Every artist has learned to deal with a certain degree of stage fright. While being afraid of playing in front of millions of people may seem daunting at first, it’s all about using that pent-up energy and channelling it through one’s instrument, which works wonders in the context of any good concert. Live performance might be second nature, but Norah Jones had a daunting experience playing songs inside George Harrison’s house.
Then again, there’s more to the piano balladeer that connects with George Harrison than most realise. While anyone born within the past half-century has seen any of The Beatles as a musical god, Jones’ father, Ravi Shankar, had already been seen by Harrison as one of his ultimate musical idols.
As Harrison grew out of traditional rock and roll around the time of Rubber Soul, he became fascinated with the idea of using Eastern instruments. Gravitating to Shankar’s music, Harrison would become a student of Eastern music theory and personal philosophies, adopting the mantra-driven beliefs of Hare Krishna.
Once Shankar had Jones in 1979, she quickly became enamoured with music as well. Although Shankar’s genre was modelled after classical Indian instruments like sitars and tablas, Jones took to the Western side of music, becoming extremely skilled on the piano after picking it up as a child.
Before she started thinking of music as a career, though, Jones visited Harrison at Friar Park, where she became friendly with his son, Dhani. Although it’s no small feat for any artist to try their hand at impressing a Beatle in their own home, Jones also realised the history behind the piano that she was playing.
Arriving completely jetlagged, Jones walked up to the piano, only to realise that it belonged to another former Beatle, telling SiriusXM, “He asked me to play for him because my dad told him that I was this piano player, and I was like okay because I just was like, you know, I knew who he was at that point, of course, so I sat down at this piano which now I know – I didn’t at the time, but I think it was one of John Lennon’s pianos”.
While it’s unclear whether this was the same white piano that Lennon had featured in his video for ‘Imagine’, Jones found the way into Harrison’s heart by performing some of his favourite songs. Rather than do what any kid does trying to hash out the beginning of ‘Chopsticks’, Jones performed the song ‘The Nearness of You’ by Hoagy Carmichael, who had been a favourite of Harrison’s ever since he was a kid.
For any of Harrison’s family, this was far from the first time the song radiated through the halls. In addition to including songs like ‘Hong Kong Blues’ and ‘Baltimore Oriole’ on his album Somewhere in England, Dhani would reminisce about his old man playing every Carmichael song he could think of on the ukulele until dawn. While no artist these days would be able to play in front of a former Beatle without having some kind of strong reaction, Jones just saw Harrison as a good friend of her father’s with a warm spirit and an undying passion for music.
