Norah Jones Is Playing Along
GRAMMY-nominated pianist Lang Lang brings the show its first true classical piece.
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This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You can visit Norah 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. I'm just playing along with you.
I'm just playing along with you.
I'm Nora and this is Sarah Oda.
Welcome to our show.
Playing along, along.
Playing along, along. 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 with, to right here.
And with also the world's greatest orchestras.
And then back to here.
He played my piano. He's really introduced classical music to a whole new generation. He's incredible.
He's incredible. I mean, he sat here and played this piano for me when we first started 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, I think.
So special.
Yeah. You will hear the first, like you said, the first classical, truly classical piece that we've done on this show, solo piano piece from the 1800s.
And it'll just make you cry.
It's so beautiful, just everything he does. And we do a pretty special cover.
Yes. You might be surprised by the song that you and Long Long chose to take on, but grab your pink cowboy hats and stay tuned.
Way to give it away.
Oh, does it? 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 piano.
All right, okay. So let me play the romantic composer Franz Liszt.
Beautiful.
It's a consolation number, number two, actually.
Okay.
I'm gonna cry. That's so beautiful.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
I mean, playing in your studio is very inspirational.
Is it? Oh, good. I was gonna say, it feels so physical watching you play. You're very physical. You're in the music in a way that...
Yeah, I mean, you know, the thing is, for me, piano, unlike violin 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 that's why we have to go into the piano as a pianist.
It feels totally connected, like you and my piano are now one.
Thanks for playing it. 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 persona?
Yeah, I believe every piano, every instrument has their own kind of a character. And what you have is a beautiful, sounded piano with a lot of substance. And it has this very lyrical...
Little bit more to the kind of darker sound, but I really love it because it really shows the depth of the instrument. And you can go really into it.
Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. It's so interesting to watch you play.
I also feel that this piano fit your voice very well.
Yeah, it does. I had a hard time finding a piano. I think I bought this twenty five years ago, maybe.
Wow.
Yeah, and I 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.
It's a great choice. And it looks beautiful. Looks beautiful, though.
She's got the nicest legs of any piano I've ever seen.
I agree.
They're carved. They're so beautiful.
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 piano?
Normally, I use their pianos. In a very special occasion, sometimes I take some pianos that I chose.
And normally, every concert hall has a very good piano, especially the good Stanway there. 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.
Yeah. And when you travel, do you stay, you stay in hotels? Do you have a piano ever in your hotel?
Yes. Normally, Stanway provide an upright piano in my hotel rooms. And I may try to find a room which is not. Not in the middle of the hotel, maybe on the edge, so that I can, I can practice.
Yeah, or finding the, the next door is like one of my friend or, or my relative. So when they tour with me, so then nobody going to complain.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's what we're trying to do.
And do you ever play in the middle of the night? Are you trying to keep it to daytime?
If I do it, I will play very soft.
Yeah, yeah.
So I will not play something, Rachmaninoff in the evening.
Exactly. I also noticed that you use the soft pedal.
A lot, yeah.
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 true.
But I noticed you using it a lot, up and down and up and down.
For, for 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 little bit hard soft or more, more sadness. So, so the left pedal does make a quite a quick difference.
Yeah, it, it doesn't make a huge difference, but when you push down, it, it reacts very fast. So in a, in a way that you can hear a, a quick react.
Do you think it's consistent or every piano has a different level of the soft pedal?
I mean, some, some piano maybe has a little deeper
softness, yeah, but regularly it's similar. Yeah, because the, the theory is that when you push down and, 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.
It's just less sound.
Yeah, awesome.
That was so pretty. Do you know what year that piece was written around?
During the Romantic era, uh, in the nineteenth century. I don't know exactly which year, uh, but he wrote three of the Consolation.
So beautiful.
And, uh, one is more beautiful than the others, really beautiful.
It was so beautiful and it had so many elements of, you know, modern, uh, Gershwin or, you know, it reminded me, it had the dominant seven chord and all the things that came later.
Lys was the, basically the king of piano.
Like, most of the, the great pianists after him was his students or influenced by him. So, so it was great line, um, and, and then his music was also very popular. He was kind of like the rock star and at his time.
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.
Oh, really?
He's the first one made piano become a pure solo instrument, rather than a collaborative instrument in the past.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, so he, he's like, and he, he's the first person who kind of started as a piano, solo recital and management, you know, the, the whole music career profession.
He created, basically.
This guy was unbelievable.
Yeah, and he lived very long also and, uh, yeah, so he played entire of his life and just keep com- compose, teaching. And this was, was really important for the piano. And also, there one very interesting thing, he's so powerful and he always destroyed pianos.
Really?
So he made piano much stronger.
What?
Because he would beat them up.
Yeah, he beat them up big time. And then, so the modern piano was actually created based on his power of playing piano.
That's awesome. I had no idea.
Like in one of his recital, he broke five pianos.
That's crazy. Have you ever broken a piano?
I mean, not in that way because we're already in the modern time, right?
Yeah, but sometimes I may break some strings.
Yeah, by playing so hard?
Yeah, or something, you know.
But so far, not, I mean, yeah, thank God, it's not always happened.
Yeah, otherwise it would be very interesting.
Yeah, you get a bad reputation.
No, it's okay.
Well, that's cool. Wow, that was really, really a treat. Yeah. You just played Carnegie Hall?
Like this week?
Last night?
Last night, actually. Yeah, I played an interesting piece, the Bartok.
Piano Concerto number three. And he was kind of, in some of the work, he's almost like a rock musician.
Mm-hmm.
He put piano as a rocking roll or percussive, very heavy percussive instrument.
Yeah, so normally after you play his music, your fingernails is really getting fragile.
Yeah, it's like, you really, you really need to cut it.
It's the real destroyer for that.
Okay. And how long, like, you're playing the Bartok piece on this whole tour?
No, just partially, but it was with V and F Harmonic.
Yeah, so they, they actually wanted this piece.
That's beautiful.
Yeah, it's a really, really great, I never played this piece before, but I learned from this tour.
Mm-hmm. So you're doing the whole tour with that?
Yeah, it's seven concerts, but we're, we're already, yeah, we're only three left.
And I'll do my solo pieces.
Solo concert, solo recital tour, yeah.
Okay, great. Wow.
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Well, I'm so excited to try something together.
I don't know.
I really love your songs since many years, since your first album. That was such a big hit to the world.
It was such a special musical genius of making. 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.
Wow, thank you.
It was also a big impact on the classical music theme.
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 integrate or to connect. But when you come out, you get the every music genre, you know, kind of, they all understand what you're trying to do. It was really amazing, yeah.
That means a lot. Thank you. I feel like I just lucked out, you know? Very much so, but um, 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.
Yes, yes.
But that came out incredibly.
Thank you. Well, 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 "Turn Me On", which is on my first album.
Right.
I learned it from Nina Simone's version.
Ah.
Have you ever heard that? It's beautiful. Yeah. 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 cool choice.
Yeah. Yeah, so shall we?
Yeah, yeah. So I might play a little with you.
Please, please.
Is that okay?
Of course.
Is this okay, or?
No, please, please, yeah.
Waiting for you
To come on home And turn me on
Like the desert
Waiting for the rain
Like a school kid
Waiting for the spring
I'm just sitting here Waiting for you To come on home
And turn me on
And my poor heart
It's been so dark
Since you Since you've been gone
After all,
you're the one who turns me on.
You're the only one
who can turn me back on.
My high five is waiting
for a new tune.
My glass is waiting
for some fresh ice cubes. I'm just sitting here waiting for you
to come on
and turn me on.
Turn me on.
Nice. That was fun. Beautiful.
Thank you. That was just great work.
Oh my God, thank you. That was so wild and fun and different, you know? When you read music like this, do you look at the chord changes at all or you only?
Yeah, a little bit.
A little both?
Yeah, especially the second time.
When I get to know better.
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 sight read just...
Yeah, basically.
Yeah, you've been doing that forever, right?
That's what we, you know, as a classical pianist, you have to do this.
Totally.
Yeah, but I did learn something with Harvey Hancock.
Uh huh.
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, with the chords change and yeah.
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?
Yeah, I mean, this list may be a less, but if it's a Bach piece or like a Beethoven, you know, you, you have to think more about the counterpoint. You know, you need to think more like a composer.
Like how this, this change, like which the seventh or the, the third, you know, which chord you have to push more, because there's so many notes in,
in one passage. So you just need to highlighting the more dissonant.
Or consonant or, yeah, so this kind of, uh, kind of special moment, like you have to kind of point it out without really showing in a very obvious way. You know, but you need to point that out.
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.
The great things like to, to learn things from you is that, you know,
every time you, you play differently, you sing differently.
And, and as a classical musician, that we do have this quite a proper score.
Yeah, but every time when you're playing it, there's always slight way to, to go around it.
Otherwise it's the same.
Yeah, so you, I mean, you probably breathe with the music and sometimes you're breathing faster and sometimes you're breathing slower and, but do you change notes? Are you?
I mean, we are, we are not allowed to change most of the note.
Uh, only in, in some kind of like a cadenza part.
You can do slightly, but normally, I mean. I mean, if I change something from Beethoven, he will jump out in my dreams. I will never have a good dream and a good sleep anymore.
Exactly.
Yeah, but we do need to to find a way to to do slightly different every time.
So, yeah, but that's the same spirit.
Yeah. Because you have such a personality when you play.
And it's strong, you know, so.
I mean, I think the world doesn't want and every pianist sound the same.
Exactly, yeah.
You have to do something.
Well, I think I think when you break through and and what appeals to people is your specific personality, and that's across the board for music, I think, and any art, you know.
Any art form, yeah.
You have to be respectful, but you have to bring something that you are, you kind of, your special kind of style or something.
People are actually looking for that.
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it's beautiful.
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If you're a music fan, I've got a new podcast you have to check out. It's called Before the Moment, a new series hosted by the legendary Nile Rodgers. You know him as the producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of Chic. But in this series, he's hitting the road to sit down with some of today's most fascinating artists. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Nile explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything. Because every artist can point to that turning point, the moment before the breakthrough, before the success, before everything changed. Through candid conversations and personal stories, you'll hear what happened before the moment that made them who they are today.
Listen to Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series, on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You do all kinds of things. You have the foundation.
Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes, we have this foundation called the Lang Lang 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.
That's amazing.
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 outreach program or after-school program. We want to be integrated as the part of the curriculum
of the school. And so all the schools now we're working with, that we are actually bringing music education back
Great.
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 wanna to become a songwriter or movie composer, you know. So, I mean, some, some, maybe some kids do like to become a professional pianist, but it's more music in general, but using piano.
Okay, well, it's all laid out.
So it's easy to see. It's a great starting instrument.
Yeah. The problem in the past is that in the elementary schools, you have maybe just one piano in a big class, right? But now we have like twenty to thirty keyboards. So you can actually, everyone can play.
That's amazing. That's so great. Where was the first one?
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.
Oh, okay.
And then we went to Harlem. We did a Five schools there.
Oh, great.
Yeah, and then some part in in New Jersey. And now we have a we have a more than one hundred schools in the U S.
And more than hundred schools in China. And Europe, we have like twenty schools.
That's really beautiful.
Yeah, I think that's amazing. Did you, where did you grow up?
I grew up in China, uh, in um, in a very uh, industrial city. Uh huh. In the northeast, uh, called Xinjiang.
Yeah, but the good news was um, we had a conservatory in that city. And um, during the early uh, nineties, uh, when I was very, very young. And they they had many, like, international kind of piano festivals.
There there were a lot of wonderful uh, professors went to my home city to teach. Um, and I had, I had an amazing teacher, uh, uh, she came from Shanghai. So, and then uh, uh, at the age of nine, I moved to Beijing to uh, to the central conservatory.
To get serious?
Yeah, so that, yeah, to get really serious.
Age of nine? That's insane.
This is like how.
You know, how this kind of the system, you know, with the conservatory, right?
So you start quite young. Uh, and then I went to um, America at the age of fourteen.
Oh, wow.
There's great school in Philadelphia, uh, called the Curtis Institute.
Yeah, I've heard that.
Yeah, yeah, so that's how how I, yeah. So, so I, yeah, I spent my childhood in China. And then as a teenager, moved to the U S to to keep study.
Yeah, that's amazing. But you were quite young when you got serious, so.
So your school system, do you remember being little, you didn't learn it in school at all?
I did learn the regular music knowledge.
You had music in school?
Yes, yeah, which was good. But then, of course, very quickly, I went to the conservatory.
Yeah, okay.
Let's get down to business.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, then it's very good because it's a very professional way. The training, it was, yeah.
Really focused on the performance.
Which is quite important because if you're only training for the theory, which is good, but then you are a little bit behind of the techniques.
So this has to be balanced.
Yeah, so that's why the conservatory system was quite good for your early kind of professional training.
Yeah. It sounds like a wild, wild ride to me.
But it's really, I mean, it's very busy, you know.
Just not enough playing time, you know.
Got you.
Other fun, fun times.
Like the boot camp, right? Yeah.
Lot of, lot of serious practice.
Six hours a day.
That's insane.
Yeah, that seems like a lot, but you love it and it's part of you, you know?
Yeah, I mean, the majority of time, I loved it. But sometimes, you know, also as a kid, you're just like, I don't want to practice anymore.
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.
That's the problem.
Yeah, that's why I could never be a classical pianist. I don't practice enough, but, um, yeah, you know, when I was young, I learned, I ended up taking piano at a, at a community college in Texas, and they made you take two classes a week. One was your private lesson and one was theory.
Oh.
And we had whirletsers like this in the room. We had 12 whirletsers set up and everyone was learning theory. And it came up on a, 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 how to...
Wonderful.
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 take 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, it was actually, I realized how lucky I was to learn that so young. I had no idea at the time.
So that's, that's how you build up the composition skills, right?
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, I can think like that and then I can transpose. I feel like that'll help me with that.
Wow, that's great.
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.
Yeah. So there's, there's no wrong way to eat a Reese's, right?
That's why I'm not a composer.
Oh, I'm sure you could be though. I mean, you must hear music when you're sleeping that isn't real yet, right?
The thing is like, for, for me, there's so many great classical repertoire.
And then, I mean, in a way that we are so spoiled. You know, the thing is like never finish practicing those things.
You feel like you have to get to the end of it before you start composing? I don't think so. That's interesting.
Yeah. But if I have your talent, I probably will practice less and then compose more.
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.
But it's all come from the, the love for piano, right? That's, is this your first instrument, right?
I sang first.
Oh, you sing, okay.
There was a long time though, in my twenties, after my first album came out, where I sort of, I didn't wanna, oh, I had a hard time composing on piano in the beginning.
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 chord on the guitar.
It's easier to come up with a melody over it somehow. So I started writing more on guitar first.
But now I write on piano.
I see.
I had to simplify myself, sort of, you know, at the piano. But I don't know. Do you like the travel?
Yeah, it's okay, but if you always on the tour, always on the road, it's not very nice.
No.
It just, it's kind of not, kind of not normal somehow, right? It's like you're living in another world or something.
In a hotel.
Yeah, it's not, yeah. So when I'm off tour, I just, I just want to go home. So the people ask me, hey, do you want vacation? I don't want any vacation, I just want to stay at home.
It is hard to vacation when you tour a lot.
Yeah, it's like every second day, I'll be in a different city.
Yeah, you don't want to get on a plane and go somewhere.
I don't want another vacation for.
I get you.
For another hotel room stay.
Yeah. 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. Cause you have your core people that you choose.
And usually.
It's much more fun, yeah, I would say, I mean, it's.
I wouldn't do it if I hated the people I traveled with, probably. But yeah, to be that solitary seems difficult.
Yeah, for, yeah, for us, it's, it's not always the same people though.
So it's like, yeah, maybe only, only one or two people that you, you travel with.
But then it's always different.
And then you just play by yourself.
Yeah, that's tricky.
Unless you're very outgoing.
Yeah, right. I realize my friend.
Yeah, that would be hard. Yeah. All right, well, what do you think about this song? Yeah.
Pink Pony Club, yeah.
What do we, do you know this song?
This one I don't know as, as your song, you know, as the other one, yeah.
Okay. It just came out as an idea, but we don't have to do it, but I'm, I'd be happy to try.
Yeah, let's just try.
What do you think?
Yeah?
I've never done it either, so I thought this would.
No, I, 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.
Yeah, and a lot, a lot of sharps.
How do you feel about that?
I love it.
It just really gives a kind of drive, certain drive when you have more sharps.
It's a rare key, I feel like, for people to play, especially with the piano.
Yeah, and you can, this makes you count more.
I actually did prepare a little bit on the stage of Carnegie Hall.
You did not?
I did.
You played Pink Pony Club at Carnegie Hall?
Tried to get-
-a red note on the red sharp.
Did anybody know what you were doing? Does anybody say exactly?
I think they were busy setting up the stage.
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.
I know you wanted me to stay, but I can't ignore the crazy visions of me in L.A. And I heard that there's a special place where boys and girls can all be queens every single day. I'm having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee. Is Santa Monica, I swear it's calling me? Won't make my mama proud, it's gonna cause a scene.
She sees her baby girl, I know she's gonna scream, "God, what have you done? You're a pink pony girl and you dance at the club, oh mama." I'm just having fun on the stage in my heels. It's where I belong.
I'm up and jaws are on the floor. Lovers in the bathroom and a line outside the door. Black lights and a mirror disco ball. Each night, another reason why I left it all. I think my wicked dreams are here from Tennessee. Oh, Santa Monica, you've been too good to me. Won't make my mama proud. It's gonna cause a scene. She sees a baby girl, I know she's gonna scream.
"Mom, what have you done? You're a pink pony girl and you dance at the club now, mama." "Oh, I'm just having fun. I'm a stage in my heels. It's where I belong, down at the Pink Pony Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing down in West Hollywood. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club. Pink Pony Club."
Don't think I've left you all behind. Still love you in Tennessee. You're always on my mind.
And mama, every Saturday
I can hear your southern drawl A thousand miles away saying
"God, what have you done? You're a pink pony girl And you dance at the club now, mama." "I'm just having fun On stage in my heels It's where I belong, down at the Pink Pony Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing down in West Hollywood. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club.
Pink Pony Club, ooh. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club. I'm gonna keep on dancing down in West Hollywood. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club. Pink Pony Club, ooh. I'm gonna keep on dancing, ooh. I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club.
Pink Pony Club."
That was so fun! Oh my god! That was like, that gave me chills. That was so fun, you playing that song. Oh my god, how was that for you? I think it was great, first try. I thought it was great. I just love this song so much, and it's, um...
You have this ongoingness of, uh... It never stops.
It never stops. It's very cyclical, right? The chords? And then, um, the lyrics, I mean, it's such a deep story, 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, um, you know, when a song just tells a story in, uh, 3 minutes and 30 seconds, or however long it is.
This song has a lot of visual.
When you play, you can feel, there's a lot of things, like, you can really sense, right?
Yeah, yeah, I just love it. I love that you were up for doing it with me. 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, um, I love Chapel Rohn's voice, so... It was hard for me not to go with this.
You should.
Yeah, I should have. But, yeah, thanks for playing that with me. Yeah.
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So, your piano book two is out now. It's an album?
Yes, it's an album with thirty-two miniature of masterful pieces. From Chopin's "Nocturne" to Rachmaninoff's "Prolude," Beethoven variations. And also two songs like Marocconi, "Paradiso," or "Lullaby Land."
Oh, cool.
Yeah, and even some Japanese anime.
Fun. Oh, there's so much good music out there, yeah.
I'm trying to get all sorts of piano music.
And also some new compositions from today's composer, like Toni An, this "Icarus," very cool piece.
Amazing. Yeah. Yeah, there must be so, so much to explore, right?
Yeah, this is the good thing about piano, that this is, it doesn't need to be long pieces. But somehow, whether it's Mozart, Rondo, or Bach, "Prolude," or something from Hans Zimmer or something, it is always, there's always some sort of connected.
Ideas behind.
Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Well, this has been a joy.
Thank you, Nora.
Really to come here and to feel your great voice and feelings, you know, and this is very intimate.
Oh, yeah. It is very intimate. It's not for everyone. Yeah, and I'm just staring at you. Well, thank you for playing my piano.
My pleasure.
Yeah, I'm playing with me. It was great.
You were the perfect guest. Thank you.
Thank you, really. Amazing.
Good. Thank you so much.
Amazing experience.
So fun, yeah. How are we? I'm like, the screen is blacked out, so I can't... Oh, yeah.
Orange, sorry.
We wanted, well, 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.
You, yes. I love that.
But I mean, the good thing about the orange is that you can go like turn on.
But it's also can be pretty precise.
Yeah, because it's just one little spot.
Yeah, it's much easier than banana.
I tried in different fruit. Apple was not so bad either.
It gets bruised too easily, right?
This is the best.
Really, orange is really by far the best instrument.
You have to tell me how you came up with it.
Okay, so this was actually, it's not my invention. It's somebody who I love so much, a great pianist and conductor, Daniel Baramoy. And he's a very serious musician. And so he always gave 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 on very serious Schubert sonata, you know, so... And then he went back to the kitchen. I thought he's going to eat some orange to, you know, to get more vitamins or something. So he came out, he said, "Do you know how to play Chopin Black Key A tune?"
You know, this is the piece which is...
You know.
This is.
Oh, true.
Yeah, yeah. Everything from the Blackie.
And I played this piece so much as a kid to practice to get into the concert. But three. And I said, of course, I know the piece. So I start playing. And he had, stop, so bad. I said, what happened? I was like, I couldn't even play this piece after so many hours of practice. He said, let me show you.
It's hilarious.
Yeah, I mean, this from this such a serious musician. And then comes with this incredible hilarious.
That's a very long joke.
Yeah. And I was like, oh, OK, got it.
That's great.
So I learned really big deal. And then I show it everywhere.
That's so fun.
Yeah, from some point, but not recently.
Yeah, well, thanks for humoring.
So I see the orange, I know what to do.
Yeah, you see it, you know exactly what we're gonna ask you to do. Yeah, awesome. Cool. Yay. That was awesome.
That 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.
And no big deal that he was practicing that at Carnegie Hall the night before.
Oh, yeah, I love that.
That's not completely hilarious.
He practiced it in soundshakes so that he could do it.
Amazing.
He's great, and I had so much fun doing that. Um, OK, I'm gonna say this as best as I can, but the first song he performed was called Consolations S172, number two in E major. Un poco pui mosso. Composer Franz Liszt, performed and recorded by Longlong from Piano Book Two, which was released in 2025. The second song we did was Turn Me On. I recorded that on my first album, and it's a J.D. Louder Milk song. And it's also very well known for being a song that Nina Simone did. The third song we did was Pink Pony Club by Chapel Rohn from The Rise. And Fall of a Midwest Princess, released in 2023. Love that song.
Special thanks to Long Long for joining us today. We'll be back next week with Aruj Aftab. Norah Jones is playing along is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Nora Jones' channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your I'm your host, Hora Jones.
I'm your host, Norah Jones. I'm your host, Norah Jones. Recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry. Audio post-production and mastering by Greg Tobler. Artwork by Eliza Frye. Photography by Sherwin Lenez. Produced by Norah Jones and Sarah Oda. Executive producers, Aaron Wong Kaufman and Jordan Runtog. Marketing lead, Alison Cantor-Graeber. Serious side effects include a happy heart. Thanks for joining us.
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Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated