Nora the Piano-playing Cat

I saw Nora on YouTube and wanted to sign her immediately. I didn’t even know she had so many viewers. Didn’t find that out until later. All I knew was the cat was playing the piano! She fit in perfectly with all of our other animal artistes. We’d already signed Carla the parrot, Koko the gorilla, done a CD with an animal communicator for dogs and worked with Pink River Dolphins. The only thing we hadn’t done was work with a cat and there she was tickling the ivories.

I contacted Nora’s guardians – Besty Alexander and Burnell Yow!. We signed Nora immediately and began creating the music based on Nora’s piano playing. We had already performed with Carla the parrot and now we were backing up a cat. It may sound strange, but it beats working with a lot of the human performers we’ve worked with.

One of the things I really liked about Nora was the fact she actually preferred playing on a Yamaha piano. Betsy has two pianos (she’s a piano teacher among other things) and Nora always goes for the Yamaha. I’m a Baldwin man myself, but it really tickled me that Nora preferred the Yamaha. Obviously a cat of distinction and good taste – musically that is. She also has very good posture when she plays. Obviously she pays attention when Betsy’s giving lessons.

We released Nora’s Song on a CD called Cat On The Keys and it’s starting to do well so we are working on another song with Nora – one that hasn’t been seen on YouTube or anywhere else – it’s going to be a morning drive time tune.

The only problem with Nora is she’s a real diva and absolutely refuses to travel anywhere. Period. Jay Leno and the Tonight show are out. The only thing left for us to do is a music video, which we’re working on as I write this


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Nora and her CD are a big hit in Japan. Who’da thought? She’s been on quite a few television programs there and the Japanese seem to like her and her music a lot. It’s hard for us to tell because we don’t speak Japanese, but that’s what we’ve been told.

We’re trying sign Gibson, the World’s Tallest Dog (who says an “I Love You” you wouldn’t believe. If we’re successful and release a CD with him singing we’re hoping to achieve our ultimate goal with both Gibson and Nora – a duet – just like K.D. Lang and Tony Bennett. Gibson The Big Dog and Nora the Piano-Playing Cat. Too much fun.

I’ll be back with more about Nora as her story unfolds. We’re waiting to hear from Yamaha to see if Nora and her song are going to get an endorsement deal – remember, she’s prefers Yamaha pianos.

Gotta go. I’m heading out the door to see if we can sign Ray Charles parrot who happens to live just down the street from me here in Laurel Canyon.

Nora's bio - for those of you who are interested. It’s the classic American success story. From being an orphan to being a star. Sort of warms your heart:

Nora was adopted as a kitten in 2004 from a cat shelter in Cherry Hill, NJ. She is a gray domestic short hair with a Classic Tabby pattern, sometimes called a bulls-eye pattern because of the large circles on her sides. Her parents, Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow!, are both artists and musicians and live in Philadelphia, PA with Nora and their five other cats: Miro, Max, Gabby, Clara, and Rennie. As a kitten, Nora showed an immediate interest in the piano, which consisted of laying around, under or on it during Betsy's lessons with her many private students. Then one day Nora jumped up on the piano bench, sat in perfect posture with both paws on the keys, and began to play notes. She was just one-year-old. She has played almost every day for the last two years, and loves to play duets with Betsy's students.

All the beasts
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