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 The Third Story Podcast with Leo Sidran

Brooklyn, NY 11215 USA

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90: Americans in Paris

December 07, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

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 language, hold no currency, and are strangers? Love, what else? Bassist Peter Giron and trumpeter Andrew Crocker went to France with little or no understanding of what they were getting themselves into other than the desire to be with a woman, and maybe a sense that they didn’t fully fit where they came from. That was 30 years ago.

Today they are not so much expatriates as they are immigrants. 

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categories / new york

89: Ralph Simon

November 30, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Ralph Simon is on a relentless quest. What is he in search of? The next thing in technology and entertainment. He might say it's something like "the next undiscovered young virtuosic talent" or "the latest in mobile and device innovation". Over the last 20 years, Ralph has become a recognizable face in the mobile space, seemingly obsessed with the way mobile technology and content influence popular culture. At his core, Ralph loves a good hit. He is popularly known as the ‘Father of the Ring Tone.’ His ability to find a hit, to create opportunity and add value to the creative class started long before the word mobile was a noun. Here, he outlines that journey. 

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categories / new york

88: Leah Siegel

November 21, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Leah Siegel made a commitment to live an artful life, "to be creative, to live inspired." Early on, she found her voice. A powerful, soul stirring, timeless singing voice that moved people and put her in touch with a "natural empathy". Here Leah tries to process the loss of her close friend, Tim Luntzel, and explains the impact of his death on her life, and questions what it means to have a good death. 

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categories / new york

87: Theo Katzman

November 15, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

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 funky groove machine in one of the most talked about funk-soul bands around. Here we talk Vulfpeck, Ann Arbor, Heartbreak Hits, Bob Dorough, Steely Dan, Long Island, Meditation, keeping a daily writing practice, what to eat on the road, and what's the deal with Plain Jane Heroine anyway. 

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categories / vulf

86: Jack Stratton (Vulfpeck)

November 08, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

In this rare extended conversation recorded in his childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio, Jack Stratton of Vulfpeck talks about growing up playing in a Klezmer band, creating Vulf, and why no one's looking up.

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categories / vulf

85: Settling the Underscore Vol. 4 - The Cats

November 01, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

The fourth and final episode in the Settling the Underscore series, exploring music for advertising. Finally, after weeks of talking to composers, producers and editors, we hear from the musicians who made the glory days of the jingle business what they were. Bassist Will Lee, keyboard player Rob Mounsey, and guitar player Steve Khan. All three were part of a generation of players on the New York session scene in the 1970s and 1980s, sometimes playing on multiple projects every day.

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categories / advertising

84: Settling the Underscore Vol. 3 - Gate Keepers & Key Masters

October 24, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

In this third installment in a series of episodes about music in advertising former advertising executive Ken Yagoda, commercial music producer Mike Boris, and editor Maury Loeb layout the business from the advertising agency and editorial point of view, and explain who influences the music that gets chosen, how the business has changed and what the future holds.

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categories / advertising

83: Settling the Underscore Vol. 2 - Freaks and geeks

October 17, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

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 advertising. How does one enter the business of writing music for advertising? Who are the people who thrive in that world? What skills are required? What is the lifestyle of the creative composer? How much rejection can one person stand? What is it like to be a woman in a boys club? 

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categories / advertising

82: Settling the Underscore Vol. 1 - First Impressions

October 10, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

In this first of a series of episodes dedicated to the world of commercial music, two composer / entrepreneurs who have each put in their time on both the creative and business end of things talk about their careers and perceptions of the business. John “Scrapper” Sneider of Storefront Music, and Wendell Hanes of “Volition Sound”.

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categories / advertising

81: Jonatha Brooke, Singer / songwriter

October 03, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Jonatha Brooke is ready to make a deal. 

Singer / songwriter Jonatha Brooke answers the hard questions: Can songwriting be taught? What is the future for independent songwriters? How much personal information is too much to share on social media? Why is she so self critical? What is it like to write songs with Katy Perry? 

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80: Mob Town Tour Vol. 4 - Art is what happened

September 26, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Music and art grow like wildflowers when the economy collapses. Plus: Why Richie Cole is the "luckiest guy I know."

On this final installment of the Mob Town Tour series, we visit Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo. We look at how the arts are the appetite for life, how life on the road can change people, and why jazz is Talmudic. Plus Richie Cole tells us why he is "the luckiest guy I know". 

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categories / mobtown

79: Mob Town Tour Vol. 3 - Is jazz still regional?

September 19, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

What makes a group of creative people lean in the same direction? Outside the Jazz Estate in Milwaukee with Ben Sidran and Bob Rockwell. 

The third installment of the Mob Town Tour. This week: Milwaukee! What does it mean to have a bunch of creative people leaning in the same direction, or speaking in the same accent, and what brings that on? Particularly today, is it possible retain local flavor and speak a regional dialect in a global world?

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78: Mob Town Tour Vol. 2 - A club beyond category

September 12, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

"We're not trying to be cool. We just are cool." The Green Mill is a jazz club beyond category. 

The second installment of the Mob Town Tour series settles in for a weekend at the Green Mill in Chicago. Notably, the club's owner Dave Jemilo explains why "we're not trying to be cool, we just are."

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77: Mob Town Tour Vol. 1 - The Search for Meaning

September 05, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Bitcoin, road tripping, and the world’s oldest jazz musician

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 saxophone player Irv Williams, the oldest working jazz musician alive.

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categories / mobtown

76: Morgan James, Singer

June 09, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Morgan James has a soulful voice. But although she has a classic sound, fed by by the likes of Chaka Khan, Nina Simone and Eva Cassidy, she has a modern career. Her path has been completely unexpected, unpredictable, and in some ways unbelievable.

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75: Peter Straub, Author

May 22, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Author Peter Straub on jazz and fiction, improvisation and writing, how the past stays with us into the present, and how watching his Norwegian farmer relatives taught him how to write diligently.

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74: Ryan Keberle, Trombonist/Composer

May 03, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Ryan Keberle on the legacy of trombone players and arrangers, how the instrument is undergoing a revolution today, what being a side man taught him about listening, and why all improvised music is a form of protest.

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73: David Garibaldi, Drummer

April 21, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Drummer David Garibaldi on why Oakland is the funky side of the Bay, the work ethic of Tower of Power, the Garibaldi family recipe for happiness and longevity, and why the book is still being written when it comes to his legacy.

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72: George Colligan Pianist/Composer

April 09, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Pianist, drummer, trumpeter, educator, blogger, George Colligan on “creativity versus tradition”, jazz education, how standup comedy and jazz are similar, kids these days, playing with Jack DeJohnette, and why freedom is the gift of being a jazz musician. 

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71: Ryan Gruss, Drummer/Entrepreneur

March 30, 2017  /  Leo Sidran

Drummer turned entrepreneur Ryan Gruss on building one of the most creative music production libraries around (The Loop Loft), developing the “Blue Note of drum loops” and the unusual journey to took to get there.

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