
The dream of every producer is to walk into a recording studio and hear someone
so different, so special that he knows immediately…this is the one!
In
late 2000, Jay got a call from a friend at Blue Note asking, "Would you record
some demos with a new artist?" Jay replied, "Sure. Let's use Sorcerer Sound."
Initially, Jay drove down to Sorcerer Sound with the artist to check it out. Then,
he went to Brooklyn to see a rehearsal with her band. Jay recalls, "It was incredible.
Surreal. I mean every single song was remarkable."
What Norah Jones
knew when she chose to work with Jay was that he worked on some amazing records.
Especially Etta James' first Grammy winner, Mystery Lady: The Songs Of Billie
Holiday, which in Norah's words, 'influenced her greatly growing up'.
In October of 2000, Jay spent two days recording and mixing 13 songs
as demos with Norah and her band. At first, someone else was brought in to produce
a finished album. Blue Note rejected the initial version of the record. Norah's
manager then asked Blue Note to have Jay re-record the music and mix the album
with Arif Mardin as producer. Back to Sorcerer they went, following the same exact
blueprint Jay laid down when he made the demos. They tracked a week, overdubbed
in 2 to 3 days and mixed at Sear Sound in August 2001.
The Norah Jones
debut release came out in February of 2002. Led by Jay's co-production of the
breakout radio single, "Don't Know Why," Come Away With Me took
six months to sell 500,000 units. Since that date, it sold 21 million-plus copies
worldwide. Jay won four Grammys for that album including Engineer of the Year,
Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Pop Vocal of the Year. All told Jay
has 8 Grammys. Norah's follow up album, Feels Like Home, which was
recorded and mixed by Jay, has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
But don't believe for a second that Jay's career began here. Jay's work may have
been widely recognized for Come Away With Me and Feels Like
Home, yet Jay's been privileged (his words) to have worked with such Jazz
greats as Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Keith Jarrett, Etta James, Sun Ra, Cecil
Taylor, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Randy Weston, and Abbey Lincoln,
Blues stars Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown w/ Eric Clapton,
Charles Brown, Pinetop Perkins, James Cotton, Lowell Fulson, Robert "Jr." Lockwood
and Taj Mahal and Gospel legends Mavis Staples and The Dixie
Hummingbirds along with Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.
From Berklee College of Music in Boston to RCA Studios on West 44th Street in
New York City to his role today as a multi-Grammy winning producer/engineer/mixer,
Jay clearly understands where he came from.
Jay is currently in the
studio mixing his third-record-in-a-row with Ayo (Universal France).
Jay produced the latest Eddy Mitchell and Thomas Quasthoff releases for Universal
France and Deutsche Grammophon respectively. He also produced the upcoming 6 song
EP by Cocoroyal releasea and is putting the finishing touches on his mixes for
his self-produced CD featuring Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, Jr.
Jay also produced the French artist, Sly Johnson (Universal France), and mixed (as well as produced) Maurane. Previously, Jay mastered the final performances of Stan Getz. Jay has just finished mixing the upcoming Okou release as well as the debut by Andrew Ryan (Divulge).
Prior, Jay produced and mixed the single, "Change Is Gonna Come," with vocalist Lizz Wright and was in the studio recording Hughes Aufray's upcoming release for Mercury/France. He just returned from Montmarte where he produced, recorded and mixed Juliette Greco for Polydor/France.
Jay produced and mixed AYO's second
album, Gravity At Last (Universal France). AYO's current
release, Joyful (Interscope) has gone multi-platinum in both France
and Germany due to it's amazing, infectious single, "Down On My Knees".
Without skipping a beat, Jay produced and mixed three jazz albums with Hammond
B-3 genius, Lucky Peterson. Jay also produced and mixed Richie Haven's
brilliant No One Left To Crown. He also mixed Leslie Mendelson's
debut release, Easy Love (Rykodisc).
Jay produced and mixed
Painted On Water's debut release, Ebru, featuring Sertab
Erener and Demir Demirkan with special guests Al DiMeola, Mike Stern,
Dave Weckl and Kai Eckhardt. Prior, Jay produced and mixed Morley's
album, Seen (Universal/France), co-produced and mixed Abbey
Lincoln's Abbey Sings Abbey (Verve) and mixed Linda Thompson's
Versatile Heart (Rounder Records).
Jay co-produced and mixed
Eran James' second album, 10 Songs About Love, (Universal/Australia)
with producer/songwriter Tom Nichols in New York City. Jay also mixed Kelly
Sweet's single, "Raincoat", from her debut release, We Are
One (Razor and Tie).
Jay is well-known for his work with Australian
artist Missy Higgins. Jay mixed Missy's 10x platinum release, The
Sound Of White (Warner Bros.), as well as her debut EP All For Believing
(Warner Bros.)
Previously, he recorded and mixed Nocturne and
Land of Sun Charlie Haden's gorgeous Grammy-winning Verve
jazz releases, Gonzalo Rubalcaba's Paseo (Blue Note) and Claude
Nougaro's La Note Bleue (Blue Note France) as well as
the stereo and 5.1 mix of Norah Jones' current live concert DVD, Norah
Jones and the Handsome Band-Live 2004.
















