Her sultry voice glides through a spare rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s “The Nearness of You,” a sweet take of Hank Williams’s “Cold Cold Heart” and the songs she writes herself: from country-tinged numbers to surreal, low-fi pop.
Thanks to Jones’s unique blend, there’s now a big buzz around her otherwise humble record. “I don’t think this album sounds like a lot of things out there,” says Jones, who went from playing tiny clubs last year to Leno this month. “It’s simple, and that appeals to people. That’s what I like about it anyway.”
Jones, who grew up in Dallas, has played piano since she was 7. Her father is renowned sitar player Ravi Shankar, but Jones was estranged from him for most of her childhood. She attrib-utes her love of music to her mother’s “cool” record collection, and to Billie Holiday and Miles Davis. “They were all the rage at my magnet arts high school.”
After moving to Manhattan at 20 and playing jazz for a year, she began writing her own material and exploring new styles. “That’s when the Texan in me came out,” says Jones. “And I guess that’s a good thing.”
