Consider This from NPR - Play It Forward: A Musical Chain Of Gratitude

Episode Date: November 26, 2020

What began as a Thanksgiving tradition five years ago for NPR host Ari Shapiro is now a recurring segment on All Things Considered. Play It Forward is a musical chain of gratitude.Shapiro starts the chain with an artist he's thankful for, and then that musician chooses someone they're thankful for, and it continues onward with each artist choosing the next link in the chain. This episode features interviews with John Mayer, Leikeli47, Indigo Girls and Kae Tempest. Listen to all the Play It Forward interviews here. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I've had a Thanksgiving tradition going back years now, since long before I was a full-time NPR host. Thanksgiving was the day I would fill in, guest hosting NPR's evening news program, All Things Considered. And back when I started, the show would always do an extra-long performance chat with a musician, special for Thanksgiving Day. Here's a bit of my first chat. It was with John Mayer in 2013. We've got a lightning round for you. What's your favorite Thanksgiving food? Favorite Thanksgiving food, stuffing.

What's your favorite chord? It was probably like an E minor 11 or something at some point. It was like... It's nice. And sure, part of this was just like a way to fill a show on a notoriously slow news day. But it was also a way to give listeners a break from the drumbeat of wars, politics, and job numbers. Now, no offense to John Mayer, but not every NPR listener is a fan. And frankly, that's going to be true of any musician we talk to. So I wondered if we could create a Thanksgiving Day music segment that didn't spend half an hour with just one artist. And so in 2015, we launched a new tradition that seemed appropriate for the

holiday, a musical chain of gratitude. I would like to say thank you. I've learned a lot from you. I just really appreciate your music and your talent. Keep making music. I really like this. We're so honored that your voice is present in our world. I would ask an artist to choose someone they were thankful for who looked and sounded different from them. And then we would go to that person and continue the chain. Consider this. Every musician hopes their art touches someone else. Now we get to hear what it sounds like when those artists

learn who they've inspired. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Thursday, November 26th. Happy Thanksgiving. Frogs pooping beetles, featherless flying reptiles, stinky chatty cheese. We got it all on Wow in the World, the NPR podcast for kids. I'm Mindy Thomas, inviting you to join me and Guy Raz for an animated scientific adventure of the mind. It's Wow in the World from Tinkercast and NPR. Listen now. It's Consider This from NPR. So every Thanksgiving day, we've strung together a series of audio thank you notes with each musician passing on an appreciation to the next. And some of these connections are really surprising.

Like in 2019, when I talked to a young rapper named Lakely 47. Lakely 47 talked about how grateful she is for the music of Chick Corea, a pianist in his late 70s. One of his most well-known pieces is Spain, which he wrote in 1971, long before like Haley 47 was even born. It was just something that was just always on repeat and still is for myself. Do you hear that? Tell us what effect this is having on you right now. Oh my God. I can't describe the feeling of my heart right now. I just can't. She told me about listening to the song at her great-grandmother's house when she was a little kid.

You know, she would nap or whatever, and then that's when I would hit play. And I would just sit on that porch, and I would just listen over and over and over and over, and it was just like, yeah, this is what I want to do. Have you ever met Chick Corea? No. No. Well, what would you like to say to him now? Sir, there's a lot that I could say to you, but nothing beats thank you at this moment right now. You have helped shape a little black girl from Virginia. You know, her mind, her mental, her creativity, her musical palette. Thank you for being an awesome teacher from From your student, Lekaylee47.

And then we went to Chick Corea, who was just so moved to hear that somebody so different from him connected so deeply with his music. It's a testament to all of us as artists that we're able to connect like that, that we're able to connect on a wavelength of creativity. And, you know, I don't see the differences in the forms of music so much. So that was last year.

And then this year, we broke the concept out of the Thanksgiving Jell-O mold and created a running series called Play It Forward. And we've got one installment of that series now. It begins with the folk-pop duo The Indigo Girls talking about why they're grateful for a British spoken word poet and rapper one installment of that series now. It begins with the folk-pop duo the Indigo Girls talking about why they're grateful for a British spoken word poet and rapper named Kay Tempest. I touched the beginning, animating animals and tree gods, scratching out legends in cave walls. We recorded these conversations with the Indigo Girls and Kay Tempest a while ago,

and since then Kay Tempest put out a statement saying they are going by the name Kay now and using they them pronouns. Kay and their team have given us permission to air these interviews as they were recorded. Here's Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. I find that I have catharsis when I listen to her and read her words. I hear hope in them. The willingness for her to be so vulnerable makes me hopeful. And the willingness for her to love humanity through the darkness makes me hopeful. And Kate Tempest joins us now from London. Thank you for being here. Welcome to Play It Forward.

Thanks for having me. I'm really happy to be here. Well, what's your reaction to what we just heard from the Indigo Girls to start? I feel honored that people are paying such close attention to my work. I felt like what they were saying about the hope and the vulnerability, the willingness to feel vulnerable being a sign of hope. It's just a beautiful, perceptive thing to notice. What can I say? I feel lucky. I know the days are reeling past in such squealing blasts, but stop for breath and you will know it's yours. They specifically mentioned your

willingness to love humanity through the darkness. Does that come naturally to you, or do you have to work at finding that love in spite of the darkness? I think that it's hard work. It's a process and it's a practice. It demands a certain amount of a kind of willingness to defeat the parts of you that want to go first to despair or want to go first to hurt or distrust, to actually try and override that. I mean, it's a mark of my privilege that I'm in a position that I can do that. So it's definitely important that I acknowledge that. I mean, it's a mark of my privilege that I'm in a position that I can do that. So it's definitely important that I acknowledge that. But at the same time, it's something that

I try and live by for sure. And that's why it's so much of my work is about it because so much of my life is about trying to find that balance. It's not easy for sure when you get annoyed with people. I mean, like, what does the practice involve it's about looking again it's basically allowing yourself or in fact demanding that you notice and feel and tune into the idea that every single other person is existing at as ferocious a frequency as you are empathy is about hearing other people's stories before telling your own and just having an awareness of that at all times. But it's so hard. We've got our heads down and our hackles up,

our backs against the wall. I can feel your heart racing. None of this was written in stone. The current's fast, but the river moves slow and I can feel things changing. For me personally, it's about noticing particular attention. And as soon as I pay particular attention to anything, like a really mundane household object,

suddenly becomes something that's extremely beautiful and is full of life and has a lot to teach me. I mean, I say that because I'm looking at a coffee pot. I'm like, can I feel that about this? I think it has to be a living thing. I just heard myself say that because I'm looking at a coffee pot. I'm like, can I feel that about this? I think it has to be a living thing. I just heard myself say that. I was like, oh, I'm going a bit far there. It has to be a person.

I mean, it reminds me of the lyrics of the song People's Faces. I mean, the last line is, I love people's faces. And it speaks directly to what you're describing right now. I love people's faces. Yeah, that's it. For sure sure that's like the truest the truest line it's a mad thing because I spend my entire life putting words together and then I feel like that particular line is just the closest I've ever come to telling just the clearest truth that I could that's that is it I love people's faces. That's pretty much it. Europe is lost.

America lost. London lost. Still we are clamoring victory. All that is meaningless rules. We have learned nothing from history. The people are dead in their lifetimes, dazed in the shine of the street. The Indigo Girls called you a prophetess.

And I read an interview that you did with the Guardian. Yeah, it's all right wear that title there was an interview you did with a guardian in 2017 and you said we're in a terrible situation in this country meaning the uk and i don't think any of us are quite prepared for what the next few years might bring that was three years ago and when i read that i thought wow prophetess is the right word. How have you been adjusting to this new reality that we're all living in that none of us could have anticipated three years ago? Interesting question.

Well, the first thing to say is that for writers, we pay extreme attention. This is what I'm saying about this decision to pay particular attention. And when you do that, what you access is the present. But what it looks like and what it reads like is prescience. It looks like you're talking of the future, but actually you're just paying attention to the present. And it happens all the time when you read novels or when you listen to lyrics by people that are just afflicted

with the burden of being somebody who notices in such sharp frequencies what's going on, and then you explain it and you get it out of you. It seems like you're talking about a future, but you're not. You're just describing the moment. Well, Kate Tempest, it's your turn to play it forward. Who would you like to tell us about, a musician who you appreciate, who you feel grateful for?

I would like to appreciate and show my gratitude to Leanne Le Havre. Tell us about her. Why did you choose her? There is something that happens when I hear her sing, which is so uplifting. Do you still love me? Don't have much to say Let's speak in the morning I feel like the way that she selects melody and the way that she embodies those melodies, her guitar playing, the placement of the breath in the lines that she sings,

I just find it extremely uplifting and healing. And I think she's one of these people, they have put all of this effort into making it appear effortless. What song of hers can we play to introduce listeners to that beauty that you're describing? Do you know what? I was lucky enough to be at the Albert Hall when she did a gig, like a kind of homecoming gig in London. And she did a cover version just with her on the guitar

singing Aretha Franklin's Say a Little Prayer. Here it goes. I mean, that's a challenging song to cover, right? But it was such a beautiful moment. What would you like to say to her? I'd like to say thank you for making me feel less alone in the world and for putting your heart into everything you sing and play. And I'd like to say thanks for all your music. A note of gratitude from Kay Tempest this Thanksgiving.

Forever and ever, you stay in my heart and I will love you forever. There is a link to all the Play It Forward episodes, including Leanne Mahavas, in our show notes. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.