Lang Lang

0:00Speaker 1:This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You can visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with Long Long.

0:12Speaker 2:I'm just playing Long, I'm just playing Long Wey.

0:26Speaker 3:I'm Nora and this is Sarah Odelcome to our show, Playing along, Playing Along Long. Our guest today is an internationally acclaimed pianist, one of the most recognizable classical musicians in the world. Yes, Long Long, He's played everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Royal Albert Hall, to right here and to right here, right here, and with also the world's greatest orchestras to write here and then back to here.

0:51Speaker 1:He played my piano.

0:54Speaker 3:He's really introduced classical music to a whole new generation.

0:58Speaker 1:He's incredible. He's incredible. I mean he sat here and played this piano for me when we first start the episode. You'll hear it. It's so beautiful. Yeah, and he's also just so cool and easy to hang with and talk to. He's really just a special human.

1:13Speaker 3:I think, gosh, yeah, you will hear the first, like you said, the first classical, truly classical piece that we've done on this show sol a piano piece from the eighteen hundreds. Yeah, and it'll just make you cry.

1:25Speaker 1:It's so beautiful that just everything he does, and we do a pretty special cover.

1:30Speaker 3:Yes, you might be surprised by the song that you and Long Lung chose to take on, but grab your pink cowboy hats and stay tuned.

1:41Speaker 4:Wait and give it away?

1:42Speaker 5:Oh does it?

1:43Speaker 1:I don't know. Well, anyway, this is a really fun one. I hope you enjoy the episode with Long Long. All right, well yeah, I can't wait to hear you play my right, Okay.

1:56Speaker 6:So let me play the romantic composer France list Consolation number number two.

2:07Speaker 1:Okay in England.

4:24Speaker 7:After after, I'm gonna cry.

5:37Speaker 1:It's so beautiful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

5:41Speaker 8:I mean to play in your studio. It's very inspirational.

5:44Speaker 1:Oh good, I was gonna say you. It feels so physical watching you play. You're very physical. You're in the music in a way.

5:54Speaker 6:That I mean, you know the things for me and piano unlike vallein or any other instrument, you can grab it, you can, you know, you can play with it. But unfortunately, you know, we actually have to go into the pianos in order to have that complete connection. That's what I believe, and so so that's why we have to go into the piano as a pianist.

6:20Speaker 1:It feels totally connected, like you and my piano or now what, thanks for playing it? What? What did you think? What do you How would you describe this piano and the personality. Do you feel like all pianos have sort of their own personal.

6:35Speaker 6:I believe every piano, every instrument, has their own kind of character. And what do you have is a beautiful sounded piano with a lot of substance, and it has this very lyrical a little bit more to the kind of darker sound. But I really love it because it's really shows the depth of.

7:00Speaker 8:The instrument and you can go really into it.

7:04Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's cool.

7:07Speaker 6:It's so interesting to feel that this piano fits your voice very well.

7:12Speaker 1:Yeah it does. I had a hard time finding a piano. I think I bought this twenty five years ago maybe, yeah, And I'm very specifically. It was hard for me to find one that I felt connected to because I have a problem with very bright sounding pianos. But yeah, I love this piano.

7:36Speaker 8:It's great choice and girl, beautiful.

7:39Speaker 1:You got the nicest legs of any piano I've ever seen. They're carved, They're so really really handcrafted. Yeah, when you tour, do you have do you play? Because you play concert halls a lot, do you play? What is there? Do you have your own money?

7:57Speaker 6:I used their pianos, you know, very special occasions. Sometimes I take some pianos that I chose. And normally every concert hall has a very good piano, and specially the good Stammy there, and and they also have a great technician that you can work with. So even the piano is not up to your level, you can basically let him or her to make it to the level you want.

8:27Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, yeah. And when you travel do you stay you stay in hotels? Do you have a piano ever in your hotel?

8:38Speaker 5:Yes?

8:39Speaker 6:Normally Stammy provide an upright piano in my hotel rooms, and then we try to find a room which is not not in the middle of the hotel on the edge so that I can I can practice or finding the next door is like one of my friends, of my relatives, so when they tour with me, so then nobody going to complain.

9:06Speaker 8:I'm trying to do.

9:07Speaker 7:Yeah.

9:07Speaker 1:Yeah, And do you ever play in the middle of the night.

9:10Speaker 8:Are you trying to If I do it, I will play very soft.

9:13Speaker 6:Yeah, so I will not play something evening exactly.

9:18Speaker 1:I also noticed that you use the soft pedal a lot. I do too, And someone told me once that they were like surprised because not everybody in my field uses it quite as much or something. I don't really know. I've never noticed anybody using it like that. That's but I noticed you using it a lot, up and down and up and down.

9:39Speaker 8:Yeah.

9:40Speaker 6:For a classical repertoire, especially romantic repertoire, that they need always kind of change of colors and the range of the subtleness of the soft, like the sweet soft or a little bit hard soft or more saddenings. So the left pedal make quite a quick difference.

10:03Speaker 1:Yeah.

10:03Speaker 6:Yeah, it doesn't make a huge difference, but when you push down, it reacts very fast, so in a way that you can hear a quick react.

10:17Speaker 1:Do you think it's consistent or every piano has a different level of the soft pedal.

10:22Speaker 6:Some piano maybe has a little deeper softness, yeah, but regularly it's similar. Yeah, Because the theory is that when you push down and then there's one one of the strings, one of the three or one of the two get muted, so that's automatically become less or softer.

10:47Speaker 1:Yeh yeah, just less. Sound awesome. That was so pretty. Do you know what year that piece was written.

10:56Speaker 6:Around during the Romantic era on the nineteen century. I don't know exactly which year, but he wrote three of the consolation so beautiful and one is more beautiful than the others, really beautiful.

11:12Speaker 1:It was so beautiful, and it had so many elements of you know, modern Gershwin or you know, it reminded me. It had the dominant seven chord and all the things that came later.

11:26Speaker 6:At least was the basically the king of piano. Like most of the the great pianists after him, was his students or influenced by him.

11:36Speaker 8:So it was a great line.

11:39Speaker 6:And then his music was also very popular. He was kind of like the rock star and at his time. Okay, yeah, so that's why I think like Gershwin or the later great musicians took some ideas from him. And this guy also invented the piano recital. Really, he's the first one made pianiano become a purer solo instrument rather than a collaborative instrument.

12:07Speaker 1:I didn't know that.

12:08Speaker 7:Yeah.

12:08Speaker 6:So he's like and he he's the first person who kind of started as a piano solo recital and management, you know, the whole music.

12:20Speaker 8:Career profession he created basically.

12:25Speaker 6:So this guy was lable woe and he lived very long also and yeah, so he played entire of his life and just keep composed, teaching, and it was really important for the piano. And also the one very interesting thing. He's so powerful and he always destroyed pianos really, so he made piano much stronger, yeah, because he would beat them up, beat them up big time. And then so the modern piano was actually created based on his power.

13:00Speaker 8:Okay, playing piano.

13:01Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's awesome. I had no idea.

13:05Speaker 8:Like one of his recital he broke five pianos.

13:08Speaker 1:That's crazy. Have you ever broken a piano?

13:10Speaker 6:I mean not in that way because we're already in the modern time, right, Yeah, but sometimes I may break some strings.

13:19Speaker 9:By playing so hard, yeah or something, you know, but really, but so far not I mean yeah, so god is it's not always happened otherwise will be very interesting.

13:32Speaker 1:Get a reputation, it's okay, Well, that's cool. Well that was really really a treat. Yeah, you just played Carnegie Halls like this week.

13:42Speaker 5:Last night last night.

13:44Speaker 6:Yeah, I played the interesting piece, the bar talk Piano number three, and he was kind of in some of the work. He's almost like a rock musician. He put piano as a rock and roll or percassive, very heavy percassive instrument.

14:05Speaker 8:Yeah.

14:05Speaker 6:So normally after you play his music, you're your fingernails is really getting a fragile.

14:15Speaker 8:Really you really you really need to cut it. Yeah, it's the real destroyer for that.

14:24Speaker 1:Okay, and how long? Like you're playing the bar Tak piece on this whole tour?

14:30Speaker 8:No, just partially, but it was with Vienna fil Harmonic.

14:35Speaker 1:Wow.

14:35Speaker 6:Yeah, so so they actually wanted this piece. Yeah, it's a really really great I never played this piece before, but I learned from this tour.

14:45Speaker 1:So you're doing the whole tour with that?

14:46Speaker 6:Yeah, seven concerts, but we're we're already Yeah, we're only three left, and I do my solo pieces solo solo recital.

14:57Speaker 1:Okay, great, Wow, well I'm so excited to try something together. Yeah. I don't know.

15:05Speaker 8:I really love your songs.

15:07Speaker 6:Since many years since your first album that was such a big hit to the world, and it's such a special musical genius, genius of making it. Really, I mean, like there's nobody who did something like that before you. So, I mean I still remember when your first album came out.

15:28Speaker 1:Wow.

15:30Speaker 8:There was also a big impact on the classical music.

15:32Speaker 6:Theme really, yeah, because in classical music theme that we still like more melodic things. And then when you have so much like new type of music that it's hard for us to to integrate or to connect. But when you come out, you get the every music genre, you know, kind of they all understand what they were trying to do. It was really amazing.

15:58Speaker 1:Yeah, that means a lot of things. You I feel like I just lucked out, you know, very much. So, but yeah, I mean when you're making music, you don't really think about the impact. I don't. You just think about how it's making you feel at the time. So yeah, thank you.

16:19Speaker 10:Well.

16:19Speaker 1:I liked the song you suggested because I feel like it's it's an interesting place for us to meet, you know, you suggested to me on which is on my first album. I learned it from Nina Simone's version. Have you ever heard that it's beautiful?

16:37Speaker 3:Yeah?

16:38Speaker 1:And the songwriter is J. D. Loudermilk, who wrote a lot of old sort of more country ish country blues. But I feel like more maybe the country genre stuff. So it's a it's a cool choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So I might play a little with you.

16:58Speaker 6:Is that?

16:58Speaker 1:Is that okay? Is it okay? Or no?

17:02Speaker 8:Please? Please?

17:03Speaker 6:Yeah?

17:25Speaker 11:Lark Flower.

17:31Speaker 5:Waiting to blue.

17:42Speaker 7:Like a lie.

17:47Speaker 11:In a dark glue.

17:56Speaker 5:I'm just sitting here.

17:59Speaker 11:Way please.

18:06Speaker 5:To come on home.

18:10Speaker 11:Term me all like the desert.

18:31Speaker 4:Waiting for the word, like schookee.

18:48Speaker 5:Waiting for the squeeze. I'm just sitting here wait for you to come on home. Time me o, my poor hot.

19:35Speaker 12:It's been so die, says you, says you've been long.

19:57Speaker 5:After all, you're the one new turns beyond.

20:12Speaker 11:You're the only.

20:13Speaker 5:One cooking turn me back on.

20:26Speaker 1:My high five.

20:29Speaker 5:Is waiting.

20:33Speaker 11:For a new tube.

20:41Speaker 5:Glasses we he.

20:47Speaker 11:For some fish ice cube.

20:55Speaker 2:I'm just sitting here.

21:05Speaker 5:To come on, turn me on, turn me up.

21:33Speaker 7:Nice.

21:34Speaker 1:That was fine, beautiful, thank you, that was just great work. Oh my god, thank you. That was so wild and fine and different. You know, when you read music like this, do you look at the chord changes? At all or you.

21:49Speaker 6:Only yeah a little bit, a little bit, yeah, yeah, especially the second time.

21:54Speaker 8:Yeah, and I get to know better.

21:56Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, Okay, so you read chord changes. I can't read music like that, it's too many notes for me to focus on. But you can site read just yeah basically. Yeah, you've been doing that forever, right, that's.

22:09Speaker 6:What we know as a closet that you have to do this totally.

22:13Speaker 8:Yeah. Yeah, but I did learn something with the Herbie hankok.

22:19Speaker 6:You know he showed me many things that how he how he does it with the improvisation. So I did learn something especially you know, it's the chords change and.

22:31Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the scale you can use over different chord changes. It's different, right when you think of music, Like when you think of the list piece you played, do you ever think of it in terms of what key and what chords are happening?

22:48Speaker 6:Yeah, I mean this least maybe less, but if it's a Bach piece or like Beethophim, you know, you have to think more about the counterpoint. You know, you need to think more like a composer, like how this change, Like which the seventh or the third? You know, which chore you have to push more there's so many notes in one passage, so you just need to highlighting the more dissonan consonant.

23:23Speaker 8:Yeah.

23:23Speaker 6:So this is kind of uh special moment, like you have to kind of pointed out without really showing in a very obvious way, you know, but you need.

23:37Speaker 8:To point that out.

23:38Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just so interesting. I feel like we probably think about music in slightly different ways, but it's still one language, but it's also different languages somehow.

23:50Speaker 6:The great things like to learn things from you is that you know, every time you play differently, you sing differently, and as classical music that we do have this quite a proper score. Yeah, yeah, but every time when you're playing it, there's always slight way to go around it.

24:13Speaker 8:Otherwise it's the same.

24:14Speaker 1:Yeah. So you I mean, you probably breathe with the music, and sometimes you're breathing faster and sometimes you're breathing slower. But do you change notes? Are you?

24:24Speaker 6:We are we are not allowed to change most of the notes, only in some kind of like cadenza part slightly, but normally I mean, I mean if I change something from Beethoven, he will jump out in the you know, in my dreams, you know, will never have.

24:42Speaker 8:A good dream anymore exactly.

24:46Speaker 6:Yeah, but we do need to to find a way to do slightly different every time.

24:52Speaker 1:Yeah.

24:52Speaker 8:So yeah, but that's that's the same spirit.

24:56Speaker 1:Yeah, because you have such a personality when you play right and it's strong, you know.

25:02Speaker 6:So, I mean I think the world and the one and every pianist sound the same exactly.

25:08Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to do something well.

25:10Speaker 5:I think.

25:10Speaker 1:I think when you break through and what appeals to people is your specific personality. And that's across the board for music, I think, and any art.

25:20Speaker 8:You know, any art form.

25:21Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, you have to be respectful, but you have to bring something that you are kind of your special kind of style or something.

25:35Speaker 3:Yeah.

25:36Speaker 8:People are actually looking for that.

25:38Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it's beautiful. You do all kinds of things. You have the foundation, yes, can you tell us.

25:46Speaker 8:A little bit, Yes, we have.

25:49Speaker 6:It's a foundation called the lung Lan International Music Foundation, and our aim is to nurturing the society and in different underprivileged areas to learn classical music, to learn piano. And what we do is to bring twenty to thirty smart keyboards into the schools.

26:11Speaker 1:That's amazing.

26:11Speaker 6:Yeah, and then we build our own method and also very important thing is that we don't want music only as what do you call the outreage.

26:23Speaker 8:Program or after school program.

26:25Speaker 6:We want to be integrated as the part of the curriculum the school and so all the schools that we're working with that we are actually bringing music education back to the yeah, to the school system actually, so that's what we are trying to do. And so you learn piano, but in the same time learning how to write a song. Many of them actually they don't want to become a pianist. They want to become a soundwriter or movie composer. Some maybe some some kids do like to become a professional pianist, but it's more music in general, but using piano.

27:08Speaker 1:Okay, Well it's all laid out, yeah, so it's easy to see. It's a great starting instrument.

27:14Speaker 7:Yeah.

27:14Speaker 6:The problem in the past is that in the the elementary schools you have maybe just one piano in the big class, right, but now we have like twenty to thirty keyboards, so you can't Actually everyone can play.

27:29Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, that's so great.

27:31Speaker 6:Where was the first The first school we were in Boston, the Boston Public Art School. They didn't have a music class. They only had an art class, okay. And then we went to Harlem. We did a five schools there. Yeah, and then some party in New Jersey and now we have a we have a more than one hundred schools in the US. Wow, more than one hundred schools. See in China and Europe were having like twenty schools.

28:03Speaker 1:That's amazing. That's really beautiful.

28:05Speaker 8:Thank you.

28:06Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's amazing. Did you where did you grow up?

28:10Speaker 6:I grew up in China in a very industrial city in the northeast called Shinyang.

28:18Speaker 8:Yeah.

28:19Speaker 6:But the good news was we had a conservatory in that city and doing the early nineties when I was very young, and they had many like international kind of a piano festivals. Wow, there were a lot of One of our professors went to my home city to teach and I had I had an amazing teacher. She came from Shanghai.

28:48Speaker 8:So and then.

28:51Speaker 6:At the age of nine, I moved to Beijing to the Central Consul to get serious. This is like how you know how this kind of the system with the conservatory, right, so you'll start quite And then I went to America at the age of fourteen.

29:13Speaker 13:Oh.

29:13Speaker 6:Wow, there's great school in Philadelphia called the Curtisitute.

29:18Speaker 1:Yeah.

29:18Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, so that's how how I Yeah so yeah, I spent my childhood in China and then as a teenager moved to the US to keep studying.

29:30Speaker 1:Yeah that's amazing. But you were quite young when you got serious. So your school system do you remember being little? You didn't learn it in school at all.

29:40Speaker 6:I did learn the regular music knowledge you had music in school, yeah, which was good. But then, of course, very quickly I went to the consula three.

29:50Speaker 1:Yeah, so skid down the business. Yeah.

29:55Speaker 8:Yeah.

29:55Speaker 6:Then then it's very good because it's very professional way the training yeah wow, really focused on the performance, which is quite important because if you're only in training for the theory, which is good, but then you're a little bit behind of the techniques. Yeah, so this has to be balanced. Yeah, so that's why the conservatory systems quite good for for your early kind of professional training.

30:26Speaker 1:Yeah. It sounds like a wild wild ride, but it's.

30:32Speaker 6:Really I mean it's very busy, you know, yeah, just not enough playing time.

30:38Speaker 8:You know, got other fun fun.

30:41Speaker 1:Times like the book camp.

30:43Speaker 8:A lot of a lot.

30:44Speaker 6:Of serious practice six hours a day, that's insane.

30:47Speaker 1:Yeah wow, yeah, yeah that seems like a lot, but you love it and.

30:53Speaker 6:Part of you, you know, I mean the majority of time I loved it, but sometimes you know, also as a kid, just yeah, I don't want to practice anymore.

31:02Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's why I remember wanting to quit as soon as I started taking piano lessons because I didn't want to practice so much. It seemed like a lot. Yeah, that's why I could never be a classical pianist. I don't practice enough. But yeah, you know, when I was young, I learned. I ended up taking piano at aol at a community college in Texas, and they made you take two classes a week. One was your private lesson and one was theory. And we had wurlitzers like this in the room. We had twelve worlitzers set up and everyone was learning theory. And it came up on some kind of It wasn't a computer, but it must have been computerized somehow, but it was very old school analog on a screen what notes you were playing and had a Yeah, it was a very cool way to learn. And I remember being I went to an arts magnet high school and then I went to college for music. So they made us theory in high school and then college, and I was like, I did this when I was in second grade. I started learning all this, so you know, it was actually I realized how lucky I was to learn that so young. I had no idea at the time.

32:12Speaker 6:So that's how you built up the composation skills, right.

32:17Speaker 1:Yeah, well I learned. Yeah, I mean the theory was so good because you learn, you know, instead of thinking of of music like B flat F E flat. I mean I I do think of it like that, but I also think one five, four minor two minor six. You know, I can think like that and then I can transpose. I feel like that'll help me with that. It's interesting. So that's how I think of music is in almost like in terms of just the numbers and the chord quality. Right yeah, so there there's no wrong way to eat e reesis.

32:56Speaker 8:That's why I'm not a composer.

32:58Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sure you could be. I mean, you must hear music when you're sleeping. That isn't real yet, right.

33:05Speaker 6:The thing is like for me, there's so many great classical repertoire.

33:10Speaker 1:Yeah, and then.

33:12Speaker 6:In a way that we are so spoiled. Yeah, the things like never finished practicing those.

33:17Speaker 1:That's true. You feel like you have to get to the end of it before you start composing. I don't think so. That's interesting.

33:25Speaker 6:Yeah, but if I have your talent, I probably will practice less and I'll compose more.

33:30Speaker 1:Oh, I think you have my talent plus a million. I think it's just interesting, like the different avenues we all come from, you know, and.

33:38Speaker 6:It's all come from the the laveful piano, right, that's yeah.

33:42Speaker 8:This is your first instrument, right.

33:44Speaker 1:I sang first.

33:46Speaker 7:Yeah.

33:47Speaker 1:There was a long time though in my twenties, after my first album came out, where I sort of I didn't want to. I had a hard time composing on piano in the beginning, Oh, writing songs, Yeah, I because I feel like it didn't sound the way I wanted it to sound. It sounded very simple, you know, on the piano, but if you play a simple court on the guitar, it's easier to come up with a melody over somehow. So I started writing more on guitar first, But now I write on piano. I had to simplify myself sort of, you know, at the piano. But I don't know, do you like the.

34:23Speaker 6:Travel, Yeah, it's it's okay, but if you always on the tour, always on the road.

34:28Speaker 8:It's not very nice.

34:30Speaker 6:No, it's just it's kind of not because not normal something right, you're leaving in another world or.

34:41Speaker 1:In a hotel.

34:43Speaker 6:So when I'm off tour, I just I just want to go home. So people ask me, I do want to wake? I don't want I need vacage. I just want to stay at home.

34:52Speaker 1:It is hard a vacation. When you tour a lot, you don't want to get on a plane and go to.

35:00Speaker 8:I get you for another hotel room stay.

35:03Speaker 1:Also, you it feels a little more solitary because you're either playing solo or with an orchestra. For me, I have a band and a crew that I travel with and so we get to hang out so be on tour. Yeah, it can be hard, but it's pretty fun because you have your core people that you choose right and usually.

35:23Speaker 8:Much more fun. Yeah, I would say it's.

35:25Speaker 1:I wouldn't do it if I hated the people I traveled with. It probably, but yeah, to be that solitary seems difficult.

35:33Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, for us it's it's not always the same people though. It's like, yeah, maybe only only in an our two people that you travel with. Yeah, but then it's always different. Yeah yeah, and you just play by ourselves.

35:50Speaker 1:Yeah, that's tricky unless you're very outgoing, right.

35:55Speaker 8:I realized my friend, Yeah, that would be hard.

35:59Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, Well what do you think about this song?

36:04Speaker 5:Yeah?

36:05Speaker 8:Club?

36:06Speaker 1:Do you know this song?

36:07Speaker 8:This one? I don't know as your son?

36:11Speaker 1:You know, Yeah, it just came out as an idea, but we don't have to do it, but I'd be happy to do. What do you say? Yeah, of course I've never done it either, so I thought this.

36:24Speaker 14:No.

36:25Speaker 1:I was only trying to think of something wild to do together, and somehow this song Pink Pony Club came up, and I love the piano on it, and I just kind of thought it would be fun.

36:36Speaker 8:It's a lot of sharps.

36:40Speaker 1:Yet, how do you feel about that? I?

36:43Speaker 8:Okay, it's just read. It gives a kind of drive, certain drive have more.

36:51Speaker 1:It's a rare key I feel for people to play, especially with the piano, and.

36:56Speaker 8:You can this makes you count more exactly.

37:00Speaker 6:I actually did prepare a little bit on the stage off Carnegie Hall.

37:04Speaker 1:You did not.

37:09Speaker 8:Try to try to get that?

37:12Speaker 1:Did anybody know what you were doing?

37:14Speaker 6:Does anybody say they were they were busy setting up.

37:18Speaker 1:I love it. That's incredible. Well, we could do it a few times. I've never done it before. I'm excited to try it.

37:44Speaker 5:I know.

37:46Speaker 10:You wanted me to stay, but I can't ignore the crazy visions love me and.

37:54Speaker 15:I that there's a special place boys and girls can all be queens. Every single day, I'm having wicked trees of leaving Tennessee.

38:14Speaker 5:It's sat a minor cop. I swear it's calling me. Won'ta make my mom proud?

38:23Speaker 15:It's gonna cause a seed she sees her baby girl.

38:29Speaker 5:I know she's gonna scream.

38:31Speaker 11:God, what have you time?

38:35Speaker 2:You're a Pink Pony girl and you dance at the club.

38:39Speaker 11:Oh mama, just having fun on the stage.

38:46Speaker 4:In my head, it's wear are.

38:49Speaker 16:Belong down at the Pink Pony Club. I wanna keep on lancing at the Pink Pony Club.

39:00Speaker 13:I gotta keep on dancing. Then in the West Hollywood, I gotta keep my dancing.

39:08Speaker 16:Let the Pick Pony cor Pick Pony Club.

39:17Speaker 5:Who I'm a.

39:27Speaker 11:And Charles are on the floor.

39:29Speaker 1:Bathers in the bathroom and a light outside the.

39:33Speaker 17:Door, black lines and am just go ball each night. Another reasons why I left it all.

39:45Speaker 18:I think my wicked dreams from Tennessee.

39:51Speaker 1:Oh Santa Mina curve, you've been too good to me.

39:56Speaker 11:Won't make my mama crow. It's gonna a scene.

40:01Speaker 18:She sees her baby girl and know she's gonna swim.

40:08Speaker 11:Why haven't done? You're a pink pony girl? Can you dance at the club now?

40:16Speaker 13:Mom?

40:18Speaker 11:It's just televin fun on the stage in my hand. So I swear up be long down at.

40:27Speaker 16:The Pink Bonny Cloth. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pig Pony Club.

40:36Speaker 13:I'm gonna keep on dancing down in West Harry Wall. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink pony Cloth.

40:46Speaker 14:Pink Pony Club. Don't take I've left you all behind.

41:10Speaker 5:Still love you in Tennessee. You're always on my mind.

41:20Speaker 11:And my love. Every Saturday.

41:27Speaker 18:I can hear your Southern draw a thousand miles aways say, God.

41:39Speaker 11:I have you die.

41:41Speaker 14:You're a pick pony girl and you dance out.

41:45Speaker 11:The co No, Mama, just having fun and stating my head.

41:55Speaker 14:It's where I belong down.

41:58Speaker 5:Ut Hoy Club.

42:02Speaker 16:I'm gonna keep hound dancing at the Pink Holdy Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing down in West Hall. You would, I'm gonna keep on dancing, have the Pink Hoony Club, Pink ho Club.

42:25Speaker 13:I'm gonna keep on dancing and have the pink Holly Co.

42:31Speaker 16:I'm gonna keep on dancing down head West Holly Wod.

42:36Speaker 11:I'm gonna keep on dancing, have.

42:39Speaker 13:A pink holok ho Co'm gonna keep on Dy'm gonna lession.

43:14Speaker 5:That was so fun.

43:16Speaker 12:Oh my god, that was like that gave me chills.

43:20Speaker 1:That was so fun you playing that song? Oh my god, how was that for you? I thought it was great. I just love this song so much, and it's you have this, you.

43:35Speaker 8:Have this ongoingness.

43:38Speaker 1:It never stopped, It never stops. It's very cyclical, right, the chords and then the lyrics. I mean, it's such a deep story this this lyric, and I just find it so striking and beautiful and sad but also empowering and like it's like all these things wrapped up. And you know when a song just tells a story in three minutes and thirty seconds or however long.

44:06Speaker 6:It is, this song has a lot of visual Yeah, when you play you can feel.

44:11Speaker 8:There's a lot of things like you can really sense.

44:14Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I just love it. I love that you were up for doing it. I would never be able to do this song normally. I mean it's such a huge song and you know it doesn't need me to sing it. But doing it together was so fun and I love Chapel Roane's voice, so it was hard for me not to go. Yeah, but yeah, thanks for playing that with me. Yeah. So your Piano Book two is out now. It's an album.

44:45Speaker 6:Yes, it's an album with the thirty two miniature of masterful pieces from Chopin's nocturn to rock Mino Purdue Beto m variations and also to UH sounds like Markni parad orla oh cool. Yeah, and even some uh Japanese. There's so much we have a like trying to get all sort of a piano music, and also some new compositions from today's composer like Tony and e.

45:26Speaker 8:Charas is very cool.

45:28Speaker 1:Piece, amazing. Yeah, there must be so so much to explore.

45:33Speaker 6:Right, Yeah, this is the good thing about piano that this is it doesn't need to be long pieces, but somehow, whether the it's Mozart round or a Bach Predude or something from House Zimmer or something. It's always there's always some sort of connected.

45:53Speaker 1:Ideas behind Yeah, I love it. Yeah, well, this has been a joy.

45:59Speaker 8:Thank you, Thank.

46:00Speaker 6:You to come here and to feel your great voice and feelings.

46:06Speaker 8:You know, and this is very intimate.

46:08Speaker 5:It is very intimate.

46:10Speaker 1:It's not for everyone. Yeah, I'm just staring at you. Well, thank you for playing my piano. Yeah, I'm playing with me. It was great. You were the perfect guests. Amazing experience, so fun. Yeah, how are we? I'm like the screen is black. Oh yeah, we wanted okay, we did have one last thing. We just wanted you to do the orange trick. I was actually thinking you could almost do it on Pink Pony Club, right, because it's a black notes.

47:01Speaker 5:I love that.

47:04Speaker 6:The good thing about the orange is that you can go yeah yeah, but it's also can be pretty precise.

47:13Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's just one little spot.

47:15Speaker 8:Yeah, it's much easier than banana.

47:17Speaker 1:Yeah.

47:19Speaker 8:I tried in different fruit. Was not so bad.

47:25Speaker 1:It gets bruised too easily.

47:26Speaker 6:Right, this is the best, really, orange just really by far the best instrument.

47:32Speaker 1:You have to tell me how you came up with it?

47:34Speaker 6:Okay, So this was Actually it's not my invention. It's somebody who I love so much, great pianist and conductor Daniel Barramore. And he's a very serious musician, and so he always gives me a very serious piano lessons. So I'm always quite actually nervous when he's teaching me. So then we had this long session, very serious Shroberts or not, you know. So, and then he went back to the kitchen. I thought he's gonna to eat some some orange to.

48:10Speaker 8:To, you know, to get more metamins or something.

48:12Speaker 6:So so he came out. He said, do you know how to play chopin Black key Istude? You know this is the piece which is uh everything from the Blackie And I played this piece so much as a kid to practice to get into the Consoler three.

48:37Speaker 8:And I said, of course.

48:38Speaker 17:I know that.

48:39Speaker 8:So I started playing. He had so bad I happened.

48:44Speaker 6:I was like, I couldn't even play this piece after so many hours of practice.

48:49Speaker 5:He said, let me show you.

48:56Speaker 1:That's hilarious.

48:57Speaker 8:Yeah, I used from this such a serious musician. Yeah, comes incredible, hilarious.

49:05Speaker 1:That's a very long joke.

49:08Speaker 5:Oh okay, I got it.

49:10Speaker 1:That's great.

49:11Speaker 8:So I learned.

49:12Speaker 6:Really a big deal and then I show you everywhere. That's so fun at some point, but not recently.

49:18Speaker 1:Yeah, well thanks for hearing.

49:21Speaker 8:So I see that Orange, I know what to do.

49:23Speaker 1:You see you know exactly what we're going to ask you to do. Yeah, awesome, cool, Yay, that was awesome. It was incredible. I've wanted to sing Pink Pony Club forever and I think if I went to do karaoke, that's probably what I would choose.

49:38Speaker 3:And no big deal that he was practicing that at Carnegie Hall the night before.

49:42Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I love that.

49:43Speaker 5:It's hilarious. He practiced it, sounds amazing.

49:50Speaker 1:He's great and I had so much fun doing that. Okay, I'm going to say this as best as I can. But the first song he performed was called Consolations, A one seventy two number two in E Major Un Poco Pui Mosso Composer Friends List, performed and recorded by Langlan from Piano Book two, which was released in twenty twenty five. The second song we did was Turn Me On. I recorded that on my first album and it's a J. D. Loudermilk song and it's also very well known for being a song that Nina Simone did. The third song we did was Pink Phony Club by Chapel Roon from the Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, released in twenty twenty three. Love that song special, Thanks so long long for joining us today. We'll be back next week with arujaf Tab. Norah Jones is playing along as a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your host, Hora Jones.

50:52Speaker 1:I'm your host, Nora Jones. I'm your host, Nora Jones. Recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Le Audio, post production and mastering by Greg Tobler. Artwork by Eliza Fry, Photography by Shervin Linez. Produced by Norah Jones and Sarah Ota. Executive producers Aaron won Kaufman and Jordan Rundag. Marketing lead Alison Kantri Graber. Serious side effects include a happy heart. Thanks for joining us.