Miracle amid the pop divas

Who does Norah Jones think she is?

All she seemed to care about Wednesday at the Santa Barbara Bowl was the music.

Imagine that in this pop-diva age.

There were no dancers onstage with her. No costume changes. No elevator ramp lifting her to the heavens. No backing tapes to help cover any vocal limitations. No annoying vocal gymnastics.

All she did, for the most part, during her enchanting 90-minute concert was choose material wisely and sing with honesty and taste.

Mainly, “she sure could sing.”

Gram Parsons used that line as the centerpiece of “She,” his 1971 song about faith and salvation that also declares:

She had faith

She had believin’

She led all the people together in singin’ ... “hallelujah.”

It’s a sweet country-blues song that is particularly demanding for a singer because any false notes or obvious affectation would shatter the purity of the melody and the message.

Emmylou Harris, who toured and recorded with Parsons, was for years just about the only singer who brought the necessary soulfulness to the song. But Jones captured its essence Wednesday in a way that not only underscored her artistry but also invited you to ponder what truly great singing is all about.

It’s certainly not about costume changes, vocal gymnastics and the rest.

Besides possessing a good voice, you have to be courageous and smart -- courageous enough to ignore the commercial tricks of the day and smart enough to choose meaningful songs.

In that sense, Jones may just be the most consistently evocative female singer since Harris -- someone who reaches into various pop genres for inspiration rather than restricting herself to a single style.

Jones was billed as a jazz singer when her debut album arrived early in 2002, chiefly because she studied jazz piano in college and was on a jazz label, Blue Note Records.

From the beginning, however, it was clear that she was a pop singer with wide-ranging influences, and her repertoire shows it. She moved freely Wednesday among country music (a particularly strong influence), tasteful rock, pop standards and jazz.

Because she tends to be restrained as a vocalist and finds comfort in pop’s intimate side, Jones’ tone from song to song may at times seem too similar, and she sometimes has too much faith in her band members’ compositions.

Mostly, however, she is a modern pop miracle.

She and her five-piece Handsome Band opened Wednesday with “What Am I to You?,” one of her most appealing ballads.

Some images in the song, which she wrote, are so familiar that they would probably be disastrous in the hands of a Mariah or Christina -- lines such as “When I look in your eyes, I can feel the butterflies” and rhymes such as “true” and “blue.”

But when Jones sings “What Am I to You?,” she transcends those limitations. Seated at an electric piano, Jones delivered each line in her wistful, almost breathless style -- making the experience seem as natural and disarming as a mother rocking a cradle.

She also transcended the specifics of the song by focusing on the emotional undercurrents, which deal with the vulnerability and longing of someone looking for reassurance in a relationship.

Jones built her set around 14 songs from her two albums, including the radio smashes “Come Away With Me” and “Don’t Know Why.”

But much of the lure of her shows is how she weaves in songs, new or old, that she hasn’t recorded. Over the years, she has surprised us with tunes from such varied sources as the Band, the Rolling Stones and John Prine.

Wednesday’s concert -- part of a tour that continues Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl -- included two upbeat songs that she hasn’t recorded. Both added useful energy to the show: the Band’s celebratory “Life Is a Carnival” and, even better, Parsons’ free-spirited “Ooh Las Vegas.”

Jones, who used to sit fairly rigidly at the piano, now appears much more comfortable onstage. Dressed in a simple sleeveless top and jeans, she frequently threw in humorous asides between numbers and stepped away from the piano for a few numbers.

At her most playful, she grabbed the microphone stand and flashed some Axl Rose moves, muttering “Welcome to the Jungle.”

The New York native enjoys being part of a musical community, using the opening slot on her tour each year to spotlight young singer-songwriters she admires. In this case it’s Amos Lee, a Philadelphia writer and singer with enough personality to charm a crowd impatient for Jones to take the stage.

Jones not only made a point of introducing her band members, including Lee Andrews on bass and Adam Levy on guitar, but she also gave them plenty of room to add distinctive solo touches.

Robbie McIntosh, who has toured with the Pretenders and Paul McCartney, is a strong addition to the band, injecting several sizzling slide guitar touches.

While supportive of her musicians, she avoided the trap of involving them all on every number. She did some songs with just one or two bandmates. At one point, she performed solo.

This flexibility lent a reassuring touch of creative freedom to the show, a welcome sign from someone who has become one of the biggest sellers in pop.

Lots of performers allow their Grammys (she’s won four) and massive album sales (12 million in the U.S. alone) to make them conservative. That success has just encouraged Jones to become better.

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Norah Jones

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Price: $40 to $58

Info: (323) 850-2000