You are a terrific jazz musician
and I'm bringing this up for a reason.
I think to understand Jeff Goldblum,
which is impossible,
but to really understand what makes this man tick,
I think, is your love of jazz.
You are constantly improvising in the moment
and tuned into that crazy galaxy
that real jazz musicians are tuned into.
And a good friend of mine just went
and saw you perform the other night
and said that you were fantastic.
Really? Yes.
That's very nice. That's very encouraging.
Thank you.
Yeah, we played the Disney Concert Hall.
Yes. Oh my God.
Two, a couple nights ago.
Wow. Ah.
But what I'm saying is,
am I correct, that there's something about music.
I just feel like you're in tune
with some jazz musical score all the time.
Yeah, yeah.
Is that, do you think that?
And this is a compliment by the way.
Thank you so much.
I like, well, I aspire to it.
I'm a humble student of jazz
and of the technology of presence
in all its various ramifications
in the podcast world, in the jazz world,
in the musical world and everything.
Oh, I had thought by the way, aren't there,
hasn't anybody sung songs,
a snippet of song about friendship?
As you're still looking for friends?
By the way, how many friends do you need?
You've been looking for,
how long have you been looking for friends now?
How many of you found by this time?
Zero. Well Jeff,
they don't often take, that's the problem.
Oh.
(Sona laughing)
I am,
I don't wear well over time.
That's one of the problems.
(Sona laughing)
Yeah, but I feel that we are, you know,
sometimes plants they have to graft.
They have to graft into each other is what you're saying.
Yes, I'm right there with you.
I think we have...
We need to graft into each other.
Yes, we need to very, very much.
Yeah, but think of,
do you know any songs about friends, friendship?
Well, the song that, you know, "We Are Gonna Be Friends"
that White Stripes did,
Jack White. Jack White.
He's a good friend of mine
and that's the song I wanted. Name dropper.
(everybody laughing)
Call back, call back. He wrote the song
with Jeff Altman. Oh, Jeff Altman.
Robert Altman, sorry. Damn it.
Anyway, my point is that that's a friendship song
and that's actually one of my favorite friendship songs.
How's it go? Does that have lyrics?
Does the thing you play...
♪ Fall is here ♪
♪ Hear the yell ♪
You sing like a nightingale, I love your voice.
When, you know not doing (speaking gibberish).
You really like my voice?
When you're not doing that you have a beautiful,
authentic, conversational, delightful voice.
Can I say something? You must.
I'm always so self-conscious that I put trills
and foolishness in there.
But you just And I never just sing.
You just sang
and I loved it. Yes.
♪ Silent night ♪
No. Oh, is that?
You're gonna do a thing.
♪ Holy night ♪
♪ All is calm ♪
Yeah, he's doing it.
No, it's doing it again, right?
Yeah.
♪ All is bright ♪
Try to take all the... Can't do it.
The minute I start that the vibrato out of it.
♪ Sleep ♪
No, no. See?
I mean, you can't be normal.
You were just singing, so sing that.
Whatever you wanna sing like the other voice,
that's it.
Uh, let's see.
♪ You've got a friend ♪
Oh no, I can't sing that song.
How about the Jason Isbell song you
sang to us that time. Yeah.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
How's that go?
It goes,
♪ Never could be happy in the city at night ♪
That's beautiful.
Yeah.
♪ Can't see the stars for the neon lights ♪
Beautiful.
♪ Sidewalks dirty and the rivers worse ♪
♪ Underground trains all run in reverse ♪
♪ Nobody here can dance like me ♪
♪ Everybody claps on the one and the three ♪
♪ Am I the last of my kind ♪
That's the song.
Very moving. Very beautiful. Very nice.
Wow. Boy, you should do,
you should do a whole album of songs that way.
I'd love to hear you do that.
He can't do it. I can't do it.
I just wanna say,
you two are just locked in eye contact.
I know. But can I
tell you something?
Can I tell you something, Jeff?
I couldn't,
and I'm supposed to
and I want to write a song with Aimee Mann.
Yeah, I love Aimee Mann.
We've talked about it. I adore Aimee Mann.
I do too. And I'm intimidated
by Aimee Mann's talent,
but we promised to write a song together.
And then the last thing she said to me,
I said, yeah I'll do it.
And she said, you know, it's just gotta be something sincere
and something that you really wanna say.
And I was like, oh. Yeah.
Oh, that's not gonna happen.
You could do it. You could do it.
No, I can't. No, he can't.
Sona, will you tell them, please?
Take over. No.
I was on the edge of my seat
the entire time you were singing,
'cause I thought he was gonna go into some bit
and, like, do something with your voice.
Things eventually become a bit.
They, it's a bit, you're like, joking around.
Well, who knows where it will be consumed
or how it should be presented
but just for your own, just do it.
I'd love to hear it,
just for me. Yeah, me too.
And for Sona and for us, I'd love to hear you do it.
And you don't have to jettison
your comedic force of nature.
You could be surprising and do one like that.
And one like that, and one like that.
But that's a very useful part of your toolbox.
In my own opinion.
And a very enjoyable one.