Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Norah Jones/Don Was

Transcript

Norah Jones/Don Was · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Blue Note is one of the first and longest
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: standing institutions of jazz music, and it's always been one
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of my favorite record labels. It started when my guitar
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: teacher passed along Herbie Hancocks made in Voyage and the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: self titled album from Art Blaking and the Jazz Messengers,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the one featuring Monin. It was the music, of course
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: that made the most lasting impression, but there was the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: artwork also. No label had cooler branding than Blue Note.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Later I'd find out that was thanks to people like
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Reed Miles, who was the label's art director, and Francis Woolf,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: who was a photographer that became an important executive at
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the label shortly after its founding in nineteen thirty nine.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And in those eighty five years, the labels put out
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: albums by Robert glasper Lee Morgan, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Bobby McFerrin, Gregor Reporter, and so many more. To celebrate
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: eighty five years of music from this iconic label, I
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: thought I'd get together with Blue Notes's current president, Don
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Was to speak with the labels past president in future
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that's Ron Carter, Michelle and Digiocello. Charles Lloyd, Julian Lodge,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and today Nora Jones. Nora's been with Blue Note Records
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: her entire career, starting with her Juggernaut two thousand and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: two debut Come Away with Me, to her latest album,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Visions that was put out just this year. Visions was
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: created with New York's Leon Michelle's of El Michelle's Affair,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and there are two distinctive sounds, Nora and Leon's blend beautifully.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Nora was the first interview Don and I did in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: this series. It came together quickly and Hollywood Studio Sunset
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Sound was kind enough to accommodate us at the last minute,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: not only for a chat with Nora, but also a performance.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And I should tell you before we begin that you
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: can binge the entire Blue Note Anniversary series early in
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: ad free by subscribing to Pushkin Plus on the Broken
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Record Show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: fm Slash plus. This is Broken Record Liner Notes for
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the digital age. I'm justin Mitchman. Here's Don Was and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: myself in conversation with Norah Jones. To see the full
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: video version of this episode, go to YouTube dot com
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: slash Broken Record Podcast Well I'm excited. This is the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: eighty fifth anniversary of Blue Note.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: That's wild.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the year twenty twenty four. We have Nora Jones here.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: We're going to celebrate the anniversary of Blue Note with
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the series of guests, our first being Nora Jones who's
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: releasing her ninth album with Blue Note. The newest album
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: is Visions. And also to celebrate, we have Don was
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: president of Blue Note Records, and it's going to be
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a guest with us on these episodes.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Lovely to be here. Thank you man.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So excited to have the both of you here.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Thanks and.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Love the new album. I want to get to that,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: but first I want to ask Don your first recollections
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: of Norah Jones as an artist.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Sandra Bullock turned me on to you.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: In person or in the movie two weeks notice.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I was going to work on that movie. Oh really,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: and she said, we want to have this artist. You
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: got to hear this record, and it was I think
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: before the album came out, but she had an advanced
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: copy and she sent it to me. I said, yeah,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: it's incredible. And then I ended up not working on
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: the movie. But yeah, but you.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Were in it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I was in it.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: I was in a scene that Donald Trump was in also,
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: which is so weird going back.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah it was, Yeah, it was cool though. She was
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: really sweet. She loved me so sweet.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so she had how did she become aware of
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know I had.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: An advance copy of the record, I didn't, And she
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: was looking for music to put in her movie. I
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: can't even remember the name of the movie.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Two weeks notice Grant.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's funny. I didn't know she had an advanced happy.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: I think we shot it somewhere in November, and the
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: album had come out in February, and it was kind
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: of a slow, steady rise that year.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that kind of is the perfect illustration of
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: how quickly you kind of went from somebody playing music
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: for fun to getting signed to recording an album and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the album just sort of becoming a phenomenon. The fact
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: that not early in your recording career you were and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a Sandra Bullet. I mean, that was a huge movie
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: at the time.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: You know, it's a big movie.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Well, I want to get to that, but I'd kind
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: of like to start at the beginning. Okay, I got
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: this this image of grape fun Texas is then like
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: the City and Last Picture Show like Tumbleweed. Yeah, it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: not right suburb of Dallas.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: It's a suburb of Dallas. When I was little was
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: very small though. There was a McDonald's and nothing else.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: But it is now like one of the biggest I mean,
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: it's just I think strip malls and chain restaurants, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: it's got one of the biggest malls in Texas. It's
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: quite the suburb.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it didn't have like a small town mentality
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: to it.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: Maybe it did.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I think it was kind of a small town when
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I was little.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: I really was only there until I was maybe I
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: guess I was there till ninth grade. I kind of
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: bounced around, though, and I bounced around schools a lot.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: And we moved to Alaska for six months. Then we
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: came back and I went to the Junior High and
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: then I went to Colleyville, which is the neighboring town,
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: and then you know what I mean, I was kind
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: of all.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Over because it seems a little incongruous that the world's
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: most successful jazz singer comes comes out of great time,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: but maybe not.
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: I was in marching band in ninth grade and they
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: had a I had a saxophone teacher, John Rosina, and
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: I had quit piano at that time because I didn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: want to practice anymore, and he turned me onto this
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: piano teacher named Julie Bank who lived in the area,
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: who was a jazz pianist because Dallas, you know, and Denton,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Texas is a big jazz college. So that kind of
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: got me going on on the jazz tip. But I
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: grew up singing in church choir at Grapevine Methodist Church.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, did you listen? Like, I got a son who's
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: he's a year or two older than you, but I
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: remember what he was listening to, and you know, like
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Paul Abduel and Millie Vanilli and Bobby Brown.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: You were absolutely I loved Paul Abdul that album.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: That one album was just it was huge when straight Yeah.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually it was a great record.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: It was a great record. The songs are really good.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: I think I covered one on my during COVID because
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: I was just like in a normal Yeah, I was
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: into all that stuff growing up. I listened to case
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: case them every weekend.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Do you remember the first record you bought?
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was digital underground. Wow, that's the Humpty Dances.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: The radio. And then my first concert was EMC Hammer.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, were you a shy kid?
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: I was kind of shy. I wasn't that shy until
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: seventh grade. I think in sixth grade, I was like
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: completely unaware of how I was perceived, and I was
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: completely open and you know that time in your life
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: where you don't care what people think.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: And then I remember.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: There were some girls at school who were kind of mean,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: and I think I realized. For the end of the year,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: I just got really self aware and self conscious and
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: I kind of went inside.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: You know, did you kounter of racism.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Towards me? Not that I was aware of. I never
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: was aware.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm mixed as well. I'm black and white. My
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: mom's white, my dad's black, and I feel like there
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was a time when it was less common to be mixed.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So that was kind of like a weird experience not
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: knowing many other people who were of two cultures. Did
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: you feel of two cultures or did you feel well?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I felt a lot of.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, I didn't see a ton of my dad.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: I grew up seeing my dad, but because I wasn't
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: in his culture, so much. I didn't feel very of
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: two cultures, but I did feel a little different, and
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: people never really knew what I was, and they would
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: always ask, but they always assumed I was Mexican. Especially Yeah,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: and then like they would speak Spanish to me, and
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: then I wouldn't speak Spanish because I didn't know Spanish,
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: and then.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I felt bad, you know, like I'm so are you like?
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: But then yeah, and then in high school some people
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: thought I was half black and they just didn't know
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: what to make of me. But I never encountered any
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: negativity from it. Just nosiness, you know what I mean?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what are you?
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: That question was always funny, but I never got offended
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: at it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: So you fit in. I have this industry of being
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: like like someone who was thirty years late for being
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: a beatnik.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I think as a kid, I was
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: just sort of like other kids, just weird.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: You know, all kids are kind of weird, I think.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: And then in junior I when kids were starting to
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: get into football, especially in Texas, at cheerleading, I wanted
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: to be a cheerleader and my mom wouldn't let me
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: because it was.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Too expensive, I think. And then.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: And then I got into band. So then I was
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: with my people, the band nerds, you know. So I
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: felt like you always kind of find your thing. And
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: then in high school, I went to Performing Arts High
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: School in Dallas, which was completely all all people of
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: artistic you know interests, and.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: That's like I didn't like Roy Hargrove go to school
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: and Erica Badri. Yeah. So it's a great school, great school,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: and there was an influence. There was an emphasis put
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: on jazz.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I was a jazz piano major. But
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: I still had to take a classical piano class, which
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: I was horrible at, and I still had to take
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: I took Actually it was kind of cool because they
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: had a synthesis ensemble. Wow, And so I took a
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: synthesis class with my heroes, some guys in my class.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: They were older and they really, I know, they were
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: just really insanely amazing musicians.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: So that was really fun.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: We had like a d X seven and a Moog
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: and we all the teacher encouraged us to al write
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: songs and we actually put out.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: A cassette tape.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: It was pretty cool.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: I must somewhere my song I hated on it. I
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: hated it so much because it had like synth strings
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: on it, which wasn't really what I wanted.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: But that can be a rough sound.
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: That's not what.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I was going for, but that's what ended up happening,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: and it was fine, but it was just funny.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: You know, where did the where did the jazz come in?
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: After I quit piano because I didn't want to practice,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: My mom said I had to take for five years
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: and then I could quit it. So on five years
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: on the dot, I quit, well, yeah, sixth grade, and
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: then she took me to a big band concert at
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: University of North Texas, which is funny.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: That's how I got into jazz.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: But I liked it, and so she found a saxophone
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: teacher and that's when I joined the band, and then
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: he found me the jazz piano teacher.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I never made my kids practice. They're all three
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: of my sons are musicians, and I start making him
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: practice was like the worst thing, supposed to be the
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: thing from work too. Yeah, but you got the background
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: so when you wanted to, when you finally felt compelled
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: to play, you didn't have to start from scratch.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: She was right, I had the foundation.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: It was good.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: So then you went to North Texas and then I ended.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Up going to North Texas. Yeah, for two years.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: From that it was really a jazz program.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: It was very jazz.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: And in high school I was in the vocal ensemble too,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: even though piano was my major.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: And then college same thing. I started out.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Just doing piano and then I joined the vocal ensemble too,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: like the jazz singers, and so I sang a little bit,
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: but it wasn't my main focus for school.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: You know. The only time I ever saw Willie Nelson
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: get mad was in a session that we did, and
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: he came back in the room to listen to a playback,
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: and the engineer had his guitar down, and he just
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: couldn't understand why anyone would separate his singing from his guitar,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: why they wouldn't be at an equal level, because to him,
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: it was one form, one solitary expression was coming from
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: his vocal chords or his.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Fingers, that makes sense.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Was there a point where the two became inextricable to
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: you where you weren't like where it's just one expression.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think I realized it till the
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: last ten years, but.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: I think in college because I sang and I played,
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: but I didn't really do it together so much. I
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: mean I tried, but I had a couple of demos
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: where I did. But I got a gig at a
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: restaurant in Dallas called Popolo's. It was an Italian restaurant,
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: and somehow I got a gig playing every Friday and
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: Saturday night and if I could sing too, because that
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: wasn't really the gig, and they said sure, but not
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: like every song, and so that was my paid practice
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: and that's how they got sort of like the coordination factor.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know if people understand what a great
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: pianist do. I hear it in your voicings are incredibly sophisticated.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: So you clearly study theory and you understand your scales
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: and your modes and all that. And I just think
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: you're such a great singer that it might get overlooked,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: but you're an incredible pianist.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks, don I mean, were you.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: In bands as just a keyboard player?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: No, I wasn't.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: I was still you know, as far as the piano
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: players in college and high school, I mean everyone else
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: could play circles around me. I never had a lot
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: of chops. I still don't. I can't play very fast,
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: but yeah, I have my own thing that has developed
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: over the years. But I think just over the last
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: ten years, even I've played so much more piano live,
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: sort of stripping my band back into trio form at
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: some point.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: That I've just I just have gotten.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: A lot better in the last ten years, and it's
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: been really fun to play.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: I feel more connected to it than I did even
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: fifteen years ago.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: You know, is it hard now when you have to
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: when you're in a situation where you have an accompanist.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Does that ever come up where you just have to
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: stand and sing?
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: I'm not great at it. I'm much better if I
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: accompany myself. Yeah, And like if there's a situation where
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: there's a house band or a tribute show, I always
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: try to play, you know, because I feel like I
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: can do my thing a little easier. But it depends
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: on the situation, of course. Yeah, sometimes it's fun to
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: have an accompanist if it's the right person.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: But so there is a bit of a willy thing though.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: It does feel like these are these I do these
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: things together, not so much apart.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: I do think that where I can do my thing,
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: which is more special. It's when they're together.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely gives you something to bounce off of.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Also, I'm really not great at standing and singing because
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: I don't know what to do with my hands. So
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: even in college, I was in a couple of bands
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: where I just sang, and I think it was a
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: good match musically, but I always just they're looking really awkward.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: That's the whole other thing, especially if you're used to it.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: But I think it's rhythmically too. He I was just
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I was talking to Lucinda Williams who's having trouble guitar,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: and she just what she's got no rhythmic point of reference.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Bob Villains another person like that. His guitar playing was
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: so essential to the way he sang that when he
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: stopped being the primary source of accompaniment, his singing changed,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: and he's been looking for a band that would play
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: the he plays.
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: But it's not that it's that he's doing the thing
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: and filling the space with part of him. Yeah, probably
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: it's more that that you're not filling the space. And Yeah,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: I feel like when I record, I'm always getting a
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: better vocal and piano take. If I am doing it
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: at the same time live. If I overdubbed the piano
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: or the vocal, it can be cool if it's the
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: first or second take. But the more I the more
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: takes I do, I get really busy, or like I
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: overthink or I over sing or I overplay, and it's
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: just not the same.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: All right. So when you when you finally go to
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: New York City, you dropped out of college, right, Yeah,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: I did too. It's a good move.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Well, I didn't want to.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to teach, so I didn't know that
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: I needed a music degree. And I also failed my
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: classical piano jury. That's I'm not proud of that, but
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: I am not.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Afraid to admit it.
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: So I was also faced with like having to do
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: six semesters of classical piano, and I had already failed
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: the first one, which was pretty sad.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: So there was no alternatives.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: And it's really just because I didn't practice. It's not
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: because I couldn't do it. It was because I didn't practice.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Were you busy doing other things besides practicing?
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: I mean I was practicing for other classes, I was
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: playing in two bands, I was doing gigs, so I
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: wasn't practicing my classical piano, got it or my arpeggios.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: It was back to the original. Yeah, quandary almost of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: your piano plan, being forced to do a site reading
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: and classical and when you got in your own thing,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: fell back in love. But now you're kind of going
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: back to this is not the stuff I like.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't want to do that.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: That's the same for me. I went to the University
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: of Michigan, but this is in nineteen seventy and if
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: you wanted to be in the music program, you were
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: in the orchestra, or you weren't in the music program.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: It was a recording lab or electronic music lab or
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: no jazz pro and nothing like that. Yeah, so I
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: knew what I wanted to do. So when you got
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: to New York, were you did you? Were you thinking
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: that you'd be someone like Shirley Horn, you know, a
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: jazz singer.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: I didn't really know, but at that point I was
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: still way into jazz. And so I got a gig
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: at an Italian restaurant, another Italian restaurant, but it paid
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: way less than the Texas one, Did I tell you that?
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: And I was just I was going to Smalls every
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: night and watching people play and just so in love
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: with going to hear music every night. I mean, I
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: went out and I heard music every night of the week.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: And I would hear Brazilian bands, I would hear jazz
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: I would go to you.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Know, there were so many different jazz scenes too. In
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: New York.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: There was there was the small scene, and then there
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: was the tonic scene, which was kind of avant garde,
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: and I knew some people in that scene, and I
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: knew some people in that scene.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: So there was all these different scenes and talk as
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: in it was a club, a club called.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah Yeah. And then I had friends who were songwriters
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: and I would go see them play at the living room, right,
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: And that was totally different for me because I had
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: never thought about songwriting since my synthesizer class song that I.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: I think I wrote two songs for that class, which
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: I still think is so cool that he encouraged us
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: to write songs. But I think I was embarrassed by
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: them because you know, it was an assignment, and so
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: we had to show them and we had to and
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: we recorded them and they didn't come out or I
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: liked it, but I didn't like the way I sound it.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: You know how it is when you hear yourself for
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: the first time. It takes a long time to do
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: it in a way that you like it. And so
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: I was a little put off by myself, and so
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: I didn't write after that at all.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Put you off to songwriting like that, Yeah, I was.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: Like, oh, I'm not going to I didn't even think
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: of it as something that I should do. It was
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: weird now thinking back that I didn't even like occur
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: to me that I could get better at it or
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: do it differently.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: And so then when I was seeing all my friends
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: at the living room, I was I was getting inspired,
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: and I didn't have a piano yet because I you know,
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: I lived in a rental and I didn't have a
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: keyboard or anything. And so my mom sent me this
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: old guitar that I had in Texas that I knew
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: two chords on, and I played like five chords. I
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: learned five chords and I wrote come Away with Me
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: one night, and then I started writing songs that's good. Yeah,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: And oh, I think because the guitar, I could play
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: really simple chords on piano. I knew all these cool chords,
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: but I didn't know how a song fit in, and
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: they always sounded like a standard, and then it sounded not.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: I don't know the piano. I couldn't make sound how
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: I wanted to write songs with at the time, I
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: couldn't put that together yet.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: Just you know, and I know that you don't think
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: about genre. I don't know any musician who sits and thinks, well,
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: I think I'll phrase this next line like a jazz line,
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: and then I'll throw in it. It doesn't work that
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: way you but you was there a disparity between what
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: you were hearing at Smalls and what you were hearing
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: at the living room.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: It was just different. I mean, the people playing at
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: Smalls were incredible musicians, and then the people playing at
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: the living Room were playing really simple chords and writing
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: really great songs.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: I did all these gigs, but I wasn't playing in
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: clubs yet because I wasn't really there yet. I did
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: a lot of restaurant gigs where nobody listened. And then
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: my friend Jesse Harris, who's the songwriter, asked if I
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: would do some demos for him. He had a Sony
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: publishing deal, and so I sang a few of his
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: songs for his demos and he loved the way I
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: sang them, and he said, let's do a gig at
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: the living room.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Why not? It's just I mean, you don't get paid.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: It's not like that hard to get it. And he
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: was already playing there.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: So I said, all right, sure, maybe we'll do come
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: Away with Me this song I wrote, you know, And
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: so we did his songs, we did like one or
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: two of mine, and my bass player Lee Alexander started
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: writing songs. We did a few of his, and that
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: was sort of the beginning of the first album. And
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: it was a really big moment because it was the
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: first time I'd played in a place like that. And
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: they passed a tip jar around and you couldn't you
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: could hear a pin drop. Nobody was talking, everybody was listening,
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: and I hadn't experienced that yet. Really yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Did it freak you out then? I mean, in the moment,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: it was nice.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I mean I was nervous, but it was nice.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: You know, Wow, imagine that people listening.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: So is that around the same time that the woman
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: from me and my publishing came I forgot.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Her name, Shelle White.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and she how did she end up coming to
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: hear you play?
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Her husband?
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: My bass player played with her husband, and I also
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: did had done a gig or I ended up doing
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: a gig with him, and so they were friends.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: He was a musician, Jace Hopkins.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: So they came. It was my twenty first birthday. We're
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: playing at the garage on Seventh Avenue. We're playing jazz
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: brunch trio and they came to hear us, and she's like, Hey,
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: you know, I just was at a company picnic and
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: I met Bruce Lenvall, the head of Blunot Records.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I'm going to set up a meeting. How about that?
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: I was like, O, guy, whatever, I didn't.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Really did you aspire to get a record too?
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: I was aspiring to pay my rent and to get
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: a at a non brunch venue. My sites, we're not
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: very far ahead of my next week. Yeah, get out
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: of restaurants and into a club, like I was so
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: not even there yet.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: But you were aware of the legacy of Blue Note Records.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: I knew Blueot Records, so I was not going to
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: say no, did.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: You own some blue Oot Records?
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: What were your favorites.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: I always like that something else canniball outly record. I mean,
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: I think I didn't even know which ones were Blue Oat,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: but I know I owned a lot of them.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be back with more from Don was and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: myself in conversation with Norah Jones, We're back with more
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: from Norah Jones.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: So there you are. You're in a meeting with the
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: head of Blue Note, And how did that go?
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: Well?
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: I didn't know if I was going to have to
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: play like that's not really that feels so embarrassing to
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: me to go into an office and audition for somebody
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: like that, So I didn't know. I brought in a demo.
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: I had a three song demo that I brought around
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: to restaurants to get gigs. And on the demo I
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: put a song from Maybe College that I had recorded
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: a standard, and then a song I had recorded in
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: New York with a friend, a standard with basin trumpet
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: on it. And then I threw one of the Jesse
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: Harris songs from the demos we made on there right,
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: and so Bruce listened and he liked it. And then
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: after the Jesse song came out here goes, well, what
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: do you want to be a jazz singer a pop singer?
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: I was like, jazz singer, I'm here in Bluna.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I also like, I don't I don't think
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I was thinking about that.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think there's that big a difference. I've
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: listened to all three of those. Yeah, and with the
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: Jesse songs got like a is it a dobro?
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: The Jesse song we had played him was it was
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: just sort of six eight like country song.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, what instrument was there's something kind of picking
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: on it?
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: There was no This was just it's called World of Trouble.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: It was piano and guitar, yeah, and bass.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: So there was some textural differences, but you sang the
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: way you approached the song and the voice he used.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: It wasn't like you sang, you know, Jesse song with
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: like a twang. I thought you're incredibly consistent.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I don't know when I made the disc.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: I mean I grew up mimicking my favorite singers. That's
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: how you learn, right, who were there? I mean I
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: tried say, I tried to mimic or Ethan all her
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: background singing. You know, I was always doing the harmonies
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: to Ain't no Way, but I mean Billie Holliday was
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: a big one. I actually got a part as Billie Holiday.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: In the high school. They did a black history program
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: every year and somehow I got to play Billie Holiday,
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: which is crazy.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: It was just a program with.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Lots of different stuff and I was like, I went
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: into that was weird because I had to audition it.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: We auditioned in front of the whole group of students.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: It was like.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: And I sang I think I sang like fight and
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: mellow or something. But the actual song for the performance
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: was Strange Fruit, which was also crazy, you know.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: And it's heavy for for for high school and to
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: not only have to sing it in front of people
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and find them heavy.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Very heavy. And I'm also not black, so.
• 28:47
  Speaker 8: You know, people people thought you were, but I think
• 28:49
  Speaker 8: I think maybe they did, and I know I did
• 28:52
  Speaker 8: definitely did not tell them I was, but I think
• 28:56
  Speaker 8: maybe there was a little bit of a mystery surrounding
• 28:58
  Speaker 8: my background.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: I'm not really sure. I'm actually not sure about that.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Did you try it? Did you try to sing it
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: like Billy or.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: Yes, Yeah, I definitely tried to out like Billy that
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: was an amazing experience.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: The director Edra James. She was incredible. She really taught
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: me a.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: Lot about embodying something, you know, because I wasn't into theater.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: I wasn't in the theater group, but she was like
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: the theater director.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: And she.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I don't know, the way she told me to do
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: it was really it was very spiritual. She was talking
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: about Billy in her life and everything, which, of course,
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: you know, I didn't know that much about yet.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: I just knew I loved her her singing. Yeah, so
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Aretha Billy, Billy God, Judy Garland. You know.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: The other day that Judy Garland is one of the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: great I mean, at least twenty greatest singers ever.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Oh you had to convince that.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Well. I mean, I mean, I don't know. I guess
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: people think maybe of her as hokey, but I don't know.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, when you think about the standards that have
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: come from her, the definitive versions of.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Certain phrasing, brilliant, man. Yeah, it's all for real.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, an incredible. I love the Cardigi Hall Live album.
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: It's really hard, a lot of heart. Yeah, And as
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: I got older, I think I realized that that's all
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: that matters really. And I remember in college once I
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: was singing a stand. I was playing a demo for
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: a friend of mine and he and it was a
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: jazz standard and he's like, gosh, you really hear your
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: Texas toang no matter what you do. And I was like, really,
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that, and he's like, yes, it really cool.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: And I was like, that's cool, okay.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: And I think that was one of those moments where
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: I sort of was like, Okay, I can kind of
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: be myself and I don't have to imitate Ella, you know,
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: or Seravon.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I loved Saravon. I was obsessed with Serevon.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: But I mean, yeah, I mean some of my favorite
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: voices are imperfect or weird or whatever they are, but
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: they embody them themselves, you know, they're their own thing.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: So then then you get the chance to make a record.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Thought, like, call on Craig Street. There's a smart move.
• 31:22
  Speaker 9: Well.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I was obsessed with New Moon Daughter, the Cassandra Wilson album.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Is that the one where she does I'm So Lonesome?
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I love that album.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: That tied it all together.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: Well, I loved that album so much. It was so
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: different from anything else I listened to. And I remember
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: being in high school, and I mean, that album was
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: really emotional for me because my aunt was dying of
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: cancer and I was listening to it NonStop in Florida
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: with my aunt. So it was very emotional for me
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: for that reason. But also it was the first time
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: I had an album of a singer where there's just guitar.
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: It's all acoustic guitars on that album. There's no keys
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: at all, and it just had such a different sound,
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: you know, it was earthy and kind of it had
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: like some twang on it, and she's Southern, so she
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: has a little twang and she's incredible, And yeah, I
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: was cool.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: It was great records, and so you called Craig and
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: started to make it.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: I asked Bruce if I could use Craig, and He's like, yeah, okay,
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: I'll call Craig.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: You discovered that it was probably a more function of
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: mixing really than it's like you did achieve the thing
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: you went into work with Craig for.
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: We did.
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, we made a twenty one We recorded twenty
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: one songs in a week and mixed it immediately, and
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: maybe it wasn't the smartest way to do it with.
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: I think space is always the place when you're recording.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: And then we turned the record in and it got rejected,
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: and I was kind of scared and sad, but also
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: a little relieved because I didn't love I didn't feel
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: like it came out exactly like it could have. But yeah,
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: in hindsight, I think the mix says we're not right.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: And again I think Space would have been the place,
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: and we would have used what was great, and we
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: would have either redone or used some demos from something else,
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: and then that ended up being what happened. We used
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: three of the amazing takes from that that session on
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: the record.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: Don't know why. It's the first take right from your demos, right.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: Don't know why was the first take of the demos
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: we made because Blue Note gave me some money to
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: make demos before they decided if they wanted to sign me.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: And then whenever Bruce heard the demos and he liked them,
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: he called me and he was like, all right, this
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: isn't jazz, this is country, some of it even, but
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: I don't care.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Let's do it. Let's make a record. That's kind of
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: how he was.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Funny review.
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all right.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: It's just the greatest, wasn't he his enthusiasm.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Bruce was great.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Bruce was so great. But he was also so
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: into jazz. I mean, later on, after many, many years,
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: I made records that I made The Fall, and then
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: I made Little Broken Hearts with the injer Mass and
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: we went to lunch one day and he's like, well,
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna be honest with you. I didn't like those
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: records when you turn them in. They're not really my thing.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: But I think now I like them, and I get it.
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: Now I get it, and I thought that was cool.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: That's cool.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: He never kissed my butt.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: He never told me he liked him, so I never
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: really thought about him not saying anything, but like it
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: was fine.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I don't think you had a shift in sensibilities or
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: a shift in your style of delivering the songs. You
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: were always you, but the textures kind of changed dramatically,
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: you know, which I think is a cool thing. That's
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: what Miles did. You know, if you listen to Miles,
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: whether it's with an electric band or whether it's I'm
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: kind of Blue or in the Herbie Wayne Tony Ron band.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: He always sounded like Miles. He was always Miles, and yeah,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: he just kept it interesting for himself by changing the textures.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: After the success of Have Come Away with Me? Were
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: you trying to avoid getting pigeonholed into piano trio?
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: I was just excited to keep finding stuff and I
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: was really getting into songwriting. I only wrote two or
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: three songs on Come Away with Me, and the rest
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: were Jesse songs, Lee songs and a few covers, and
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: I loved doing them. But I was excited to write,
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: and I was getting into like bluegrass that year, and
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: so the second album was a little more country, but
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: everyone in the band wrote for it, and so we
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: did everyone in the band's songs, and I wrote a
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: little more, but we had the same engineer and same
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: producer of course, a Reef Martin.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Let's talk.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I got to talk about is you.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: Know, certainly one of my great heroes and a guy
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: who I aspired to I want to emulate. I don't
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: feel I ever hit it, but I try.
• 36:18
  Speaker 9: No.
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think you have the same spirit a
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: Reef did, which is just very nice. He embodied like
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: sweetness and goodness and you have that absolutely.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: That's very kind. Ye what bo was a like making
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: records for him?
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: It ended up being so fun And I never thought
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: I would have this old man as a friend. You know,
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: the same thing with Bruce. I always thought that was
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: so funny. I could go to lunch with a Reef
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: or Bruce and we could drink Martini's for hours and just.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: Talk about relationships like I would talk about my boyfriend,
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: What I mean, Like they were like my my friends.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: And I always thought that was funny.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: How did a reef like join the project?
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: Actually, a Reef had just started either started or revamped
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure. Maybe you know Manhattan Records, which was
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: a sort of sister labeled to Blue Note that Bruce oversaw,
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: which was either classical or musical theater kind of adult contemporary.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's adult contemporary.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it would have revaed because I think I started
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: in the eighties. Maybe it started, probably was revamped.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: That's what it was.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: He left Atlantic and went to yeah do that.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: So whenever the Craig Street version of the record got
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: sort of rejected, Bruce said that he wanted me to
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: go back in with a Reef Martin, and I was
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: a little confused. I was like, well, you like the
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: demos we did on our own, should we just do that?
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: And of course I respected everything where Reef had done,
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: but I was starting to get a little protective at
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: this point and like stubborn, and I didn't know if
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: he still you know, like I didn't know if it
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: was going to be strings and stuff I didn't want.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: On there, you know, or or what.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: So I was a little hesitant, to be honest, even
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: though he was a legend and I'm obsessed with all
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: of the stuff he did with Donnie Hathaway and Retha.
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: But then Bruce said, why don't we set up a meeting.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: We'll go into a rehearsal space. We went to this
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: rehearsal space.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: It was so silly and like he came in and
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: he's this sweet old man and he sits down and
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: I play or something. I don't know. It was weird.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: And then Bruce said, well, you guys have a four
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: days book.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: In the studio.
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: He'll just come the first day and if it goes well,
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: then he can come the rest of the days. I
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: don't know if he ever told a reeffat but that's
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: what was my understanding. And so because it was still
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: just my band, he didn't hire the band. It was
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: still in my band, and I hired the band and
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: the engineer, and so that's what happened. He came in
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: for the first day. He was super sweet, he had
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: great like years, and he didn't try to impose anything
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: on it, I think, which was my main thing. But
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: he definitely helped guide us into the right directions every time,
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: and all right, he can stay. It was like, kind
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: of funny, but what would.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: He make suggestions about.
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: Actually, When I did the Nearness of You, which is
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: the old Hogey Carmichael ned Washington song and I play
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: it solo, there's a part on it.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: The nearness of You, the nearness of You.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: Or whatever the melody is, I was kind of like,
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: I think I had sung that song for a long
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: time and I was kind of phrasing it a little loosely,
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: and he said, no, I know, I like how you're
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: phrasing it, but at least the first time, can you
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: just hit the actual melody on the actual the nearness
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: of because it's such a classic song, hit that melody
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: every time I sing that song. Now I think about him.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: But yeah, stuff like that. Like he wasn't trying to
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: put me in a box or change anything. It was
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: just the stuff that makes the melodies, you know, the
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: stuff that we needed to hear, picking a take, comping vocals.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: He had this crazy like contraption. He used to camp
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: vocals from the seventies, remember that.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so you could just compare different different takes.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he would put it into this movie box. It
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: was like very old school.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: He was just so cool and in the end, I
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: just grew to love him so much. So I was
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: just very I was just afraid in the beginning, you know,
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: afraid of strings. And it's funny because he was a
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: great string arranger and I almost never let him do
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: an arrangement for me. Actually, for the Sondra Bullock movie,
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: she wanted Nearness of You, but she wanted it with
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: like strings or something. And that's when he finally got
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: to do it. We took the album version and he
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: just made a really nice string arrangement and then we
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: used it and he was so excited.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: And I remember he came into the shoot.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Would you mind showing demonstrating just the difference between how
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: you were singing it versus how he wanted you to sing.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: On the piano piana.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's miked up and running fantastic mm hmm.
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: H Vanana City.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: And he was like, no, go Vanana zoze.
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: Is a vanas.
• 41:48
  Speaker 9: It isn't your sweet conversation that brings this sensation.
• 41:58
  Speaker 10: Oh oh, I think it's it's just the that's what
• 42:06
  Speaker 10: it was.
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: It's just the nanis.
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: That's like I was doing something like that maybe, And
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: he's like, it's just the naness of He's like, no,
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: you gotta.
• 42:16
  Speaker 9: Do hit that.
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: It's just it's just the narness.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: Or yeah, that's good advice.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: I think it was good advice.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, do the melody at least once before you start
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: messing with it.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: That makes it sound sound advice.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good advice.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: And then for the second record, he he was also
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: he came with us, we just we all had fun.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: How did that did you? Just just because you just
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: enjoyed his presence and so you asked him, I mean well,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and because he was helpful and you brought him back.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: I think we were going to go into the studio
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: and he called me. He's like, well, I mean I
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: don't want to come in later again, I was like, Okay,
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: let's do it. Like I wasn't even I feel like
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: at that point, I was just trying to record and
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: seeing what kind of songs I had, you know, So
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: I wasn't even really making the second album until we
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: were almost done, if that makes sense, which I like recording.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Like that, were you getting you probably were getting a
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: lot of people wanting to come in to make your
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: second record with you too, I'd imagine, right.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: I don't remember that happening at all.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: Actually, I think we were pretty insular at that point,
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: and I think Bruce really wanted a Reef to do it,
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: and a Reef really wanted to do it, and we
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: loved a Reef, so it just there was never any
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: question of changing it up. I think it was more
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: just like, let's just see what happens in the studio
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: and not overthink it, because I didn't want to make
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: it be a thing where we were thinking about it
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: being a follow up in the studio, so and we
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: kind of didn't. We went, Yeah, we went up to
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: upstate to Alaer with a Reef for like a week
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: or like maybe five days, and we had so much
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: fun and oh the funny part was that when we
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: recorded Come Away with Me, the one rule was that
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: a reef leaves at six o'clock every night. And I
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: remember at the time thinking that was ridiculous because we
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: wanted to squeeze every second out of the studio and
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: I was used to recording late and drinking and like, you.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: Know, seeing what happened. But we did it his way
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: and it was kind of nice. Yeah, And then at
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: a Laire.
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: I didn't think he would go for it, because I
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: know he liked to go home as he had a
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: wonderful wife and dinner and you know, but he wanted
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: to and he came up. We had so much fun
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: drinking martini's. They called him the Martini. He used to
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: make these very lethal martinis. And I remember him coming
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: down in his pajamas one night we stayed up and
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: he had gone to bed, and he came down in
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: his pajamas with his Martini glass and to get some
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: water from the.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: Cooler in his Martino and then I remember him and
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: his like his robe going up the stairs. It was cute.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: It was like such a.
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: Fun time so he could hang.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Oh he hung Yeah, he he just didn't want to
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: make the work late.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: You know, what do you think about that? The older
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: I get, I start to think, you know, nothing good
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: happens after eight hours.
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: Oh that's how I work now. But I'm also on
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: a different schedule. But yeah, absolutely, I just want to
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: eat dinner and like turn my brain.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: Off after a five I don't want to. I don't
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: want to.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: I've ruined records by staying up for thirty six hours.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, you know. I mean, thankfully you get
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: some sleep and then you catch it the next day.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: I've ruined records. I would say, I've wasted a lot
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: of time going down. Yeah, when pro tools first came out,
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: all the plugins you can go down, the plug in the.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: Abyss and the.
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: Tracks unlimited. It's not always a good thing. I did
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: get some really good late night after a long dinner
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: and a few drinks takes though, and sometimes that works out.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: But I never was somebody who did more than three
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: or four takes of a song. Maybe there was an
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: occasional like five or six takes, but but that was it.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: There was never we never beat anything into the ground.
• 46:15
  Speaker 8: You know.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: That's good.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: So that late night kind of thing works if you're
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: just sort of having fun and playing music.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more from nor Jones after
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: the break, We're back with the rest of nord Jones's
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: conversation with down was and me. Can I ask you
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: about it? We're talking about the second record I don't
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: miss you at all.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so interesting that that's you wrote the lyrics over.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: It's a Duke Ellington composition and you wrote the lyrics.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Was that something that you'd done before and did did you?
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: How did you find Melancholia by Duke Ellington?
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: Oh? I think my boyfriend was playing it.
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: It's such an amazing album, so beautiful, and that.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Song is just I mean, it was just.
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: So good that I think I was just like trying
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: to learn it and I just started singing and it
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: just kind of happened and by chance, and then I
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: was like, maybe I'll try to record this, and then
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: we did and it was so pretty and I was like,
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: I don't know if we're going to get permission to
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: do it like this, because I'm not trying to take
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: advantage of this song or anything. I just really loved
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: it and just it just, you know, happened, and luckily
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: we got to do it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful too.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: It's in the spirit of, you know, like how many
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: great songs compositions, you know, did a songwriter come in
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: later and write, you know, a beautiful set of lyrics
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: to you know, And so it's totally not at all
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: taking advantage and it's it's funny though. It's hard not
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: to hear the duke, not to hear even just the
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: way you play it now, you know it just it's
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: kind of sounds like Anora Anora song.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a beautiful, beautiful melody.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: It's gorgeous.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, did you start doing that second album before the Grammys? No?
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: So this is all after No, we were just on
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: tour for NonStop. We were, and then after the Grammys
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: we did like a huge tour of bigger venues. Right,
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: so we were on tour for at least two years.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: I feel like and doing promo and like I was exhausted.
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: I was not having fun the whole time.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: It's a whole lot to deal with. Yeah, I went
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: through it a little bit with Bonnie, but I wasn't
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: the artist just to I went from like not, I
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: went from being a pariah as a record producer to
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: being in demand and I feel sort of like, even now,
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: thirty five forty years later, I'm still kind of surfing
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: that wave a little bit. It changed one one night,
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: can like change your whole reality. But had you had
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: a year? I had a year of incredible trajectory.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but then the Grammys just like was insane.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: So, and then the next day my picture was on
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: the cover of the New York Post next to Saddam
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: Hussein's picture. It said hunt and Destroy, and then it
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: was like a split screen, you know, it was like
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: me and Saddam, and then on on the Daily News,
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: and then then the New York Post the next day
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: had a picture of my apartment and it said how
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: much rent I paid? And then I couldn't go home again,
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: and it was just weird.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: How'd you deal with it?
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: I drank a lot, yeah I did, But I also
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: had I had my band. We were having fun.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: There was also a.
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: Weird thing that was happening because my dad and I
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: had been reunited when I was eighteen, and we started
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: to really find our relationship and it was great and
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: it was really nice to have that. And I got
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: to know my sister finally, my half sister Anyushka Shankar
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: and I did kind of finally get to know my
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: Indian side a little bit, you know, which was a
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: really beautiful new thing for me. And then all the
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: stuff that happened with the record and the way they
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: talked about my dad or it was never quite right
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: and somebody was always.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Mad, you know, like someone within your family.
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like either my mom felt like it wasn't represented
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: right or my dad did, or you know, like it
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: was just kind of that was actually a really hard
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: thing for me to be honest.
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: You know, when people ask me about you, a lovely person,
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: super talented, best singer in the world. But I also say,
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: if they press for more details, I think you're the
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: sanest artist I know because I don't think you're trying
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: to fill some huge hole in your soul by in
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: a quest for fame. I think you do music for
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: all the right reasons, and if you can't do it
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: for the right reasons, you'd walk away. I don't see
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: you sitting up strategizing about marketing or the brand late
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: at night or anything. Can you relate to that?
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think I think about it that way.
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: But I think also because the first record was so bananas.
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: I don't have to and I know that I don't
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: quite want that. Again, I don't like this new record
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: I'm so excited about and it's like, you know, I
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: want people to hear it. I don't want it to
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: just go unnoticed. But I don't think I would want
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: it to be like my first record ever.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: Again, that was just too much. It was also really nice,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: but it was just like.
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: H and with social media now, it's just like you
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: don't want to you don't want to get all in that,
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: you don't want to get too deep in.
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: How long did it take to find a stable ground
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: after all that, to think this is this is where
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: I land, this is who I am, this is what
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: I'm willing to do, this is what I'm not willing
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: to do.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: I think I found it quickly in a lot of ways,
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: and it took a long time in other ways. I
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: think I was very stubborn, so I definitely got comfortable
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: with saying no. But I also was excited to try everything,
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: you know, like sample everything that was put in front
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: of me.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: I got to play with all kinds of people, and
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: you know, it was amazing.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: Was the stubbornness, you having boundaries and knowing your boundaries,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: or was your stubbornness was it more of a youthful both?
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: Probably both.
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: My mom is a very strong woman, and I learned
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: a lot about that and how to be like that.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: In the best way. But I also think I was
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: just young and extra.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Mom was a concert promoter.
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: That's how she met my dad. She wasn't when I
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: was born. I don't think she was anymore.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: But I've been that at any point. To be a
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: woman in that era doing any amount of concert promoting
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: for endy amount of time, I imagine, Yeah, she learned
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: how to throw a weight around, you know.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, have you met my mom. Yeah, she's a
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: strong woman. I mean she doesn't she You might be
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: intimidated by her. And you're tall.
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: She's tall, you know, Like I was just like a
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: strong tall lady. So and I'm short, but I still
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: have some of her spirit.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: I think I was.
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: I think I was just very rigid in what I
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: didn't want, you know. I remember early on the label
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: wanted me to do a remix I don't know why,
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: to get it to pop radio or something, and I
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: was like, that's ridiculous.
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: That's not a musical reason. And I didn't like the remix.
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: That they gave me, and so I was like no,
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: and guess what, it somehow made it on pop radio anyway.
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: But like now I'm.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: Into that if it's for an artistic reason, it just wasn't.
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: Then it was for the wrong reason.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: I want to go back real quick, because you mentioned
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: earlier writing come Away with Me. It was like the
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: first song.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: You wrote after the college day, no high school.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: High school. Right in high school, I forgot that it's
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: amazing a synth or it's crazy. Do you do you
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: remember writing it? You remember that night, remember what inspired
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: and how you felt?
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I came home from the living room seeing
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: all my friends play, and I just sat in my
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: tiny little bedroom and I played the five chords I
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: knew and it came out really fast. And I didn't
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: have a voice recorder or anything, and we didn't have
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: cell phones yet, and so I wrote it in my
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: notebook and I wrote the chord changes above it. And
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: being the theory nerd I had, I had taken theory
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: classes since I was in second grade for some reason.
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: That's this kind of piano lessons I took, so I
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: know how I knew how to notate like the numbers
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: of the.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: The chord, you know.
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: I was like one, two, three, one, six, five three, what,
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: you know, Like I nerd it out. But I and
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: I did that and I went to sleep, and then
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: the next morning I was like, oh my god, I
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: hope I remember that.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: What was that?
• 55:08
  Speaker 11: Then?
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: I just was together. Yeah, I think it's a little different.
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: It was a little different than what I had originally
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: come up with. And I will never know.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: Because I didn't record it. I don't remember.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: It's amazing.
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: One time I saw Keith Richards. He was trying to
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: do the same thing, but he didn't have the theory background. Yeah,
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: so he was staying at the Sunset Marquee and had
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: a piano in his room. Came to his room the
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: next morning and he had taped put piece of masking
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: tape down with numbers like the order that you play
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: the notes in.
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: That's so funny, brilliant. Yeah, whatever method works for you.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was able to pick it out.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: You can't forget it because you won't remember.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: That's a good segue too, to the new because I
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: was thinking about McCartney writing yesterday in his sleep Keith
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Richards writing Satisfaction in his sleep and thinking about, you know,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: your new album. I don't know if it's written in
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: your sleep, but you maybe it was. You did there
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: are some the point between you said, dreaming and sleeping
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: and being awake.
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that that moment right when you're falling asleep. I
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: had all these ideas, and I would just get up
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: and like do a little quiet or try not to
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: wake up my husband, or go to the bathroom and
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: do a quiet little voice memo of it.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: Was that uncommon before this occurrence.
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: Like that, It wasn't uncommon, but it wasn't as much.
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: I think this was a lot. Maybe it was also
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: kind of pandemic y times, and there was a lot
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: of being awake in the middle of the night at
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: that time and looking at the news and getting you know,
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: feeling weird.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: And I don't know, yeah, that was like this new album.
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: Did you feel it's time for me to make a
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: new album? Because you didn't have songs? Really right?
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: Not really?
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: I think I think it really came from working with
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: Leon Michaels. I did a song with him, Can you
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: believe this song? Because we had worked together. He played horn,
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: he played saxophone on a few of my albums, and
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: then we did the song together because I knew he's
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: a producer and I wanted to put out singles.
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: That's like what I've been trying to do the last
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: few years, just sort of not overthink things and try
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: to work with people, low commitment, just one song, you know,
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: And it was fun. And then we ended up making
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: a Christmas album together and that was really fun.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: You did a lot of tracks from that too.
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And then when it was done, I said, I
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: miss I miss working together. Should we try to make
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: a real album where there's no like rules and no
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: Christmas parameters? And so that's what we decided to do.
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: We just got together whenever we could. This album was
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: different for me and that it was sort of pieced
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: together whenever we were around.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't like.
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: When I made the album with Danger Mouse. I didn't
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: have any material, but we went into the studio for
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: two months together to do it and come up with it.
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: This was just here and there and dribs and drabs
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: and all always short days because our kids were in
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: school and just you know, eleven to two and all right, cool,
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: I'll try to come up with some lyrics for that,
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: you know, And it was so fun. He would play
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: drums and I would play piano and we would just
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: play and it just felt so good.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Reef might have thrived in this eleven to two.
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, talk about a work day.
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: It was kind of great. I kind of loved it
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: because he has his own studio. There was no like booking.
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: It was just like, hey, what day next week works
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: for you?
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Tuesday? Can we squeeze in two days Tuesday and Thursday? Okay? Cool?
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still fun to make records.
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: It was so fun, and I think from the minute
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: we played. I remember when we did Can you Believe?
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: It was just one of the funnest times I've had
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: playing because it was sort of that time after the
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: pandemic where I hadn't played with anyone in a year
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: and a half and I don't think he had either,
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: And it was just like that feeling when you're playing
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: something and then you stop me.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: He's like, oh, yes, that feels so good.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: It's just like it's like you're back in college or
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: high school or something.
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: So do you get that when you're playing live?
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: I mean you try to you don't always, but I
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: think that's the goal, and I think playing with people
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: who make you feel that way is the best way.
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: I definitely feel like that when I play with Brian
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: Blade on drums.
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, let's talk about Brian.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, he was on those first sessions with Craig.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: And he is a blue note artist, and he's a blue.
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: Note artist, and he's had a bunch of great blue
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: note records too. He's on Charles Lloyd's new album. He
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: did those records with Wayne. We've got another one coming
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: this year.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: Nice. No one plays like him, no, nobody, But I've.
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: Never played with him. What's that like?
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: Heaven?
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: He doesn't play anything just to play it. He's always listening,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: and he listens more than anyone I've ever played with.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: And he's a he's reacting in the moment to it
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: in a way where you know, the music just feels
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: so alive. But he's never reacting in a like a
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: bullshit way. It's never wrong and it's never distracting or
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: or or busy.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: So it's never to assert himself no I'm here.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: No, it's never for the wrong reasons. And his pocket
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: is also super deep, like his groove.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: Is so good.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and his dynamics.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: Really quiet yeah.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: And then explodes. Yeah.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's he's like a sound person's nightmare.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: But also it's a dream to watch him.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: So when I saw you play with Wayne and Brian
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: and there's Patatucci and there's Jason Moran.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Blue Note Anniversary, right.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: That was I was. I was sitting on the side
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: of the stage and I just remembered like I felt
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: like I was experiencing some kind of cosmic truth and
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: I wasn't tripping. This is like I got a little
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: scared because it was like hyper real the things you
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: guys were doing, And how'd you feel about that?
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: That was amazing. I also it was the first time
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: I played with Brian in a long time. I hadn't
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: actually seen him in a while. He played on my
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: first two records, but we sort of drifted and he's
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: hard to pin down. He's always so busy. I definitely
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: hadn't talked to him, and I hadn't seen him in
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: a long long time, like years, and I hadn't played
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: with him, and so and to play with Wayne again.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: I think I had already played with Wayne and Herbie
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: on a Jony thing, but to play with Wayne and
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 4: Brian together and then Patatucci and then Jason Ran and
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: Jason I think organized it.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: It was so fun.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: I did feel a little naked because I wasn't playing,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: but I also didn't feel like I could play with
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 4: those guys like hang with them.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: It was just so fun, and you could because you
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: did well certainly there.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: I have to credit Jason Moran for that. He emailed
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: me after that, He's like, you know, you should make
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: a record with Wayne, or you should like record with Wayne,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: And it was so like a little push that I needed.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't have probably asked Wayne to play on that
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: record if Jason hadn't encouraged me. And then to have
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: Brian and play with him again was so special, And yeah,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: it was sweet good night.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: What was recording with Wayne? Like?
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: It was?
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: My friend Sarah and I were talking about it the
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: other day. Actually, I was so nervous for it and
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: a little underprepared. I didn't have that many songs. We
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: had two days in the studio, and I knew we
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 4: weren't gonna like do something a million times with Wayne,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: but I wasn't really sure of what was going to happen.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: And we did we did a song. We did a
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 4: Horrace Silver song that I've recorded before, but I just
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 4: loved and I knew he played with Horace at some point,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 4: and yeah, the song piece, which is just such an
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 4: heavy song, and I don't remember if it was the
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: first one we did, but well, first I went to
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: Wayne's house in La and I for an afternoon and
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: he just played me a bunch of stuff and talked
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: about his He showed me his comic books that he
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: made when.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: He was a kid.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: Did you see those? Yeah, that was an incredible day. Yeah, yep.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: He showed me the action figures, and he told me
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: about watching Fox News and playing soprano sacks just angrily
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: and like writing while he was watching Fox News, and like,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was crazy.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 4: It was an amazing afternoon. Yeah, he was really one
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: of a kind. And so we had had that afternoon
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: which was really nice. And they were playing this song
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: piece and I play an intro and it's you know,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: patitude cham base, Brian on drums, Me and then Wayne
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: and we're all in the same room playing the intro
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: to piece and then I sang and he still hasn't
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: come in.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: I'm like singing.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, he hasn't come in, but I'm just
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: gonna I'm just gonna enjoy this verse and not worry
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: about that. Come around in the second verse, he still
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: didn't come in. I'm like, I wonder if he's enjoying this.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: But then, but I wasn't like over ruminating on it
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: because it would have taken me out of it. And
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: then as soon as we get to like the solo,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: I'm like, I guess maybe all solo I wasn't sure,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 4: and that he just burdered like he came in, and
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: I think the thing I've learned, and I've noticed that
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: Brian is like this as well. They don't really play
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: until they have something to say. You know, there's times
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: where Brian is sat out on half a tune. I'm like,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: I guess he's not gonna play, but then he comes
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: in and it's like perfect interests, you know, It's like
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: it's right.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: So this incredible thing about Wayne it's playing can be
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: like I've been down we're talking about before. I didn't
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: realize it took me a lot long time before I
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: realized Wayne was playing on that rack. I mean, yeah,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: I knew the sack sounded gorgeous, and then when you
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: see the card like, oh fuck that make that makes
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: that makes sense? It's Wayne, but you know, he doesn't.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: He doesn't impos It's not it's like a really it's
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: gorgeous and it's amazing, but it's humble and it's there's
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: no reason for it to be humble.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: It's just spiritual.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: I think it was just such a spiritual practice, probably
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: to him. I mean that's how he can went about it.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: Spiritual is the right word for it.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not coming in in the intro just because
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: he's supposed to. He was listening. He wasn't.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: I don't even think he wasn't coming in because he
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: didn't like it. I think he was just listening to
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: see what it was happening.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't know. It's cool. That was one
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: of the cooler things I've got to do.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: It's awesome and it's wonderful to really really holds up.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: Are you ever tempted to do a larger project that
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: really like like that's more in the jazz idiom like
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: more squarely and that like in your like jazz snob.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm not And I feel like that album
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: sort of was that for me, but also it also
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: wasn't completely all the way there either, but it was
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: more than more than my first record. I'll say I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 4: still don't think my first record sounds like a jazz
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: album to me completely, and so I think I think
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: if I were bored and thinking about what can I do,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: maybe I would decide to do something like that. But
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: I'm always finding other stuff that's inspiring, and if that's inspiring,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: it's because I'll find something that inspires it. I think,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 4: not not thinking let's do a jazz album, Let's do
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: a country album, let's do you know. I just I
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 4: guess I don't think that way.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: When you're touring, do you have room to approach a
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 3: song with beginner's mind every night?
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, especially when I started without without the band and
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 4: I'm just piano and entering it. I do, especially playing
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: with Brian, because I know we'll just go to wherever
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: it goes, and there's some arrangements we've found that way
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: that we stick to a little more, and then some
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 4: that are different. Sometimes a song is really dynamic in
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 4: the set, and then I'll put it in the set
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 4: the next night, thinking like, Okay, this is where the
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 4: set will get big and it's like tiny, the song
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: is tiny. I'm like, well that set was a little
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: sleepy in that section.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: But I prefer it that way, not knowing.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 3: It's the I think it's the best thing. Man.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: I've so fun.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: Well, it's where it's where you get that feeling that
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 4: from high school, where you're just like, oh my god, music.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 5: Is so fun.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 3: Are you still finding new things, like just a different
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: way to move your finger to a different angle or
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: something that will open up a whole new universal notes.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 4: Sometimes, and sometimes I'll use the whole piano, which I
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: never used to do. I wouldn't think to go way
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 4: low or way high. And I actually back to your
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 4: question though, I would say about doing like a jazz am.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: I think even though I started out interpreting songs and
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 4: I love doing it, and I think I've found a
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 4: lot more inspiration from writing in the last few years,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 4: and so it's more based on what I'm writing and
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: what's inspiring me in that way than trying to make
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 4: something sound a certain way.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: I think did on your new album, which we were
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: talking about before, I really love it and the joy
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: you were you were explaining to making it. I feel
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: like you can really hear it when you were writing
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: the songs, thinking maybe like a staring at the at
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: the wall or something, how it sounds on the record.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: Is that how you heard it writing it?
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: That one in particular, was there's nothing to it. It's
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 4: just him on drums and me on guitar, just like
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: having the time of our lives, going as fast as
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 4: we can. He's like, we need something fast, Let's try
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 4: something fast. I was like, okay, and then I just
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 4: started playing. He started playing, and we were just like
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 4: going trying to keep up with it, and then it
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 4: was so fun, and then we just added words and
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: like harmonies and that was it.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: Sounds like nothing I've heard before.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I like that one a lot. That's one of
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: my favorites. And it's not like anything else on the record.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: It's not it's not like anything really at all.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know's that's a hard thing to achieve, you know,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: to do something that works on a basic level, that
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: makes people respond emotionally, but doesn't sound like anything else.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: I think. I think that's the highest thing you can
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 3: aspire to.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: Is there anything from the new album you could play? Sure?
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: What do you want could you do paradise?
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I could try that one. I mean, we'll
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 4: miss the drums, but you can imagine a back there.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 9: Yeah, well.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 6: Take me back to paradise. I could make the sacrifice.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 12: Ama to say, what else is they left to learn?
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 5: Watching all these fires balloon?
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 12: I'm waiting, It's true. I'll watch your fall. I try
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 12: to stop, wait, turn for the pain.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: To pluck, and know.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 6: I've got to let you go again.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 5: Over.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 10: I never wanted this too d and no, it's time
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 10: to let you go.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 13: A lord, find a place to come you man, I'll
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 13: take yours and you take mine.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 5: I'm well again. You paid.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 9: Conversations beading hearts to always beading.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 5: I'm there, man, I'll watch you fall.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 12: I try to stop, time for the pain to drop,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 12: and know.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 6: I've got to let you go again.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 9: All I never wanted this to end.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 7: I know.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 14: It's time to let you go.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 7: Hell maa lolla, Lola, Lola la, lola.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 6: I want you for.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 5: I try to stop, wait, turned for the pain.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 6: To drop, and no, I've got to let you go again.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 10: And never morning this to th and no, it's trying
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 10: to let you go.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 5: So high it's great.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't imagine singing that high today.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: Wow, you sound cool, And it lends a whole new
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 3: reference point for the song, a whole different.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: Like thanks. I didn't know how that was going to go.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: You're all over.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: That's a loud piano, yeah, but it's.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 3: Wild how it's a great example of how it's one
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 3: connected to the piano plane.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I forgot there's some harmonies in there. I
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 4: try to catch it with the piano, but I forgot
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: some of them.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: But it was cool. Some of them worked out.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 3: It really reminds me of Aretha, you know, when when
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 3: she played piano.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 4: Well, she's one of my favorite piano players. I think
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 4: I didn't before I even knew that was on the
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 4: piano and all those recordings. She's always been my favorite,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 4: you know, one of the best feels out there.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: We came this close to having her signed to Blue Note.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: Really yeah, And I went to Detroit a couple of
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: times I'd known her, you know, and uh, and I said,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: she got to play piano. You We're just we're just
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: going to do a thing like maybe you have Jerry
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: Jamont playing bass and Narada playing drums, and maybe someone
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: playing organ or guitarist, keeping a real basic and everything
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: would stem from her piano playing. We're going to do
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 3: it in Detroit, so she didn't have to travel, and
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: she got sick.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: Ah, so she was into it.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she's totally. I was texted. I still have my
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 3: text change. I believe I was texting with Resa Franklin.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. I wish that could happened too.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: But I'm glad you at least try. I'm glad someone
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: was thinking of that about that with her.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I find that, you know, some your favorite artists,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 4: you see them grow and do all these amazing things,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: and then as they get older, it gets there.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: It's like she didn't play piano and everything anymore, and
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 2: you miss that that basic core of like what you loved.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: You know, her plane reminds me of like when I
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: hear like I can always tell like Stevie on drum,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: When Stevie plays drums, it's so unique and it matches
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: almost his voice, like the way he sings man, and
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: to read the same, like the just the rhythm in
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: her plane matches perfectly the way she sings.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the pocket. You can't imitate that somebody.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: You can hear it's so it's so churchy and it's
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 3: so so soulful. What do you think is the best
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: written song that you've ever heard?
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: I don't know a million of them?
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean what what?
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: What comes to mind?
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: Like okay comes to mind?
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 4: A song I always have loved is that song Heartache
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 4: by Lowell George. And there's a version of it on
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 4: Thanks I'll need to Hear, which is fine, but there's
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 4: a version of it floating around there with Linda ron
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 4: Sat like a demo of it. That is the version
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking. And it's just a great song. And the
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 4: way the chord structure is it kind of turns around
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 4: and the key center changes and it's weird and it's
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 4: just one of those songs.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: Let's see if I know it? Oh Frankie.
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 9: Will oh No, I don't want to do that. Will
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 9: am here love And I'm feeling no pain, but.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 5: I know you heartache.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: Stand in my way.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 9: There's no use inuition because I ain't satisfied.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 5: I'm fit to be missing with him you at my.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 9: Side, I find another place to be. I'm tired to
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 9: being your best friend. Look too, another.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: For your companion, and when you.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 9: Do, my pain wail. But there's no way at all
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 9: when I'm feeling no pain. My body ye sickly, my
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 9: mind is insane. I call on you Hardy to come
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 9: show me how because I can't get no lower.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 5: Than the whole man. I find another.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 6: Places to be.
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 5: I'm tired.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 11: Would be.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 5: You besttray.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 9: The two another for your companion and when you.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 15: Do, my heart pain Willie.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: I usually played on guitar.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 3: Oh that's beautiful, that's really nice.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 4: It's a sweet one, right, But do you see how
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 4: it changes keys?
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 2: It's weird, like that's what's cool about it.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 11: It doesn't seem like something that was overthought, but it
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 11: goes It starts there and then goes to the minor five,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 11: and then to the and then it kind of stays
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 11: there and then that becomes the center, and then it
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 11: goes back to the sort of bridgie chorus and it
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 11: goes back to e flat. Anyway, Nerd, when did you
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 11: discover that song, Nerd town I discovered it maybe probably
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 11: around this time I was making my second record. I
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 11: think Kevin Bright, who played on my guitar my first record,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 11: turned me on too Little George that album. Thanks I'll
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 11: hate it here, and.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 4: Then somehow we found a bootleg of that Linda so
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 4: in the in the demo that I love. It's low
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 4: and Linda singing harmony on the whole chorus and it's
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 4: just the.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: Prettiest thing ever Brook. Yeah, I just love Linda.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for thank you.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, thank you so much. That was a lot
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: of time and you're very forthcoming. It was beautiful.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks Norah Jones for sharing her incredible story with us.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: You can hear her new album Visions, along with our
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: other favorite Nora tracks on a playlist at Broken Record
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: podcast dot com. I also want to thank Don Was
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: for going on this excursion with me. We have four
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: more episodes coming, so stay tuned for those. You can
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: also watch the full video of this interview and other
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: recent episodes at YouTube dot com, slash broken Record Podcast,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: and be sure to follow us on Instagram at the
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: Broken Record Pod. You can follow us on Twitter at
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose,
• 1:21:02
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• 1:21:05
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• 1:21:09
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  Speaker 1: podcast app. Our theme Music's back, any beats. I'm justin Richmond.