Norah Jones’ Philly concert at the Met was impeccable

When your typical singer gushes something like, “I have a great job – thank you for employing me!” mid-concert, it can come off as disingenuous pandering. But not when it comes from Norah Jones, who expressed that very sentiment to an adoring crowd at the Met on Wednesday. Since the release of her breakthrough debut, Come Away With Me, 22 years ago, Jones’ voice has captured the essence of quiet contentment.

That warm embrace of her voice, soft and plush as velvet, sounded in impeccable form. Joined by a four-piece band, Jones glided onto stage in a billowing red-and-white dress and eased into her 2004 Grammy winner “Sunrise” to the accompaniment of chirping birdsong. The band was framed by sweeping, multicolored ribbons that mirrored the rainbow motif of Jones’ new album, Visions.

Half of the set was taken up by songs from Jones’ R&B-flavored new album, which she performed nearly in its entirety. The run of new tunes kicked off with “Paradise,” appropriate for the setting given its indebtedness to the classic Philly Soul sound; with its lilting “la-la-la” refrain and stomping chorus it could have been a hit for the Delfonics decades earlier. A Wurlitzer electric piano was wheeled onstage for a few songs, including the exuberant “I Just Wanna Dance,” where an eruption of disco-ball lights swarmed the venue. (Jones’ instrument switching also resulted in the momentary stardom of her roadie Nate, who she offhandedly introduced and whose name became a running gag for the audience.)

Her secret weapon, as it has been throughout much of her career, was the great drummer Brian Blade. Revered in the jazz world for his long tenure with the late, legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Blade pairs a preternaturally gentle touch with an unerring time feel, often seeming to forge rhythm out of the air around him. On “Running” he conjured a stirring Motown beat, wielding a tambourine in his right hand for that familiar jingling groove.

On “Swept Up in the Night” and many of the songs that followed, Jones luxuriated in the sweet harmonies she shared with her backing vocalists: Sasha Dobson, Jones’ bandmate in the country vocal trio Puss n Boots, who also doubled intermittently on guitar; and organist Sami Stevens. The three singers reached their pinnacle in the closing moments of the new album’s “I’m Awake,” intoning its hopeful lyric as a round, building layers of soaring vocals from the comforting “It’ll be all right” chorus.

Jones refused to let the mood drift from that upbeat tone for very long, even as her subject matter turned to the bleaker side. Switching to guitar mid-set, she took a captivating solo turn for the title track from Visions, which culminates in apocalyptic thoughts: “Visions in my head and everyone is dead,” she sang in a near whisper. “It’s time to say goodbye to your world.” Jones barely left time for her final chord to ring before letting out an apologetic giggle. “That was dark, sorry,” she said, and the Met-sized tension was released.

Jones has never been afraid of exploring such fraught emotions — the cheerily soulful Visions arrives as almost a corrective to its heartbreak-filled predecessor, Pick Me Up Off the Floor, which was wholly unrepresented in Wednesday’s setlist. But she tends toward an air of wistful tenderness, a nurturing warmth that emanates in the dying embers glow of her voice as much as in the bright-side outlook of the majority of her lyrics. Even aside from its coffee shop ubiquity, Jones’ music is the sound of a cup of hot cocoa by a radiant fire as snow falls outside the window.

Of course, that kind of comfort can also become a sedative, and over the course of 20 songs Jones’ repertoire can start to feel like lullabies. Her songs and approach rarely stray from a narrow dynamic range — calm, dreamy, mid-tempo, and soothing. Her show benefited from its few deviations from that mold: with the rollicking, sea shanty feel of “Sinkin’ Soon” from 2007′s Not Too Late, and the hypnotic twang of “All a Dream,” from her 2012 Danger Mouse collaboration Little Broken Hearts.

The evening’s high point arrived when singer Emily King joined for a cover of the Minnie Riperton classic “Les Fleurs,” trading lead vocals with Jones and becoming a fourth voice in the song’s swelling chorus. King opened the show with a brief set, seated next to guitarist Randy Runyon and conjuring an intimate vibe. Long lines at the door meant that many in attendance (this writer included) missed out on much of it, but the audience that did squeeze in gave King a warm reception, prompting her to tease, “Are we related?”

Jones’ two-song encore began with her on guitar once again, for a cover of Tom Waits’ “The Long Way Home,” but the night ended, as it must, with “Don’t Know Why.” This night’s version was a touch slower and starker than the original, but the song remains undeniable — the most comforting in an evening of comforting moments.