Keyboardist John Medeski on the healing power of music, what attracted him to the piano as a boy, his creative and professional development (playing in bar bands as a teenager in Florida, studying at NEC in Boston, moving to New York), developing Medeski, Martin & Wood, learning from nature, and the moment in 1996 when MMW discovered their jam-band audience.

Saxophonist, educator and composer Walter Smith III on his early development, the Houston sound, his thoughts on education, practice, improvisation, leadership, raising a family as a musician, meeting your heroes, and LA real estate.

Saxophonist Melissa Aldana on growing up in Chile, her journey to America, practicing, teaching, numerology, playing the blues, “the gender thing”, learning to embrace imperfection, her new record “12 Stars”, her idea of success, and what she values most in music: sound, time and ideas.

Trumpeter, vocalist and composer Amir ElSaffar on his ongoing search for the ecstatic by way of what he describes as the human “sea of connectivity”, how working with Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Cecil Taylor influenced him, the value of coming of age in Chicago, and how his Zen Buddhist practice has helped him to “lift the veil” between his sense of what’s outside of him and what’s inside.

Trumpet player / composer / bandleader Adam O’Farrill on belonging to a rich musical legacy, how video games, literature and most of all the films of PT Anderson have informed his work, the hazy lines around labels and categories, the importance of making space for other musicians to support one another, and how he strives to remove “the external” from his playing.