In a bid to banish her laid-back jazz diva reputation Norah Jones went blonde on stage. Nowherlatest album finally reveals her true musical colours...
The sight of Norah Jones letting her hair down would probably surprise the millions of fans who bought her 2002 debut Come Away With Me and, in doing so, bought into the soothing notion of the sultry young Texan as a romantic but reserved jazz diva.
But when Ms Jones decides to let go, she does so in style.
She did it four years ago when she launched her own bar-band called, ahem, The Little Willies.
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Jazz diva: The elegant Norah Jones
And she did it again in 2005 when collaborating with wild-man-of-rock Dave Grohl on The Foo Fighters song Virginia Moon.
Earlier this year, she was at it again.
This time, she donned a blonde wig, fishnet stockings and a miniskirt - "stuff I'd normally never feel comfortable wearing" - and took to the New York stage fronting part-time country-punk band El Madmo under the pseudonym "Maddie".
"There's something about putting on a blonde wig," she laughs.
"It makes you feel like a different person. We formed El Madmo as a joke. I dressed up so that nobody knew it was me. We had some good songs, but it was all about being silly."
There is more to Norah than initially meets the eye. Chatting in her London hotel the evening after a sold-out solo concert at the Hammersmith Apollo, the petite (5ft 1in) singer could easily pass as an indie rock chick in her jeans, red trainers and plunging dark blue top.
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Alter ego: Norah on stage with El Madmo
Jones is revealing more depth as a musician, too.
Along with long-term boyfriend Lee Alexander, also her bassist and producer, she wrote all the songs on her recent album Not Too Late, a dark yet subtle record which hasn't replicated the success of her jazzy debut or 2004's countrified Feels Like Home, but still topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
And far from the doe-eyed, melancholy figure of songs such as Don't Know Why or Feelin' The Same Way from her debut album, the 28-year-old is endearingly goofy.
Wary of sounding too pompous, she will often check herself mid-sentence to ask: "Does that make sense?"
But Jones, the daughter of sitar superstar Ravi Shankar, has moved on in leaps and bounds from the success that engulfed Come Away With Me, which sold more than 20 million copies, swept the board at the 2003 Grammy Awards and even led the singer's mother, Sue, to describe her daughter as "Snorah" because her songs were on the radio so much. When she made Come Away With Me, Jones had been in New York for only three years, having moved to The Big Apple from the Dallas suburb of Grapevine to rent a small apartment in Greenwich Village, discover herself as a live performer and make ends meet by waiting tables.
Showing Norah Jones's roots | the Daily Mail
Norah (Snorah) Jones goes blonde on stage
A bag of songs and a heavy heart...
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