327: Ben Sidran at 83
As we do every year, my father and I talked for his birthday. This year he’s turning 83.
These annual conversations have become a tradition, a way of tracking our relationship, and an artist, over time.
Ben is a jazz musician, producer, writer and broadcaster. He was once described by the Chicago Sun-Times as “a Renaissance man cast adrift in the modern world.”
Recently, I came across a 1974 DownBeat cover story about Ben, written when he was 30 years old. So I read it back to him to see what resonated, what held up, and what had changed.
As always, the conversation moved easily from the personal to the universal.
Zooming with Ben, August 2026
I also tracked down the author of the original DownBeat article, Joan Gannij (who happens to be my friend!) and talked to her about what she remembers about writing the piece and meeting with Ben over half a century ago.