Podcasts by The Third Story with Leo Sidran
THE THIRD STORY features long-form interviews with creative people of all types, hosted by musician Leo Sidran. Their stories of discovery, loss, ambition, identity, risk, and reward are deeply moving and compelling for all of us as we embark on our own creative journeys.
Further podcasts by Leo Sidran
Podcast on the topic Musik
All episodes
263: Pete Min from 2023-12-05T16:02
Pete Min is a recording engineer, producer and label owner based in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. His label Colorfield Records features artful collaborative explorations with musicians in u...
Listen262: Clyde and Gracie Lawrence from 2023-11-16T05:06
Siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence have been making music together since they were little kids. They say there was never a moment when it switched from something they did for fun to so...
Listen261: Joey Alexander from 2023-11-03T04:00
Born in Bali, Indonesia, Joey Alexander has been performing professionally since 2013 when he was invited by Wynton Marsalis to perform at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala. He was 10 ye...
Listen260: Todd Sickafoose from 2023-10-19T04:00
Bassist and composer Todd Sickafoose shows up in a lot of places: on stage with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco or drummer Allison Miller, behind the scenes as a record producer for art...
Listen259: Alan Lightman from 2023-10-12T11:36
Alan Lightman is a physicist, writer (of novels, essays, memoir and science texts), and social entrepreneur. For this unusual episode, his interview served as inspiration for an origin...
Listen258: Gregory Hutchinson from 2023-10-03T04:05
Gregory "Hutch" Hutchinson is one of the most highly regarded and highly recorded jazz drummers on the planet. Part of what makes him so special is that he sits at the crossroads of the old scho...
Listen257: John "J.R." Robinson from 2023-09-20T04:00
John “J.R.” Robinson is one of the most recorded drummers in history (some say he is the most recorded drummer) . He is the drummer on 20 number-one pop songs by artists such as Michae...
Listen256: Jake Lamar from 2023-09-13T04:00
Writer Jake Lamar talks about growing up in the Bronx, his lifelong love affair with writing, moving to France in the 90s, his career as a novelist, playwright, and cultural critic in Paris, and...
Listen255: Warren Zanes from 2023-09-06T04:00
41 years ago this month, Bruce Springsteen released his sixth studio album, Nebraska. He recorded much of the album on one winter night, sitting on the edge of the bed in a rented house...
Listen254: Prateek Kuhad from 2023-08-22T04:00
When Prateek Kuhad moved from India to New York to study economics, there would have been almost no predicting that he would soon become one of the most popular singer songwriters in I...
Listen253: Ben Sidran at 80 from 2023-08-14T16:17
For the fifth consecutive year I interview my father on his birthday. This year he’s turning 80 and I surprise him with reflections and anecdotes by friends and colleagues from throughout his ca...
Listen252: Laila Biali from 2023-07-27T04:00
Singer, pianist and songwriter Laila Biali recently released Your Requests, built around a collection of songs from the Great American Songbook that were requested by her fans. After a ...
Listen251: Scenes from the Montreal Jazz Festival 2023 from 2023-07-14T04:20
Conversations on community, artificial intelligence, identity, fan engagement, healthy living, life on the road and more, recorded at the 2023 Montreal International Jazz Festival. Featuring Mic...
Listen250: Brandee Younger from 2023-06-27T04:00
When it comes to instruments that are not easily designed for improvising soloists, there is perhaps none more difficult to handle than the harp. And when it comes to contemporary jazz...
Listen249: Theo Katzman from 2023-06-13T13:15
Multi instrumentalist singer-songwriter Theo Katzman (known for his work with the funk band Vulfpeck) bought a van from a teenager in California and drove across the country, settling ...
Listen248: Ben Wendel from 2023-05-17T04:15
For saxophonist Ben Wendel, the pandemic provided the space for him to develop his latest solo record, All One (Edition Records), a project that is both very solitary and very collabor...
Listen247: Beth Nielsen Chapman from 2023-05-02T17:30
Beth Nielsen Chapman is a songwriter’s songwriter. She began writing before she had any idea that it could be a career; it was just something that came naturally to her. When she first...
Listen246: Vijay Iyer from 2023-04-11T11:00
Pianist-composer Vijay Iyer has been described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural ...
Listen245: Christian McBride from 2023-03-29T14:53
To say Christian McBride is prolific is both obvious and an understatement. The list of his projects is too long to fit neatly into any one container - he’s a musician, an educator, a ...
Listen244: Samara Joy from 2023-03-22T12:28
Accepting her Grammy award for Best New Artist last month, Samara Joy looked out at a sea of faces that she had grown up admiring and said, “I’ve been watching y’all on TV for so long…...
Listen243: What's Trending from 2023-03-07T22:59
This week on the Third Story Podcast I’m turning the tables on myself and sharing the stories and the creative process behind my new record What’s Trending. Featuring excerpts of past episodes w...
Listen242: Braxton Cook from 2023-02-21T16:49
While almost everyone is sharing the most polished and curated versions of themselves, Braxton Cook is asking “Who Are You When No One Is Watching?”
Actually, as it tu...
Listen241: Andy Narell from 2023-02-08T05:00
Music is not only a form of expression, it’s also a way of traveling. It’s astounding how many people’s lives have been completely transformed by their relationship with music - and so...
Listen240: Will Page (Tarzan Economics) from 2023-01-24T17:18
239: Rachael&Vilray from 2023-01-10T05:15
Rachael & Vilray are a perfect example of the idea that sometimes what that once seemed old fashioned can actually resonate as new again. Their new record ...
Listen238: Best of The Third Story on The Art of the Story, 2022 from 2022-12-27T15:01
A collection of Art of the Story pieces for WBGO News by Leo Sidran / The Third Story Podcast from 2022, including coverage of the Montreal and Umbria jazz festiv...
Listen237: The Ones That Got Away (2022 Holiday Edition) from 2022-12-21T21:56
Every year, The Third Story collects more interviews and conversations than we are able to publish as full episodes, and 2022 was certainly no exception. Finally, we have found a solution: THE ...
ListenLarry Goldings Revisited from 2022-12-13T19:58
What's so funny about Larry Goldings?
He has been such a major musical force for so long, it’s hard to remember a time when he was not around. He’s one of...
Listen235: Antonio Sanchez from 2022-12-01T14:34
When drummer Antonio Sanchez released his album Bad Hombre back in 2017, he...
Listen234: Ibrahim Maalouf from 2022-11-15T16:02
When Ibrahim Maalouf’s parents decided to move to Paris from Beirut in the early 1980s, it was meant to be temporary. The Lebanese civil war was raging and they c...
ListenJorge Drexler from 2022-11-01T13:23
Jorge Drexler started out as a doctor in Uruguay but eventually emigrated to Spain to try his luck in music. 30 years later, he is widely considered to be one of ...
Listen233: Tyshawn Sorey from 2022-10-04T04:00
Multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Tyshawn Sorey on his latest recordings (Mesmerism Listen
232: Daniel Lanois from 2022-09-20T18:49:22
As one of the most acclaimed and influential producers of the modern era, Daniel Lanois helmed iconic albums for everyone from Bob Dylan and Neil Young to U2 and ...
ListenRemembering Peter Straub from 2022-09-13T11:00:41
Peter Straub was the best selling author of novels, short stories, novellas and essays. He passed away earlier this month at the age of 79.
Peter started out with drea...
Listen231: Cyrille Aimée from 2022-09-06T14:15:37
Long before singer Cyrille Aimée spent any time on the road she was already a citizen of the world. She grew up in a small French town, Samois-sur-Seine, but says...
ListenCreed Taylor from 2015 from 2022-08-30T16:07:10
Creed Taylor was an inspiration to generations of music lovers. He was behind some of the greatest records ever made. He passed away on August 22 at the age of 93.
For forty years, ...
Louis Cato from 2018 from 2022-08-23T05:03:27
Earlier this month Stephen Colbert made an announcement about his band. Jon Batiste would be leaving and Louis Cato would be the new musical director.
For some, Louis...
Listen230: Ben Sidran at 79 from 2022-08-14T13:52:55
For the fourth year in a row, I talked to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Listen
229: John Medeski from 2022-08-09T04:00:07
For John Medeski, music has always been about healing. "Music just kind of sucked me up," he says. "For me having music was a great way to deal with the hard thin...
ListenNoga Erez from 2020 from 2022-08-02T04:00:44
Israeli singer Noga Erez thinks about the fallacy of authenticity, the advantages of creative limitations, the way personal stories can be perceived as political, and what it means to ...
Listen228: Emmet Cohen from 2022-07-26T19:00:11
Within about a week of home quarantine in March 2020, pianist Emmet Cohen started live-streaming shows every Monday night from his apartment in Harlem.
227: Umbria Jazz from 2022-07-19T04:00:47
Although the conditions that created jazz are distinctly American, without Europe it seems clear that it might not survive. Every summer hundreds of the greatest ...
Listen226: Montreal Jazz Festival from 2022-07-12T04:00:17
After a two-year slowdown due to COVID, the Montreal International Jazz Festival came back this year. I had been there a couple times, in and out, as a musician. I went this year to cover the fe...
ListenJulian Lage from 2021 from 2022-07-05T04:00:56
When Julian Lage plays guitar, it’s hard not to get swept up in it. His relationship with the instrument is natural and contagious. Maybe that’s because it’s been...
Listen225: Stacey Kent from 2022-06-28T04:00:06
Singer Stacey Kent says she tends to be attracted to the “feeling of unrest,” and she thinks that her fans like to feel it too. Over the course of a 30 year caree...
ListenDonald Fagen from 2019 from 2022-06-21T04:00:41
Just when you think you know all there is to know about Donald Fagen, he surprises you. There are legendary stories, traded like playing cards in chat rooms, fanz...
Listen224: Ryan Lerman from 2022-06-14T04:00
Ryan Lerman has a few tricks up his sleeve. Best known as the cofounder of Scary PocketsListen
Lionel Loueke (WBGO Studios Preview) from 2022-05-31T04:00:21
When Lionel Loueke was coming of age as a young guitar player in his home country of Benin in West Africa, there were no music stores of any kind. He would hav...
ListenEric Harland (WBGO Studios Preview) from 2022-05-24T04:05:07
We’re back with another classic episode from the archive in honor of the new partnership between this podcast and listener supported WBGO Studios. All month I’m r...
Listen223: Matthew Stevens from 2022-05-21T21:50:38
The fact that he grew up in Toronto is not necessarily crucial to underst...
ListenBob Power (WBGO Studios Preview) from 2022-05-17T04:05:42
What do A Tribe Called Quest, David Byrne, The Roots, D’Angelo, Pat Metheny, Erykah Badu, Jason Moran, Me’Shell N’degéocello, India.Arie, J Dilla, Run DMC, and Th...
ListenJason Moran (WBGO Studios Preview) from 2022-05-10T04:00:50
Jason Moran is so prolific and multifaceted that any attempt to summarize his career poses a daunting challenge. Now think about what it’s like preparing for a conversa...
Listen222: Walter Smith III from 2022-05-07T04:00:43
From an early age, Walter Smith III began taking music very seriously. “My first gig was playing at a McDonalds in Houston with another saxophone player. I took a so...
ListenJon Batiste (WBGO Studios Preview) from 2022-05-03T04:05:56
Before he reigned supreme at the Grammy Awards, before he was an Oscar-winning composer (for Pixar’s Soul), before he was bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and we...
Listen221: Michelle Willis from 2022-04-16T04:05:56
Michelle Willis is either already one of your favorite singer-songwriters, or she’s about to be one.
If you haven’t...
Listen220: Nate Craig from 2022-04-06T04:00:54
Nate Craig is an internationally touring comedian. He plays "Phil" in the Netflix series "Maniac" and was a cast member on TruTV's "World's Dumbest". He was recen...
Listen219: Lauren Henderson from 2022-03-30T13:29:37
Vocalist Lauren Henderson is unusual in all the best ways. Described as "somewhere between a comforting whisper and a cogent declaration" by The New York Times, ...
Listen218: Jake Sherman from 2022-03-22T16:00:52
Jake Sherman is everywhere at once and yet somehow maintains a certain air of mystery. There he is singing romantic 80s inspired jams. Here he comes making a jazz Ha...
Listen217: Melissa Aldana from 2022-03-12T05:40:29
Saxophonist Melissa Aldana on growing up in Chile, her journey to America, practicing, teaching, numerology, playing the blues, “the gender thing”, learning to embra...
Listen216: David Poe from 2022-02-22T05:00:49
David Poe is a songwriter’s songwriter. He refers to himself as “a songwriter of a certain age”. As a young man in Dayton, Ohio he got his first taste of success by ...
Listen215: Amir ElSaffar from 2022-02-07T05:00:42
Amir ElSaffar has spent much of his life in search of the ecstatic moments that help connect to something bigger. In his case, he does this through his relationsh...
Listen214: Adam O'Farrill from 2022-01-29T05:00:05
Sometimes when a child of a musician shows an interest or an aptitude in playing music themselves, it’s called “the curse”. Sometimes the curse is revealed in mys...
Listen213: Benny Benack III from 2022-01-09T22:07:22
Benny Benack III didn’t necessarily start out thinking he would be a hipster crooner. He spent his 10,000 hours dealing with the trumpet, and he’s still dealing with...
Listen212: Lionel Loueke from 2022-01-01T05:00
211: Tyler Duncan from 2021-12-23T21:44:51
Before Tyler Duncan was a Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist producer/composer with credits including Carly Rae Jepsen,...
Listen210: The Art Of Aging Gracefully from 2021-11-27T19:06:50
Advice from friends and family ranging in age from 10 to 93 about how to stay young, what makes a meaningful life, ambition, desire, fear, success and music. Listen
209: Martin Sexton from 2021-11-20T22:27:16
30 years ago Martin Sexton made a record called In The Journey. It wasn’t s...
Listen208: Mike Errico from 2021-11-06T21:28:27
Mike Errico’s new book Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter is about songwriting, and the li...
Listen207: Madison McFerrin from 2021-10-19T04:00
Madison McFerrin says she’s “Shedding the narrative about what it means to be an artist in the music industry.” In fact, she says she’s had to learn to shed a lot...
Listen206: Peter Coyote from 2021-10-12T23:57:16
In this bonus episode, actor, author, poet, director, screenwriter, narrator of films, and Zen Buddhist priest Peter Coyote talks about Buddhism, the "JewBu" phenomenon, the distinction between ...
Listen205: Monica Martin from 2021-10-09T04:00
Monica Martin was 18 years old, driving in the car with her friend Matt and singing along with the radio. She had always enjoyed “hamming it up” and singing along...
Listen204: The Legendary Nate Smith from 2021-09-27T04:00
Drummer, composer and bandleader Nate Smith is known and celebrated in many circles. In recent years his drumming has become as influential as it has been ubiqui...
Listen203: Dan and Claudia Zanes from 2021-09-18T04:00
Family musicians Dan and Claudia Zanes had just moved to Baltimore from Brooklyn when Covid came on. In an effort to be useful, creative, and connected, they deci...
Listen203: Dan and Claudia Zanes from 2021-09-18T04:00
Family musicians Dan and Claudia Zanes had just moved to Baltimore from Brooklyn when Covid came on. In an effort to be useful, creative, and connected, they deci...
ListenGeorge Wein (from 2015) from 2021-09-15T02:36:55
George Wein opened his first jazz club, Storyville, in the early 1950s when he was a young man. He then created the Newport Jazz Festival in 195...
Listen202: Joe Alterman from 2021-09-07T04:00
Joe Alterman is a southern guy with a sunny disposition. He came from Atlanta, and despite having put in years in New York, he never managed to shake off the sout...
Listen201: Antwaun Stanley from 2021-08-22T11:00
By the time Antwaun Stanley entered the University of Michigan in the late aughts, he was already 15 years into what could be considered to be a successful singin...
Listen200: Ben Sidran at 78 from 2021-08-14T04:00
For the third year in a row, I talked to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Listen
199: Jon Lampley from 2021-08-10T04:00
Jon Lampley knows how to “get in where you fit in.” He’s been doing it since he was a boy in an Ohio suburb, spending his week as “the only black kid at school” a...
Listen198: Michael Bland from 2021-07-11T04:05
If you’ve ever seen or heard Michael Bland play drums, you probably didn’t forget it. He was legendary practically from the moment he started playing professionally as a teenager in Minneapolis....
Listen197: Philip Lassiter from 2021-06-28T04:00
Philip Lassiter spent his early years in Mobile, Alabama. He was the son of a white pentecostal preacher. “They clapped on one and three in my father’s church,” h...
Listen196: Julian Lage from 2021-06-13T04:00
When Julian Lage plays guitar, it’s hard not to get swept up in it. His relationship with the instrument is natural and contagious. Maybe that’s because it’s been...
Listen195: Michael Mayo from 2021-06-07T11:08:51
Michael Mayo is cautious when it comes to labels and categories. He prefers for the language he uses to be “descriptive rather than prescriptive.” It’s easy to un...
Listen194: The Art Of Conversation from 2021-05-30T04:00
A story about stories.
How seven years and nearly 200 episodes of podcast interviews inspired the record ...
Listen193: Roxana Amed from 2021-05-15T15:00
When singer/songwriter/educator Roxana Amed moved from her home in Argentina to the United States, she didn’t walk. But she might as well have. She describes her ...
Listen192: SG Goodman from 2021-05-01T12:30
For a farmer’s daughter from Western Kentucky like SG Goodman, a career as a singer-songwriter was not the obvious choice. Her family had farmed the same land for...
Listen191: Clyde Stubblefield from 2021-04-20T03:02:37
There are some musicians who live in multiple universes at the same time. Clyde Stubblefield was one of those. From 1971 until his death in 2017, he lived and wor...
Listen190: Bob Reynolds from 2021-04-08T04:00
This year musicians and creative people have had to confront themselves, their work, and their ambitions head on, and Bob Reynolds is no exception. But unlike so ...
ListenCovid Chronicles Vol. 1 - Reunion Episode from 2021-03-28T17:50:37
In March 2020, just as the world was closing under the advancing cloud of Covid 19, I spoke to a handful of musician friends from around the world to hear how the...
Listen188: Leila Cobo from 2021-03-21T04:00
Before she became a journalist, writer, novelist, television show host, and the editor of Latin music coverage for Billboard magazine, Leila Cobo played the piano...
Listen187: Imogen Heap from 2021-03-04T05:00
Imogen Heap has to put her daughter to bed, then she can talk about w...
Listen186: Boz Scaggs from 2021-02-18T05:00
Just hearing the name Boz Scaggs evokes a feeling. It’s a hip, laid back, ...
Listen185: Eric Harland from 2021-02-05T14:00
Eric Harland thinks about time. He thinks about taking time, he thinks about giving time, and he thinks about sharing time.
Listen
184: Rick Beato from 2021-01-29T05:00
When record producer Rick Beato posted a video on YouTube of his 8 year old son in a dizzying demonstration of perfect pitch, complex harmonic understanding and a general fluency with the buildi...
Listen183: Billy Martin aka illy B from 2021-01-18T20:00
Billy Martin (also known as illy B) is many things. He's a visual artist, a filmmaker, a teacher, a builder, a composer, a record producer... But if you know his name, chances are it's from his ...
Listen182: Andres Levin from 2021-01-08T05:00
As Andres Levin will tell you, even he has trouble explaining his career and life in a succinct, organized, bite sized way. He’s a record producer, bandleader, fi...
Listen181: Rexx Life Raj from 2020-12-23T05:00
Raised by a god-fearing mother and a Black Panther father in the mecca of progressive politics, singer, rapper and entrepreneur Rexx Life Raj's music perfectly ar...
Listen180: Duncan Sheik from 2020-12-14T05:00
Duncan Sheik’s career has not followed a straight line. After studying semiotics at Brown University, he emerged in the mid 1990s as a pop singer songwriter with ...
Listen179: Johnny Brennan (The Jerky Boys) from 2020-12-02T05:00
Johnny Brennan was a wise cracking kid from New York who had a natural gift for doing voices and making up characters. First, he did it to crack up his family. When he started recording the pran...
Listen178: Louis Cole from 2020-11-16T18:35:24
There are times when the right song reaches us at the right time. Sometimes it’s a brand new song. Sometimes it’s a classic. Sometimes it’s something you’ve heard...
Listen177: Election 2020 from 2020-11-09T03:30:54
Whenever my dad and I get together to talk, there is no predicting where the conversation will lead. It always has a way of making some kind of sense, and tying t...
Listen176: Cory Henry from 2020-10-27T16:00
There is a video you can find on YouTube of Cory Henry at age four, playing Hammond organ in church, wearing a suit and tie. It’s very clear in the video that he ...
Listen175: Brian Krock from 2020-10-13T17:00
Brian Krock is...
...a saxophone player. A self described “woodwind doubler” he has devoted much of his career to playing multiple wind instruments credibly.
...a bandleader ...
174: Alec Hanley Bemis from 2020-10-05T20:00
Alec Hanley Bemis, writer and manager of cultural projects, co-founded the Brassland record label in 2001 along with his fr...
Listen173: Jeff Cesario from 2020-09-18T18:19:46
In the late 1970s Jeff Cesario was positioned to be one of the most in demand wedding band conga players in Wisconsin and some parts of Minnesota too. So why did ...
Listen172: Philip Dizack from 2020-09-12T04:00
Trumpeter Philip Dizack was once named by Downbeat Magazine as “[one of twenty-five] Trumpet Players for the Future”. That’s not to say that he isn’t for the present and with a deep respect for ...
Listen171: Noga Erez from 2020-08-31T21:30
Israeli singer Noga Erez thinks about the fallacy of authenticity, the advantages of creative limitations, the way personal stories can be perceived as political,...
Listen170: Ben Sidran from 2020-08-14T04:00
For the second year in a row, I talk to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Ben Sidran in honor of his birthd...
Listen169: Eric Krasno from 2020-08-11T04:00
Eric Krasno is in a lot more places than one might realize. Known for his work with the bands Soulive and Lettuce, he a...
Listen168: Jochen Rueckert from 2020-07-31T17:06:15
Drummer Jochen Rueckert has some things to get off his chest.
Born and raised outside of Cologne, Germany, Rueckert start...
Listen167: Rudresh Mahanthappa from 2020-06-30T20:12:42
Rudresh Mahanthappa has the kind of biography that suggests he might be an intimidating and serious person to talk to. He...
Listen166: Lawrence from 2020-06-21T16:39:06
Brother and sister Clyde and Gracie Lawrence say that they’ve been professional musicians all their lives, they just weren’t always making money at it. Listen
165: Louise Goffin from 2020-06-13T22:14:35
Singer-songwriter Louise Goffin says she is “uncomfortable with nostalgia”. Louise Goffin says that “in o...
Listen164: Jason Moran from 2020-06-05T18:38:24
I can’t think of anyone I would rather talk to right now than Listen
163: Orlando le Fleming from 2020-05-20T19:01:29
Orlando le Fleming is the kind of bass player who possesses that mysterious element, that sound, that groove, that thing that you want to hook up w...
Listen162: Remembering Richie Cole from 2020-05-12T18:09:33
Saxophonist Richie Cole died on May 2, 2020. He lived a jazz life all the way. His playing, his demeanor and his philosophy were all contained in his catchphrase ...
Listen161: Becca Stevens from 2020-05-04T15:11:30
Becca Stevens is a singer, songwriter, teacher and genuinely lovely person, and also one of the few repeat offenders on the Third Story Podcast. I fir...
Listen160: Josh Norek from 2020-04-28T17:00
Josh Norek is a difficult man to define. He is generally a behind the scenes kind of guy - president of Regalías Digitales (a firm that helps hundreds of Latin re...
Listen159: Ron Sexsmith from 2020-04-23T19:43:39
Ron Sexsmith likes to take walks. “I was a courier for a number of years and I wrote mo...
Listen158: Curtis Stigers from 2020-04-17T17:19:21
Curtis Stigers got his big break as a young man in the early 90s, with a top ten pop hit (1991’s “Wonder Why”), foll...
Listen157: The Covid Chronicles, Vol. 4 from 2020-04-07T04:22:09
What is needed in these adverse times? We turn to our spirit guides, our philosopher kings, our rabbis: the musicians. Because although this particular form of ad...
Listen156: The Covid Chronicles, Vol. 3 from 2020-03-24T02:47:57
Since the very beginning of this podcast, my father (Ben Sidran) and I have been having occasional, timely conversations to process our own shared experience and often the experience of the worl...
Listen155: The Covid Chronicles, Vol. 2 from 2020-03-19T20:40:30
A life in the theater must be a pretty serious thing, because in these conversations with members of the Broadway community, the conversations are brutally real, big picture, somewhat cosmic and...
Listen154: The Covid Chronicles, Vol. 1 from 2020-03-14T18:46:15
How is the Coronavirus impacting the creative class? What happens when musicians lose their primary income overnight? What opportunities are there for creativity in this moment of social distanc...
Listen153: Michael League from 2020-03-06T04:12:40
Michael League is learning how to sleep. A friend sent him a book called Why We Sleep and reading it “rang a lot of bells”. Until recently, he says, “the maj...
Listen152: Bob Power from 2020-02-23T13:56:57
What do A Tribe Called Quest, David Byrne, The Roots, D’Angelo, Pat Metheny, Erykah Badu, Jason Moran, Me’Shell N’degéocello, India.Arie, J Dilla, Run DMC, and Theo C...
Listen151: Victoria Canal from 2020-02-16T06:00
Victoria Canal is a 21-year old Spanish-American, LGBTQ, differently-abled, singer-songwriter with a massively powerful message of diversity, inclusion, and belon...
Listen150: Kat Edmonson from 2020-02-07T16:27:58
Kat Edmonson will tell you that, “A lot of the time we don’t need permission to do great things.”
Kat Edmonson will...
Listen149: Mark Hervey from 2020-02-02T14:25:08
Video editor, bass player, recovering sketch comedy and improv player Mark Hervey on the journey that took him flying “too close to the sun”... twice. Along the w...
Listen148: Mark Guiliana from 2020-01-23T21:04:11
Mark Guiliana is having at this very moment a profound influence on the way the drums are played. There’s a conversation happening in his playing between organic,...
Listen147: Gilles Peterson&Kassa Overall from 2020-01-21T18:45:02
Gilles Peterson is one of the most influential DJs and music curators in t...
Listen146: Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum, Will Bernard from 2020-01-16T21:07:12
145: Caleb Hawley from 2020-01-10T05:00
Here is what Caleb Hawley says about himself in his website biography: Caleb Hawley is a...
Listen144: Ari Herstand from 2020-01-02T05:00
When Ari Herstand first came on the Third Story Podcast in 2016, he was still in the process of becoming. He struggled with the what he saw as a “duality” be...
Listen143: Glyn Johns from 2019-12-25T05:30
Legendary recording engineer and producer Glyn Johns’ career and discography are so extensive that it’s very difficult to s...
Listen142: boice from 2019-12-19T19:26:20
boice-Terrel Allen (better known simply as boice) is a podcast host, musician, and writer. His podcast, Talk Music Talk, started in 2014 and features long form conver...
Listen141: Zev Feldman from 2019-12-10T05:30
Zev Feldman is an independent record producer who got started in the jazz business as a young man (in his early 20s) and came up through the ...
Listen137: Woody Goss from 2019-11-28T09:25:51
Vulpeck keyboardist Woody Goss on his early days growing up in the suburbs of Chicago where he learned to elevate rhythm playing to high art, when he connected wi...
Listen140: ALA.NI from 2019-11-14T15:03:29
When ALA.NI was growing up in West London, she wanted to be a ballerina. Eventually she realized that there were almost ...
Listen139: Camila Meza from 2019-10-30T14:08:07
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Camila Meza on growing up in Chile, the nature of translation, improvisation, self observation, bootleg videotapes, identity, cruise ship ...
Listen138: Ryan Scott from 2019-10-16T03:01:15
The world is full of talented people you’ve never heard of, and it’s quite possible that Ryan Scott is one of them. Around New York, if you know about Ryan Scott, the...
Listen136: Jeremy Dauber from 2019-10-01T15:31:39
When Adam Sandler first sang his “Hannukah Song” on SNL in 1994, even he was surprised by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response it received. He was singing somethi...
Listen135: Peter Himmelman from 2019-09-24T18:49:47
Peter Himmelman had momentum. Before he had a decades long career, videos on MTV (back when there were videos on MTV), Grammy and Emmy nominations, Parents Choice Awa...
Listen134: Richard J. Davidson from 2019-09-17T04:00
Richard J. Davidson had an intuition early on that the mind was fundamental to human experience. As a child of the 60s he believed early on that “if we wanted to prom...
Listen133: Chris Potter from 2019-09-02T04:00
Chris Potter is an incredibly influential saxophone player. Downbeat Magazine has called him “one of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet”. In thi...
Listen132: David Maraniss from 2019-08-23T03:45:43
David Maraniss has a motto: go there. What he means is that when he’s researching one of his books, whether it’s a biography of a person or the history of a place and...
Listen131: Ben Sidran from 2019-08-15T17:20:51
Musician, singer, writer, producer, philosopher... Ben Sidran is a hard person to define. He belongs in multiple categories, or none at all. He says that his main foc...
Listen130: Richard Julian from 2019-08-08T04:00
No matter what Richard Julian is doing, he “just wants it to be awesome”. As a songwriter, he says he was arrogant before he probably deserved to be, and in fact that...
Listen129: Donald Fagen from 2019-07-30T04:41:24
Just when you think you know all there is to know about Donald Fagen, he surprises you. There are legendary stories, traded like playing cards in chat rooms, fanzines...
Listen128: Joey Dosik from 2019-07-08T04:05
As a younger man Joey Dosik thought he might make a contribution on the saxophone. He loved playing basketball and playing piano too, and he had a sweet, soulful sing...
Listen127: Ben Thornewill from 2019-06-25T04:00
Singer, songwriter and pianist Ben Thornewill started his band, Jukebox The Ghost, with two friends in 2003 when he was in college at George Washington University. “F...
ListenAndre De Shields from 2019-06-10T20:55:42
When the 73 year old performer Andre De Shields accepted his Tony award last night for his role as Hermes in the hit Broadway show Hadestown, he began with these ...
Listen126: Eli "Paperboy" Reed from 2019-06-06T18:37:48
Eli Reed took a trip. It started in a Boston suburb with a cheap suit and a paperboy cap. He took his suit, cap and guitar to Clarksdale, Mississippi. He stayed there...
Listen125: Melissa Clark from 2019-05-23T14:56:12
If Melissa Clark is in your life already, then she needs little introduction. Maybe you have one of the 40+ cookbooks that she has authored. Maybe you’ve made one of ...
Listen124: Anya Marina from 2019-05-14T04:00
Anya Marina was the hottest DJ on the hottest radio station in San Diego. She had a natural, direct and conversational way of talking on the mic that made her a perfe...
Listen123: Sophie Auster from 2019-05-01T13:27:42
Sophie Auster grew up in a house of writers (her father is Paul Auster, and her mother is Siri Hustvedt, both acclaimed authors). For Sophie, the creative process alw...
Listen122: Kassa Overall from 2019-04-16T04:00
Kassa Overall will tell you, “I love being the first thing of a thing. It’s one of my favorite things.”
Kassa will also tell...
Listen121: Cory Wong from 2019-03-12T15:28:52
Guitarist Cory Wong wants you to know that “smooth-jazz” is not a dirty word. At least not as he sees it. That’s why he started referring to himself as the “mille...
Listen120: Jacques Schwarz-Bart from 2019-02-19T03:55:01
Jacques Schwarz-Bart says that he never fit neatly into any one category. He says, “I knew early on in my life that I could not go down a regular path. It would be hard for other human beings to...
Listen119: Aaron Parks from 2019-02-05T01:48:46
How does pianist Aaron Parks describe himself? “A bit odd. I play piano, write songs, and take pictures of doors with my phone.”
118: Kenny Werner from 2019-01-18T18:11:50
Kenny Werner might try to talk you out of becoming a jazz musician. “Please don’t become a jazz musician just because you think you should. That’s like saying you thi...
Listen117: Fred Hersch from 2019-01-04T16:27:08
Pianist, composer, educator and recording artist Fred Hersch has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair...
Listen116: Rick Margitza from 2018-12-21T15:55:22
As a boy in Detroit, Michigan, Rick Margitza’s mother asked him “do you want to hear a recording of your grandfather playing cello”? Then she put on the Charlie P...
Listen115: Joe Dart from 2018-12-07T01:45:56
Joe Dart was on his way to Boston. He had enrolled in the Berklee College of music - a somewhat inevitable step for the young, very talented bass player from rural Mi...
Listen114: John Fields from 2018-11-12T15:26:29
John Fields was a normal kid growing up in a normal family in the Boston suburbs, in prime position to take over his father’s hosiery business. Instead, he moved to M...
Listen113: John Leventhal from 2018-10-16T11:31:37
John Leventhal thinks his initial, preanalytical ideas are the good ones. John Leventhal realized that there “really is no daddy, there isn’t anybody who really has i...
Listen112: Mary Sweeney from 2018-09-30T20:50:16
Mary Sweeney needs some air. “There has to be a flow of fast and slow, and a pause to allow the listener or the spectator to digest and to project their own thoughts....
Listen111: Nate Chinen from 2018-08-22T19:40:08
I first reached out to Nate Chinen to do an interview in 2015. At that time, I knew him as the jazz critic for the New York Times and a columnist for Jazz Times, and ...
Listen110: Howard S. Becker from 2018-08-07T04:00
Sociologist and musician Howard S. Becker is 90 years old. While he is best known for his contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art and sociology o...
Listen109: Ben Wikler, Anat Shenker-Osorio, Dan Kaufman from 2018-07-16T04:00
Madison, Wisconsin in the 1960s was one of the most radicalized university campuses in the country. It was a center for the kind of counter culture that has come to feel like a cliché...
Listen108 - Lage Lund from 2018-07-06T16:52:29
What is there to say about guitarist Lage Lund that hasn’t already been said? Not much. And plenty.
Lage has been a ...
Listen107: Brendan B. Brown from 2018-06-21T02:51:51
Talking to Brendan B. Brown about his life and music is like talking to a dozen guys at once. There’s the singer-songwriter - the guy who wrote the hit song “Teenage ...
Listen106: Joe Goodkin from 2018-06-07T12:26:25
Joe Goodkin was a part time singer songwriter, part time paralegal with a penchant for classical Greece and a sensitive side. After years of playing in bands he reali...
Listen105: Donovan Woods from 2018-05-31T00:31:55
"If you're not sad you're not paying very much attention."
Donovan Woods has a talent for writing songs that feel like “real life”: Funny and sad at the sam...
Listen104: Nate Wood from 2018-05-24T01:41:49
Nate Wood is a drummer, bassist, guitarist, singer-songwriter, mixing and mastering engineer. Raised and educated in Los Angeles, he joined the band Kneebody in 2001 ...
Listen103: Larry Klein from 2018-05-14T02:35:52
Larry Klein started out as a musician’s musician before becoming a producer’s producer. At a young age he was playing bass with his heroes in the jazz world, including a long and crea...
Listen102: Dessa from 2018-04-19T03:18:46
Rapper, singer, spoken word artist, writer, and science nerd Dessa is an open book. As a young girl in Minneapolis, she dreamed of being a writer, and in high school ...
Listen101: Lorrie Moore from 2018-04-12T04:00
Lorrie Moore is the kind of writer that inspires real devotion from her readers. She’s best known as a writer of short stories, although she has also published novels...
Listen100: My Wife from 2018-03-31T13:45:34
Four years and 100 episodes later, I’m still going. What a trip. This week, I take a moment to reflect with one of the most surprising and flattering guest hosts ...
Listen99: Larry “Ratso” Sloman from 2018-03-21T01:37:03
To call Larry “Ratso” Sloman a writer is not at all inaccurate - he is a writer. But he’s so much more. Sloman perfected the art of hanging out and he turned that art...
Listen98: Noa and Gil Dor from 2018-03-08T05:00
Singer Achinoam Nini (Noa) and guitarist Gil Dor on their nearly 30 year long creative partnership, how popular culture has developed in Israel, how they handle the r...
Listen97: Louis Cato from 2018-02-12T00:36:03
Louis Cato is living proof that some people are simply given a gift. Born in Lisbon, Portugal and raised mostly in North Carolina, Louis began playing drums at age 2....
Listen95: Liberty Devitto from 2018-01-25T05:00
Liberty Devitto says he was lucky to be the right age when The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. He learned to play drums by listening to Ringo Starr’s parts ...
Listen95: Jon Madof from 2018-01-18T05:00
Guitarist, bandleader, and label owner Jon Madof talks about how music and spirituality are related, what it means to create your own kind of ...
Listen94: Nadia Ackerman from 2018-01-10T05:00
Singer, songwriter, and illustrator Nadia Ackerman’s journey started in Australia. But early on, she knew she was leaving, and she was pretty sure America was the des...
Listen93: Best of 2017 Vol. 2 from 2017-12-31T04:12:46
In this, the second of a two part Best of 2017 series, fragments of various episodes are strung together in order to tease out the big ideas, the underlying theme...
Listen92: Best of 2017 Vol. 1 from 2017-12-26T03:07:15
I think we can all agree that 2017 was an unusual year. It was intense, confusing, emotional. A little less than a year ago, as I decided to resume another “seaso...
ListenBonus - 53 Remembering Clifford Irving from 2017-12-20T15:46:26
Clifford Irving was a great writer, and a great character. Although he published 20 novels, he was probably best known for a hoax "autobiography" allegedly written as told to Irving by billionai...
Listen91: Laura García Lorca from 2017-12-13T04:23:15
Laura García Lorca grew up between two worlds. She spent her childhood in New York City, and to this day she considers herself to be a New Yorker. But America was alw...
Listen90: Americans in Paris from 2017-12-07T11:37:52
The tradition of American expatriate jazz musicians in Europe goes back a hundred years. What leads musicians to move halfway across the world to a place where they don’t speak the la...
Listen89: Ralph Simon from 2017-11-30T02:22:32
Ralph Simon is on a relentless quest. That much is certain. His travel itinerary could easily be used in an upper-level high school geography class. Just in the week leading up to our...
Listen88: Leah Siegel from 2017-11-21T02:02:19
"Art is a byproduct of a life led. Your beautiful, tragic, outrageous life."
Leah Siegel made a commitment to live an artful life, "to be creative, to live inspired....
Listen87: Theo Katzman from 2017-11-15T05:00
Theo Katzman is many things. An only child. The youngest of four. An earnest singer songwriter with a deep love of classic rock and a great turn of phrase. A groove machine in one of ...
Listen86: Jack Stratton (Vulfpeck) from 2017-11-08T05:00
Jack Stratton has a 20th-century heart and a 21st-century mind. As the leader of the band Vulfpeck, he excites, incites and inspires the YouTube generation to get fun...
Listen85: Settling the Underscore Vol. 4 from 2017-11-01T04:00
The fourth and final episode in the Settling the Unde...
Listen84: Settling the Underscore Vol. 3 from 2017-10-24T04:00
Imagine walking into a restaurant, ordering a meal, eating the meal, giving the chef a hard time, giving the waiter a little bit of an attitude, and then deciding not to pay for the m...
Listen83 Bonus - Alex Weinstein from 2017-10-20T15:36:40
Part of the Settling the Underscore series of episodes that explores music for advertising, this interview with composer Alex Weinstein explores an alternate reality in which the composer works ...
Listen83: Settling the Underscore Vol.2_ls_rev1b from 2017-10-17T04:00
In this, the second of a series that explores music in commercials, we talk to three freelance commercial composers. These are the often invisible, uncredited creators of music for ad...
Listen82: Settling the Underscore - Vol. 1 from 2017-10-10T04:00
Behind every television commercial, there’s an entire economy dedicated to selecting, providing, creating and sourcing music. What was once considered the “jingle...
Listen81: Jonatha Brooke from 2017-10-03T04:00
Jonatha Brooke has been one of my favorite singer songwriters since the first moment I heard her, 25 years ago. Her haunting, unique sound with the band The Story...
Listen80: Mob Town Tour Vol. 4 - Art is what happened from 2017-09-26T14:55:05
On this final installment of the Mob Town Tour series, we visit Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo.
In our first Mob Town...
Listen79: Mob Town Tour Vol. 3 - Is jazz still regional from 2017-09-19T04:00
On this third installment of the Mob Town Tour series of episodes, we explore the Milwaukee jazz scene. I’ve always been interested in the Milwaukee players and s...
Listen78: Mob Town Tour Vol. 2 from 2017-09-12T04:05
On week two of the Mob Town Tour series of podcasts, we explore the Green Mill in Chicago. One of the greatest jazz clubs in the world. It’s a kind of jazz un...
Listen77: Mobtown tour vol. 1 - The search for meaning from 2017-09-05T04:05
The first in a series of road documentaries capturing our journey, some conversations about it and what it means. Notably it features an in depth conversation with Minneapolis based jazz saxopho...
Listen76: Morgan James from 2017-06-09T14:34:26
Morgan has a soulful voice: big pipes, lots of power, a certain swagger, and incredible technique. But although she has a classic sound, fed by by the likes of C...
Listen75: Peter Straub from 2017-05-23T02:59:56
Author Peter Straub started out with dreams of writing poetry and literary fiction. After publishing his first two novels and two books of poetry, he asked himsel...
Listen74: Ryan Keberle (trombonist) from 2017-05-04T02:48:17
Trombonist, composer and educator Ryan Keberle has been active on the New York scene for nearly 20 years - which is really saying something considering he’s still a young man by many standards. ...
Listen73: David Garibaldi from 2017-04-21T18:15:33
David Garibaldi is one of the funkiest, most influential drummers of his generation.
Those who know, know. They know about his incredible feel, tech...
Listen72: George Colligan from 2017-04-09T20:22:03
Pianist, drummer, trumpeter, educator, blogger, George Colligan stopped by recently when he was visiting Brooklyn. After living in New York for 15 years, he ...
Listen71: Ryan Gruss (drummer, entrepreneur) from 2017-03-30T15:24:25
Drummer turned entrepreneur Ryan Gruss on building one of the most creative drum production libraries around (Loop Loft), developing the “Blue Note of drum loops”...
Listen70: Ryan Hewitt (engineer, mixer, producer) from 2017-03-23T16:51:25
Recording and mix engineer Ryan Hewitt starting paying his dues in the business before he could even cash a check. He grew up surrounded by recording, assisting h...
Listen69: Remembering Tommy LiPuma from 2017-03-16T16:22:48
Ben and Leo Sidran remember record producer Tommy LiPuma and play some previously unheard interviews with him. These particular stories talk about a time in his life that hasn’t been talked abou...
Listen68: What is music therapy? from 2017-03-02T18:04:18
What is music therapy? How is it different from traditional talk therapy? Why is music so useful in accessing parts of the brain that we can’t get to in other ways? Is all music really a form of...
Listen67: Alexis Cuadrado (bassist, composer, educator) from 2017-02-16T05:00
Alexis Cuadrado is on a quest for the ecstatic truth. It either started in Spain when he was a young boy, or it started 20,000 years ago, depending on how you loo...
Listen66: Adam Schatz (musician, presenter) from 2017-02-09T20:41:05
For a such busy guy, Adam Schatz manages to watch more television than you might imagine. At least, that’s what he says. Known to some as a music presenter, co-pr...
Listen65: Duchess Trio from 2017-02-02T15:08:23
Duchess is a three part close harmony vocal group comprised of Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou. All three are accomplished jazz singers in their...
Listen64: Benji Rogers from 2017-01-26T16:39:16
Benji Rogers was an ex sound-man, bartender, and broke 34 year old musician who was sleeping on an air mattress in his mother’s spare room, when he had a vision. ...
Listen63: Ben Wendel from 2017-01-19T18:23:27
Saxophonist Ben Wendel grew up in a loud household and he had to fight to be heard. Maybe that’s why it’s so important to him to be heard clearly.
Born in Vancouver and raised in Los Ange...
Listen62: Michael Dorf from 2017-01-13T03:46:23
When Michael Dorf was a teenager in Milwaukee, he told his parents he was going to Madison for the weekend to visit a camp counselor. Instead he snuck off to New York for a lost weekend with a l...
ListenEpisode 61: Spike Wilner from 2017-01-05T14:59:26
Pianist Spike Wilner belongs to the tradition of jazz musicians who also own and operate clubs. In his case it came by accident, or rather, a series of accidents.
Spike owns and operates ...
Listen60: The election (Ben and Leo Sidran) from 2016-11-10T10:05:38
I woke up on the road in Paris the morning after the American Presidential election and saw the results. Then my father and I had this brief conversation.
Nearly one...
Listen59: Kurt Elling from 2016-11-06T04:30
Singer Kurt Elling has been one of the most influential, respected and popular jazz singers on the scene for 2 decades. As the New York Times puts it, “Elling is the standout male vocalist of ou...
Listen58: Ari Herstand - musician, songwriter, actor, writer from 2016-10-12T13:24:48
Singer, songwriter, actor, and independent music writer Ari Herstand on finding an audience.
Ari’s forthcoming book, How to make it in the new music business (coming this Decembe...
Listen57 - Michael Feldman from 2016-09-23T14:34:07
For over 30 years, Michael Feldman hosted the nationally syndicated radio show “Whad’ya Know”. He built the show and his audience from his home base in Madison, Wisconsin.
He loved his au...
Listen55: Pat mAcdonald from 2016-08-26T02:18:41
Singer songwriter Pat MacDonald grew up in a working class family in Green Bay, Wisconsin with no thought of going to college, but he came of age just as the students were marching on campuses a...
Listen55: Al Schmitt (Full Episode) from 2016-08-11T17:16:02
Engineer and producer Al Schmitt is the embodiment of recorded music in America. He started out as a recording engineer in New York in the late 1940s and has consistently delivered some...
Listen54: Adam Levy from 2016-07-14T17:17
Guitarist Adam Levy is probably best known for his work with Norah Jones. He played with her for years, wrote songs for her, and really transformed from an instrumentalist to a songwriter throug...
Listen53: Clifford Irving from 2016-06-03T09:56:18
Writer Clifford Irving has lived a lot of life and had many loves, but he says his “one true love” was the Island of Ibiza, where he made his life for 20 years starting in the early 1950s.
52: Larry Goldings from 2016-05-19T04:00
Larry Goldings has been one of the most respected, versatile and working jazz pianists and organists around since he moved to...
ListenBonus Mini: Should I Move To Nashville? from 2016-05-12T04:00
With nearly 100 people moving to Nashville every day, it has become one of the hot hipster cities in America. Why is this? What does this mean? Does this mean that I should move there too?
<... Listen51: On Prince (Paul Peterson, Ricky Peterson, Monte Moir) from 2016-05-05T04:05
How Minneapolis influenced Prince, and how Prince reframed Minneapolis. Paul Peterson (The Time, The Family), Ricky Peterson (Paisley Park producer) and Monte Moir (The Time) tell of their time ...
Listen50th Episode Special: Leo Sidran (podcast host, musician) from 2016-04-19T03:59:38
For this 50th Episode special, bassist and composer Michael Thurber turns the tables on Third Story host Leo Sidran. They explore Leo's musical career (which includes writing songs for the Steve...
ListenEp. 49: Marc Webb (Director) from 2016-04-01T00:12:51
Before director Marc Webb was handed the keys to the Spider Man franchise (he directed both Amazing Spider Man movies), he made the 500 Days Of Summer – a film that wove music and image together...
Listen48: Gabriela Quintero (Rodrigo y Gabriela) from 2016-03-17T04:00
As a young girl living in Mexico City, Gabriela Quintero dreamed of living by the beach, playing guitar and taking responsibility for herself.
Many years, albums, concerts and collaborat...
ListenButch Vig: Record Producer on working w/ Nirvana, Garbage, and the art of communication from 2016-02-25T21:56:36
- How did it feel to produce one of the biggest records of all time (Nirvana's Listen
Ep. 46: How to Get Nominated for a Grammy from 2016-02-11T05:30
Composer Maria Schneider, Arranger Rob Mounsey, Producer Michael Leonhart, Engineer Al Schmitt, Drummer Bill Stewart, Organist Larry Goldings, Engineer James Farber, and Singer Alex Cuba - all G...
ListenEp. 45 Jorge Drexler - Uruguayan songwriter on process, identity and empathy from 2016-01-28T20:30
Listen44: Dave King "Commitment is an incredible thing" from 2016-01-14T05:30
Listen42: Becca Stevens "I'm an emotional perfectionist" from 2015-10-22T04:00
Singer-songwriter Becca Stevens has been making music since she was a little girl, singing in her family band, the Tune Mammals. Since moving to New York ci...
Listen41: Creed Taylor, Record producer at the crossroad of history and good taste from 2015-10-08T16:30
For forty years, Creed Taylor was one of a small handful of jazz record producers and label managers who shaped and defined the sound of jazz recording. Thro...
Listen40: Howard Levy, Harmonica Player on How Rhythm, Melody,&Light are all the same thing from 2015-09-24T04:00
Howard Levy has one of the most inquisitive musical minds of anyone around. He’s an accomplished piano player, and a musical fixture on the Chicago music scene, but the thing that he’s most know...
Listen39: Musicians behind Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015-09-09T03:00
This week, Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” begins, replacing David Letterman and starting a new tradition for late night television. Colbert chose young powerhouse pianist Jon B...
Listen38: Addicted To Living In the Present Moment - The Trade Winds project from 2015-08-27T14:11:07
The Triangle Trade route connected the old world to the new world, sending slaves from west Africa to the Americas, and goods from the Americas back to Europe and even to Africa.
How did ...
Listen37: Inspiration Comes from Life at the Newport Jazz Festival from 2015-08-13T15:03:42
Ben Sidran and I spent three days at the Newport Jazz Festival, checking out the music, hanging with musicians and trying to find a lobster roll. During the course of the weekend, we connected wi...
Listen36: George Wein at 90 - Looking forward to the future from 2015-07-30T11:39:15
George Wein opened his first jazz club, Storyville, in the early 1950s when he was a young man. He then created the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954. The festival became an icon among music festival...
Listen35: Welcome to Copenhagen from 2015-07-16T04:05
Roam in and out of Copenhagen jazz clubs with me and my father, Ben Sidran. With microphones in hand, we interviewed all sorts of musicians, wondering aloud about the future of the music. A windo...
Listen34: He started the website that you can't stop reading. Meet Peter Koechley. from 2015-07-02T10:19:06
The viral content website Upworthy launched in 2012 with an emphasis on simple and transformational storytelling. It had an immediate impact online and quickly influenced many other sites in the ...
Listen33: Tommy LiPuma with Al Schmitt, Steve Gadd, Larry Goldings, Jacob Collier and Dean Parks from 2015-06-18T14:11
The conversation is a fascinating glimpse into both the golden age of recording and modern music production approaches, which also highlights how important relationships and trust are to building...
Listen32: Sachal "I have a power to make my words count" from 2015-06-03T20:45:31
Singer Sachal on connecting with an audience, integrating technology into organic music, and the importance of lyrics.
Listen31: Peter Coyote, "Every other role but your authentic self has already been taken" from 2015-05-21T04:27
Actor, writer, Zen Buddhist Peter Coyote on the value of meditation ("it's like walking in fog - you get drenched!"), the search for the authentic self, and how to stay true to yourself in the mi...
Listen30: Guitarist Charlie Hunter on D'Angelo, limitation, and finding your voice from 2015-05-06T04:05
Guitarist Charlie Hunter is a true innovator who has collaborated with countless music legends including D’Angelo, John Mayer, Mos Def, Michael Franti, Ben Goldberg and Norah Jones.
Listen29: Gabriel Stulman, NYC Restaurateur, on Building Successful Businesses and Allowing for Failure from 2015-04-23T04:43:11
Gabriel Stulman has opened six successful restaurants in NYCs West Village since 2008. Here he talks about creating timeless places, how to balance instinct with recovery, and why it’s important ...
ListenEpisode 14 Redux: Greg Holden from 2015-04-16T15:03:01
Even if you don’t know the name Greg Holden, chances are you’ve heard his music. His song "Home" was recorded in 2012 by American Idol winner Phillip Phillips and became a huge hit, selling over ...
ListenEpisode 28: Madeleine Peyroux from 2015-04-09T04:19:34
Recorded at a café in Paris on a crisp spring day, Madeleine speaks frankly and candidly about her teenage years in Paris, her career, her creative process, and the value of perpetual dissatisfac...
ListenEpisode 27: Alan Hampton from 2015-03-26T11:35
Bassist, singer, songwriter Alan Hampton is often recognized for playing as a sideman with Robert Glasper, Gretchen Parlato, and Andrew Bird...
ListenEpisode 26: Falu from 2015-03-05T06:00
Episode 25: Alex Cuba from 2015-02-19T05:05
Singer - songwriter Alex Cuba was born Alexis Puentes in Artemisa, Cuba, but since 1999 he has lived ...
ListenEpisode 24: Bill Stewart from 2015-02-05T05:05
Bill Stewart is one of the most creative jazz drummers around today. Since moving to New York in 1989, he has been busy playing in groups with the likes of Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Maceo Parke...
ListenEpisode 23: Doug Wamble from 2015-01-22T13:45
Doug Wamble is a very soulful musician and singer - the blues runs deep in his playing, and he has a direct, funky approach to songwriting...
ListenEpisode 22: Jascha Hoffman from 2015-01-08T05:05
Jascha Hoffman is a singer, songwriter, and journalist. He writes regularly for The New York Times (he has a monthly column called...
ListenEpisode 21: Steve Khan from 2014-12-29T05:15
Guitarist Steve Khan was born and raised in Los Angeles in a house of songs. His father, lyricist and songwriter Sammy Cahn, m...
ListenEpisode 20: Jacob Collier from 2014-12-05T03:10:33
Jacob Collier is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and youtube sensation. He’s primarily known for a series of music videos th...
ListenEpisode 19: Gil Goldstein from 2014-11-13T05:00
Gil Goldstein is an arranger, composer, educator, pianist and accordionist. He has arranged projects for artists including Michael...
ListenEpisode 18: Jon Batiste from 2014-10-29T04:05
Episode 17: Adam Dorn (Third Story vs. Compared to What Conversation) from 2014-10-14T04:11:16
Adam Dorn, musician, producer and composer, got his start early. Encouraged by his father, legendary record producer Joel Dorn, A...
ListenEpisode 16: Janis Siegel from 2014-10-06T14:54:41
Janis Siegel was born in Brooklyn and fell in love with the pop music of her day – doo-wop, pop, girl groups and folk music. She began her professional s...
ListenEpisode 15: John Ellis from 2014-09-18T05:00
Saxophonist John Eliis grew up in North Carolina, in a family that valued the arts and creativity, but also su...
ListenEpisode 14: Greg Holden from 2014-09-04T04:05
Episode 13: Michael Hearst from 2014-07-17T04:00
Michael Hearst is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer. He relocated to Brooklyn from Richmond, Virginia in 2001,...
ListenEpisode 12: André De Shields from 2014-07-03T17:46:56
Episode 11: James Farber from 2014-06-19T04:00
James Farber is a Grammy Award winning recording and mixing engineer. He started his career in the mid 1970s working at the legendary Power Station studio in New York (now the s...
Listen10: Emma Straub, Author from 2014-06-05T04:00
Emma Straub is the author of the novels The Vacationers and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married.
Listen9: Rob Mounsey, arrange and composer from 2014-05-22T04:00
Arranger, composer, keyboard player and producer Rob Mounsey has been a steady studio cat since the mid 70s when he was ...
Listen8: Jesse Harris, singer, songwriter, guitar player from 2014-05-07T04:00
Jesse Harris is a singer, songwriter, guitar player and producer who has been walking the line between jazz and pop since he...
Listen7: Tatum Greenblatt, jazz trumpet player from 2014-04-24T04:00
Jazz trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt knew what he wanted to do from the first moment he heard the sound of Fredd...
Listen6: Jo Lawry, singer songwriter from 2014-04-10T04:00
Jo Lawry grew up in Australia in a family that valued music and study, and she started playing music very early. B...
Listen5: Matt Pierson, record producer from 2014-03-27T04:30
Matt Pierson is a record producer, and for many years he was a record executive. He started at Blue Note records, and then was in charge of jazz at Warner Bros for over a decade. That t...
Listen4: Michael Thurber, bassist, CDZA founder, composer from 2014-03-13T11:00
This week's episode features bassist, composer, performer, and all around feel good guy Michael Thurber. We had an extreme...
Listen3: Daniel Levitin, Author of "This Is Your Brain On Music" from 2014-02-27T05:00
Daniel Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician and author. His books “This Is Your Brain On Music” and “The World In Six Songs” are both best sellers, and are both must reads for anyone interested...
Listen2: Michael Leonhart, trumpeter, producer, composer, arranger from 2014-02-13T05:00
Michael Leonhart is a multi instrumentalist, arranger, producer and composer. He's also from a musical family - both of his parents are jazz musicians, as is his sister. However, his interests a...
Listen1: Late Show Bassist Will Lee from 2014-01-28T22:10:33
Will Lee might be best known as the bass player in the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman. Since moving to New York in the early...
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