Norah Jones Is Playing Along Norah Jones

Ms. Jone’s podcast is my best podcast find of 2023, and I found *many* awesome podcasts in 2023! Since I first found Playing Along, I’ve listened to nearly every episode you’ve put out and enjoyed every one of them—even the suggestions episode you and Ms. Oda did together was a great listen! Yes, it’s great fun to listen to musicians and how you all approach your work. I love jazz. I used to live 15 minutes drive from Yoshi’s Oakland and spent a decade hearing many amazing jazz musicians. But a dozen or so years ago, I moved to a rural town many hours’ drive from the nearest jazz club and I desperately miss going to live jazz performances. What I love most about “Playing Along” is the wonderful improvisational vibe, no matter the musical genre the guest favors!

I’m not a musician nor do I have any musical talent. In my working life, I was a software engineer and systems analyst for over twenty years. My job often involved coordinating efforts in large projects and connecting the voice of the ultimate users of our projects’ efforts to my software-engineering coworkers. After 22 years of that, I went back to grad school in Environmental Sciences and I now teach and research in biology and how my biology research relates to research across economics, politics, engineering, and other aspects of the Environmental Sciences. The common thread throughout my working life is collaboration and helping make a space where that collaboration can take place. None of what I’ve done in my life is anything like the world of music presented by this podcast. So I also love this podcast because Ms. Jones and Ms. Oda have created the most amazing master class in collaboration I can ever imagine! Thank you so, so much for this!!!!

Who would I like to hear on the podcast? I’m among the many who would love to hear Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt playing together. Lana Del Rey would be fabulous—I first found Ms. Del Rey’s music through my students and would love to get broader sense of who she is. Hearing Norah Jones and Diana Krall would be the very best! I adored the episode with Quest Love and Christian McBride—other combos like that forming impromptu trios would be utterly amazing! And I would also love to hear Norah Jones with Jim Campilongo—I went to grammar school with Jim and would love to hear him chatting and making music with Norah! In your “suggestions” podcast, you and Ms. Oda talked about how elaborate your job producing these podcasts is. Could you do an episode that takes us inside how that production works? It might be just too wonky for most peoples’ interests, but I’d love to hear more about how you go through that process! And maybe in some future episodes, highlight some of the interesting sidewomen/sidemen you’ve played with—folks we wouldn’t ordinarily hear much about.

One last thought. Have you ever done that mental game of imagining who would be sitting around your ideal dinner-party table? Norah Jones and Sarah Oda are definitely sitting at that imaginary table!

This podcast was one of my highlights last year. I hope it returns! I loved the musical creativity and collaboration and the casual banter. Thanks for all the hard work!

I love this podcast so much because I learn something new with each guest Nora duets with. Nora and her guests pull back the curtain and I discover artists I never would have known about and how talented they are, or I learn about pop/country/hip-hop/jazz history that I had not known before. I live for the nuggets of wisdom and music history they dish out. I am here for the name dropping and the exquisite musical performances. I love the relaxed vibe. Nothing is rushed. It plays out like it should. Very entertaining and worth my time.