That Grammy girl is all grown up
The first thing Norah Jones does after greeting a reporter is to pop a piece of peppermint gum in her mouth.
“I just ate a burrito,” she says almost apologetically, holding a hand over her mouth.
In truth, Jones doesn’t have bad breath. But the petite, soft-spoken singer seems predisposed to self-effacing graciousness – whether she’s explaining her lunch choices or recalling the 2002 debut “Come Away With Me” that unexpectedly made her a multiple Grammy winner.
“I never wanted that spotlight,” says Jones, 27. “I would hear that I was overexposed, and I’d be like, ‘Yes, I agree, I am!’
“I was young, and I hadn’t been working toward this goal of selling a bazillion records. It was great, but I was overwhelmed.”
Her new, third CD, “Not Too Late” – which entered this week’s Billboard album chart at No. 1 – finds Jones older and more reflective.
“It’s a little darker,” she says.
Though Jones’ gracefully understated work on that first album earned high praise from critics and peers – not to mention eight Grammys, including album and record of the year – some said the pop ingenue was too relentlessly mellow.
“I tried not to read stuff about myself,” Jones says. “But it got to the point where I would read an article about somebody I liked or look for music reviews, and somebody would mention me – and not always in a nice way.
“It was like, ‘This person is almost as lame as Norah Jones,’ or, ‘This person is so much better than Norah Jones.’ “
When Jones unveiled her sophomore CD, “Feels Like Home,” in 2004, her feelings were less of excitement than relief.
“I was just so happy to get that record over with,” she says. “We had fun making it, and I was proud of it. But if one more person asked me, ‘Do you feel pressure?’ …
“It’s easier now, because I don’t have to deal with as many questions like that.”
Jones wrote more of her own material for the new CD, collaborating on several tunes with Lee Alexander, her longtime boyfriend, bassist and frequent writing partner.
She also made a movie, “My Blueberry Nights,” in which she leads an all-star cast – including Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz – as a young woman on a cross-country journey.
Asked to describe her character, Jones laughs: “She’s kind of shy and subdued, like my first album, I guess.”
At this point, though, she has no regrets.
“I can see why someone might have thought I was a certain way from listening to my first record and looking at the cover picture,” she says. “It’s very soft. It’s sweet, and I’m kind of salty.
“But I think people probably have perceived me less that way in the last couple of years. Anyway, I don’t care how I’m perceived.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Leslie Nielsen is 81. Actress Tina Louise (“Gilligan’s Island”) is 73. Actor Burt Reynolds is 71. Musician Sergio Mendes is 66. Singer Sheryl Crow is 45. Actress Jennifer Aniston (“Friends”) is 38. Singer-actress Brandy (“Moesha”) is 28. Actor Matthew Lawrence (“Boy Meets World”) is 27. Singer Kelly Rowland (Destiny’s Child) is 26.