat Metheny souvenir t-shirt there, while further on, a lady wearing stilettos, a leather skirt and tribal tattoos takes a photo in front of one of the artist’s posters.
In the end, there was something for everyone. The offspring of Ravi Shankar – yes, the man who taught George Harrison the sitar – and Sue Jones – a fan of jazz, country and soul – moves from one style to another with seamless coherence.
Accompanied by guitarist Sasha Dobson and keyboardist Sami Stevens, the star, seated in front of a white piano, opened with “What Am I to You?”, a classic from the album Feels Like Home (2004).
What’s immediately striking is, of course, her round, mellow voice, but also the richness of her vocal harmonies, which occasionally flirt with a transcendent, atmospheric spirituality.
The singer’s greatest hits will unfold like pearls in a jewel box: “This Life”, “Sunrise” or “Come Away With Me”, whose beautiful purple lighting will transport us out of time into a twilight jazz club.
Surrounded by the excellent Brian Blade on drums (Grammy Award nominee for Best Instrumental Jazz Album of 2021) and the inspired Josh Lattanzi on bass, Norah Jones, who also accompanies herself on electric piano, lets her musical accomplices have their say.
And, it has to be said, even though she may sometimes sound a little mawkish, particularly from a textual point of view, and remains stingy with her interventions – a few words in French here and there – Norah Jones, this first-class performer, will have given us moments of musical grace, and she will also have proved that she remains an accomplished pianist. And an inspired guitarist, notably in her rendition of “Say Goodbye”. All this despite the legendary coldness of the venue. In fact, the vitality of the applause at the end of the show was in stark contrast to the lukewarm discipline of the whole set.
Martha breaks the ice
It was a happy Martha Wainwright who ended the tour of her latest album, Love Will Be Reborn (2021), in her hometown, along with her friend Norah Jones, whom she has known for 25 years. “We lived in the same house when she made her first record,” she breathed at the start of her 45-minute performance. A good choice to invite the whisky-tinged folk gypsy chic performer to open the show.
Among the highlights of this raw, energetic performance was a Brel-inspired cover of Piaf’s ” L’accordéoniste “, which drew rapturous applause. A piano cover of “Dinner at Eight”, from a song by her brother, whom she no longer needs to name, “that she wishes she’d written” (note that she knows how to use the past participle, unlike a plethora of her French-speaking colleagues…). And let’s not forget “Falaise de Malaise”, her “only song composed on the piano and the only one written in French”.
It was a flawless performance from the singer, who often raised her left leg as if to provoke evil spirits during her set, which might have pleased a certain Janis, whose influence could sometimes be felt.
Alas, there was no encore, as is often the case with opening acts.
As we left the venue, we thought that if the Beatles were the good boys and the Stones the bad boys, we could say that at Wilfrid-Pelletier yesterday, it was Martha who was on the latter team and Norah on the former.
crédit photo: Pierre Montminy
