Suleika Jaouad

And I refused and I refused and I refused.

And about a week before tour, I finally said yes.

But at that point, there wasn't time to practice.

There wasn't time for lessons.

And I realized that actually that was the point, was to return to this thing that I love, to do it in collaboration with this person I love without using perfection or excellence as a shield.

to be out of tune or not and to have fun anyway.

And those first couple of shows, Monica, I was so scared to play

imperfectly, sometimes even badly on stage in front of thousands of people, in front of my husband, who is a very good musician.

Like a Grammy-winning musician?

Yeah.

It's like a kind of exposure therapy that I'm not interested in.

And by the end...

of that tour, I was improvising.

I was having fun.

I was still often out of tune.

And I felt so free.

So we haven't done something with music and painting, but we are always collaborating with each other, even just privately.

And John is someone, as a jazz musician, whose first language is improvisation.

And I am someone, as a classical musician, who's all about technique and preparation and practice.

And I think we meet each other in the middle.