After exploding onto the music scene in 2002 with her debut solo album, “Come Away With Me,” Norah Jones has been a decades-long fixture in pop jazz. She has released more than a dozen albums — both as a solo artist and with collaborators — with her most recent release, “Visions,” coming this year. Monday night, she performed at Heinz Hall in Downtown Pittsburgh in support of this new project.
The album and tour are both aptly named. “Visions” as a series of songs is often dreamy and evocative, and the concert lent itself to those feelings with colorful lighting and an easy, natural flow. Jones made the sold-out show feel intimate and special.
The show kicked off with opener Sasha Dobson, who felt very much like a protégé of Jones. Her laid-back scatting and soft, vintage jazz vocals were a welcome cool respite from the hot summer evening. Dobson remained an onstage staple even after her set ended.
She returned to the stage with her guitar as Norah Jones, unsurprisingly, seated herself at the piano to a roar of applause and a trill of recorded birdsong. The two singers began the evening with “Paradise,” from “Visions,” an upbeat song that set the tone perfectly. That was followed up by ”Swept Up In The Night,” a song designed to soundtrack a slow dancing scene in a romantic comedy.
Jones is well-known for her distinctive voice, which has always been a perfect complement to her jazzy piano, with a soulful rasp that was particularly suited to the.
