By Andy Smith Journal Arts Writer
PROVIDENCE — If Norah Jones spent any more time in Rhode Island this year, someone would be taxing her car.
Jones performed at both the Newport Folk Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival over the summer, which says something about her versatility. Thursday night she played a warm, appealing concert at a sold-out Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence.
Jones’ career has ranged across jazz, country, folk and rock in recent years. Her latest album, “Day Breaks,” is a return to the jazz-inflected sound of “Come Away With Me,” her break-out success from 2002. She’s also gone back to playing piano. Well, mostly — she went back to her guitar for a few tunes.
Jones demonstrated an impressive range, shifting gears like a NASCAR driver, going from jazz chanteuse one moment to country-rocker the next, and none of it seemed unnatural or contrived. There was even a bit of comedy, notably Jone’s tribute to her dog, “Man of the Hour.”
And while Jones doesn’t have a big voice — she wouldn’t last long on “The Voice” — she has plenty of range and emotional control. On “Tragedy,” a song from her new record, she effortlessly vaulted up an octave without missing a beat.
She opened the show with the late Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows,” her voice more world-weary than angry as she sang Cohen’s dark lyrics: “Everybody knows the fight was fixed, The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.”
The moody “I’ve Got To See You Again” showcased Jones’s underrated piano playing as well as her singing, before she brightened the atmosphere on the next tune with “Out on the Road.”
“Sinkin’ Soon” had a 1920s jazz vibe, with the guitar in Jones’ band processed to sound like a horn. Jones & Co. might have been sinking, but they didn’t sound all that upset about it.
Jones and her fine backing band rocked things up with a couple of uptempo tunes, including a song from Puss ‘n’ Boots, one of her side projects.
She sang a lovely version of “Lonestar,” and then she went back to the piano for a cover of Horace Silver’s “Peace,” another one of the songs from her new album, with its closing mantra of “Peace is for everyone.”
Jones won cheers for favorites such as “Don’t Know Why,” did a fine take on Neil Young’s “Don’t Be Denied” and got things moving with another new song, “Flipside,” with propulsive piano work that reminded me of Les McCann and Eddie Harris’ g r e a t “ C o m p a r e d t o What?”