NORAH JONES RECORDING SESSIONS HISTORY: August 2009

The Coop, New York, NY

Band members: Norah Jones (vocals, wurlitzer), Sam Cohen (electric guitar), Will Sayles (shaker), Jon Graboff (pedal steel), Mike Martin (vocals)

Producer/Engineer: Jacquire King

Additional Engineers: Brad Bivens and Tom Schick

Set:

• [O] Young Blood
• [O] I Wouldn’t Need You
• [O] Back to Manhattan
• [O] Her Red Shoes
• [?] others

Guide:

[X] = confirmed to exist, unreleased
[O] = officially released

Best available sources:

Notes: The final session to record songs for The Fall (that featured Norah).

This was the “week and a half back at Norah’s” referred to earlier by King. (1)

Cohen and Sayles once again made their contributions at Norah’s home studio, while “Young Blood” co-writer and non-musician Mike Martin also dropped by. On “Young Blood” Sayles added a shaker to the song, while Mike Martin, the co-writer of the song, added his deep, baritone background vocals to supplement Norah’s existing vocal part.

Cohen added an electric guitar part to “I Wouldn’t Need You,” while Norah added some Wurlitzer.

On “Back to Manhattan,” Cohen contributed another electric guitar part, while Ryan Adams’ Cardinal bandmate Jon Graboff added a pedal steel solo. He also contributed a pedal steel track to the import release “Her Red Shoes,” which had been mostly finished at Sunset Sound.

King did note some technical changes at this last session, to how he recorded these final overdubs, abandoning the 2192 setup he had used at Sunset Sound. “The 2-610 [mic] I used pretty extensively once we got back to her place for bass and Wurlitzer. I did some background vocals with it. I love the way the EQ works, especially the top end. It's got a really nice shape to it, and you can kind of crank on it, and it doesn't sound harsh. It's just very pleasing, especially with ribbon mics, like a Coles or a Royer, that have that rolled off and very smooth top end you can crank it back up with a 610… very nice. The pre has a really nice amount of headroom; you can really push things into it. And the tubes kind of saturate in a very pleasing way. I've also used the 2-610, not on this record but in the past, for like a drum buss side chain. And driving it a little bit, just to where the tubes and the circuits start to get just a little bit choked, gives a nice harmonic quality to the sound. That's my favorite thing about that box.” (1)

At the conclusion of this session, King took the completed tracks with him back to Nashville, where he first had Matt Stanfield perform additional programming at the House of David recording studio. After that, King began the final mixing process at his own home studio, “The Ibt,” also located in Nashville.

King went into extensive detail describing his mixing process to Universal Audio Webzine: “I've tried to mix in other environments, and I just keep gravitating back to my own setup. I like the way my 1176 sounds. I've had it for 15 years, and I just love the way it sounds. I love the way all my stuff is situated.”

For extensive detail on King’s mixing process, we refer the reader to the excellent interview with Universal Audio Webzine. (1)

Mastering was completed on September 4, 2009. (2)

References:

1. Universal Audio Webzine – Marsha Vdovin –  Engineer/Producer Jacquire King Holds Court with Norah Jones, Kings of Leon, and More
2. Music Week – Christopher Barrett – Norah Jones – The Fall Girl

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