NORAH JONES RECORDING SESSIONS HISTORY: June 2009
The Coop,
Band members: Norah Jones (piano, acoustic guitar), Pete McNeal (drums), Dave Wilder (bass guitar)
Producer/Engineer: Jacquire
King
Set:
Guide:
[X] = confirmed to exist, unreleased
[O] = officially released
Best available sources:
|
The Fall (Wal-Mart
Exclusive Release) |
|
Available as a 256K MP3 file on Wal-Mart’s MP3 store. |
|
NCIS Vol. 2 Soundtrack |
|
Released in October 2009 on CBS Records. |
Notes: A one day experimental session, marking Jacquire King’s first time recording with Norah.
After deciding to scrap the tentative album she had put together from the demos recorded over the last year and a half at her home studio, Norah decided to look for a producer to help her out. She told the Associated Press that “I realized, I think, what I want to do is work with some different sounds,” she says. “I figured that the best way to do that was to try and step outside of my comfort zone a little bit and work with some different musicians and a different producer. It just felt like a good time to do that.” (1) To Morning Edition, she said “I think sonically I just wanted to change some things up. I wanted to use heavier drum grooves and use more electronic keyboard sounds. Which is something I've never really done." (2)
How did Norah decide on Jacquire? In her interview with Music Week, she stated “I have loved Tom Waits for years and Mule Variations has been one of my favourite albums since college, so it has influenced my past 10 years of music. I found Jacquire’s name and asked the record label to put us in touch and it happened from there. It was kind of natural and felt really good. He had good ideas and seemed to really get what I wanted. I wanted more groove-based drums but at the same time I wanted to be a little grittier, because with my voice the tendency is for things to get smooth very quickly. I don’t sound like Tom Waits. There has to be a bit of juxtaposition and [King] really helped me find the right balance.” (3)
On his end, having just come off producing Kings of Leon’s Grammy-nominated Only By The Night, Jacquire stated that “I think that some more recent success like the Kings of Leon certainly helped the argument in the big picture, that I might be a good choice to make her record. I don't know how much a Kings of Leon record really factored in for Norah. She was speaking to Husky Hoskulds [who engineered Norah’s first Come Away with Me session at Allaire] and Mario Caldato, as she was considering who to make her record. And one of them asked her, "What's your favorite record?" She said the Tom Waits Mule Variations, and it sort of dawned on her, well maybe I should just look and see who made that record. And that's why she called me. (4)
“I was surprised to get the call. I was elated, because I considered her, even before working with her, to be super talented and really genuine, and someone that's rare. I love her music, but regardless of what someone's music is, I'm excited to work with him or her if they're really talented, because it's a creative situation. You're not challenged by the deficiencies of trying to get things to happen that you have to manufacture. So it raises the bar, and it's exciting when you get to be in a situation where magical things can happen quickly. I was excited to get that call. It was unexpected. I didn't think that I would ever get a call from her.”
During their first meeting, the two discussed what exactly Norah wanted to do with the album. Jacquire explained that “Well, she wanted to get into some heavier rhythmic stuff, and stuff that has more edge and kind of dirt. That record, and Tom's sound, there's a heavy, dark, angular, rhythmic element to it. It's very musical; he's a great songwriter. So all the sonics and the tricks, and the places that the music goes, really gravitates around someone that has great songs and a great musical talent and voice. I think that she's sympathetic to those kinds of things. She expressed to me that she wanted something that was edgy. She's playing more guitar and wants things that are more heavily rhythm oriented. I think Mule feels that way to her in a way that she is sympathetic to and can relate to.” (4)
After meeting her for the first time, King arranged this
second meeting to try recording some songs, and brought along with him
King revealed that “In the end, there's only one thing, a tune called ‘That's What I Said’ that we started on that day. It's not on the record, it's a bonus track because I think that in our experimenting we went for something that was a little bit outside of where the record found its place.” The track is a slinky R&B style song that features Norah on affected vocals and grand piano, Wilder on bass, and McNeal on drums. Notably, there is no guitar part. The song is a radical departure from anything Norah has worked on in the past, but even so, did not quite fit the parameters of what would later comprise The Fall. (4)
Pete McNeal expressed his fondness for the track, stating “We wanted to hit that first to hopefully show that a departure from her established sound could be do-able...we just kind of shaped it...got some cool sounds and feels together and cut it. I loved the way it went down...[Norah] was really cool and open to trying things. I'm really happy the track made it out there...it was fun to cut. It also paved the way to record some things for The Fall.” (5)
A version of Young Blood was also tracked here. King added that “I understood her desire to be more rhythmic, and that she was playing more guitar. Also on that trip up there, she played me a song called ‘Young Blood’ that she had been working on, but she hadn't actually demoed yet. I asked her to play it for me, and she got a guitar out and just sat and played and sang it for me, which was really good, because I was able to feel how a more rhythmic, driving, grittier sound could be made to support her voice.” (4) Our presumption is that when Norah sat down and played the song for King, he may have decided to record the take, which features Norah unaccompanied on her acoustic guitar. This version did not make it to the regular final album release but did see life as a Wal-Mart bonus track to their digital release of The Fall.
After hearing “Young Blood,” King was able to get a better idea of what direction Norah wanted to go in. “My thought was, she wants to do something that's very edgy, pointed, and has more poke and punch to it, and her voice is so big and warm, but there's sort of a soft quality to it, too. I was thinking therein lies a challenge: how was I going to be able to create this dark, rhythmic force and mood around a voice that kind of already is that? How can you support it in that way without getting in its way?” (4)
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