Norah Jones' debut CD, Come Away With Me on Blue Note Records, blurs the borders of jazz, soul, country and folk-pop, with Norah on vocals, piano and Wurlitzer electric piano. Music is in this talented girl's genes, as her father is world-renowned sitar player Ravi Shankar.

Norah was born on March 30, 1979 in New York City. When she was four years old, she and her mother moved to Grapevine, Texas, near Dallas. Norah's earliest musical influences came from her mother's extensive record collection and from "oldies" radio. She began singing in church choirs at age five, commenced piano lessons two years later, and briefly played alto saxophone in junior high school.

Remembering her early influences, Norah says, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set. I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again. 'You Go To My Head' -- that was my favorite."

When she was 15, Norah enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, the same school where soul singer Erykah Badu and trumpeter Roy Hargrove attended. On her 16th birthday, Norah played her first gig, performomg a version of the Billie Holiday song "I'll Be Seeing You" at an open-mic night at a local coffeehouse. In 1996, she entered and won the Down Beat Student Music Awards for "Best Jazz Vocalist" and "Best Original Composition," and again won "Best Jazz Vocalist" in 1997. After graduation, Norah entered the University of North Texas as a jazz piano major.

In the summer of 1999, she accepted a friend's offer to sublet an apartment in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, intending to return to Texas at the end of the summer. But, as Norah explains, "The music kept me here. The music scene is so huge -- I found it very exciting. I especially enjoyed hearing amazing songwriters at little places like The Living Room. Everything opened up for me."

In October of 2000, Norah and her band recorded a selection of demo songs for Blue Note Records. On the strength of these recordings and a live showcase, Norah was signed to the Blue Note label in January of 2001. Come Away With Me, which was released in February 2002, has met with tremendous commercial and critical success. "I never thought I'd have a record like this -- I thought it would be at least five years before I'd reach that point," Norah says of her seemingly overnight success. "This is really the record I wanted to make."