Norah Jones concert review: Soul singer hits all the right notes in Heinz Hall show

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 slower number.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” Jones said. “I hope you don’t mind, we’re starting with some songs from my new record.”

That continued with “Running,” a faster song with singsongy backup vocals. But the run of new tunes was broken when next she played the first single from her follow-up to the juggernaut “Come Away With Me” album, a wistful song called “Sunrise.” The audience applauded approvingly when they recognized the first lyrics.

“Sunrise,” from 2004’s “Feels Like Home,” sounded breezy and beautiful with Jones’ warm vocals and her nimble work at the piano. The song fit her like a familiar sweater, allowing her voice and fingers to wander in surprising directions.

In response to an audience member’s “I love you!” she said, “I love Pittsburgh! Yellow bridges, a pop of color, that’s what I’m talking about.” She herself wore a colorful ensemble, topped with a teal jacket that featured a rhinestone tiger emblazoned on the back.

Despite the mellow tone of her voice, Jones really can open up and put power and punch into each note, a skill she demonstrated on “You’ve Ruined Me.”

The next segment of the set was a roll of more up-tempo songs and slower ballads. After “I Just Wanna Dance” — which did, in fact, have her swaying and bobbing to the beat — she said, “Today I was telling my 10-year old, ‘Hey, no more candy,’ and he said, ‘Mommy, I don’t wanna talk about it, I just wanna dance.’

“Burn. He burned me,” she laughed.

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She also played a few songs from her 2012 album “Little Broken Hearts,” which was produced by Danger Mouse. First up was “Out On The Road,” which evoked a sense of Americana with its country-blues sound. She stood in the middle of the stage to play the titular “Little Broken Hearts” — the show’s darkest-sounding song — on guitar.

After that were a pair of “Visions” songs, “Staring at the Wall” and “Queen of the Sea,” and then she brought Dobson over to sing with her while she accompanied on the piano. Their duet was “Girl Talk,” a song from Dobson’s 2021 album of the same name that was frothy and cute, sounding almost like something a host would play to entertain their guests at a 1960s dinner party. The pair harmonized effortlessly and looked to genuinely enjoy working together.

After that came the first of Jones’s most famous songs, “Come Away With Me.” The piano arrangement has changed over the past two decades, but if anything, Jones sounded even better singing it, with her voice soft as the whisper of knee-high grass.

After that, “All This Time,” the opening track to “Visions,” sounded almost completely the opposite — bombastic in comparison.

She returned to “Little Broken Hearts” for “Happy Pills,” followed by the bluesy “Carry On,” with a meandering piano solo that earned her hearty applause from the audience.

For the regular set’s closing song she brought on guitarist Tony Scherr, who played on the original recording of “Feels Like Home” (along with a pair of members from The Band). They wrapped up the night with a bone-deep performance of “What Am I To You?” from that album.

The encore — which was practically demanded by thunderous cheers from the crowd — featured Jones on guitar for “The Long Way Home” and closed, naturally, with “Don’t Know Why,” a song that won three Grammys and peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2002. It’s a song that allows the full range of Jones’ vocal abilities to shine, and it would make an ideal closer even if it weren’t her best-known song.

With a setlist that toured her nearly 25-year-long solo career, Monday night’s performance of the “Visions Tour” was a perfect demonstration of why Jones has such amazing longevity. No doubt she’ll still be singing these same lines all over again in another 25 years — with a slate of new songs to add.