Drummer Mark Guiliana explains his ideas of coincidental interaction, and proactive repetition (“Repetition is one of the most powerful tools that we have in music and in life,” he tells me), the importance of familial relationships with his musical partners, how “sound is everything” and why for him “the music does the talking”.
Read MoreGilles Peterson is one of the most influential DJs and music curators in the world. Whether as a broadcaster, live DJ, record producer, festival organizer, or music curator, Peterson has devoted his life to finding, contextualizing, and presenting music from around the world. He sees his job as “connecting the dots.” One of Peterson’s most recent discoveries, Kassa Overall is, in the words of Time Out New York, “a Renaissance man: part chopsy, super-funky jazz drummer, and part rising producer-MC.”
Read MoreSteven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum and Will Bernard on looking forward, looking back, the musical concept of opposition, defying category, broken mirrors, free improvisation, why coffee is so expensive and music is so cheap, the musical conversation between Berkeley and New York, spontaneous composition, rock and roll, Jewish weddings, Sly Stone, Bill Laswell, Trey Anastasio, and why “sex” is still a dirty word in jazz. Recorded live at Winter Jazzfest 2020.
Read MoreSinger-songwriter-producer Caleb Hawley tells his journey of self discovery, addiction, creativity, Tourette Syndrome, longing, how telling the truth is like a drug, and why it’s so hard to write a happy song. Recorded in a storage locker in Harlem.
Read MoreMusician, writer, educator, actor and funk maestro Ari Herstand asks and answers the big questions: How can a project be bigger than just the music? What is the story? What is the difference between transparency and authenticity? How does one play to the strengths and limitations of social media platforms? Is the internet a real community? Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, California politics, immersive experiences, online education. It’s all here.
Read MoreLegendary recording engineer and producer Glyn Johns’ career and discography are so extensive that it’s very difficult to summarize quickly. The sound of his recordings has had an immeasurable influence on the way we listen to popular music. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, Eric Clapton... he worked with them all. Here he talks about his philosophy of recording, producing, and managing a career in record making.
Read MorePodcast host, musician, and writer boice-Terrel Allen (often known as boice) on his personal and professional development, creativity, spirituality, Buddhism, depression, perseverance and love of Tina Turner. We also compare notes on podcast life, techniques, strategies, and ambitions.
Read MoreZev Feldman (known as the “jazz detective”) on becoming a producer (“it was like pouring gasoline on a fire”), the importance of “folklore and mythology” in the world of jazz collecting, why finding the right outlet for a recording is like finding shelter for an orphaned animal, and how he builds relationships.
Read MoreVulfpeck keyboardist Woody Goss on growing up in the suburbs of Chicago where he learned to elevate rhythm playing to high art, when he connected with the crew that would become his Vulf family at the University of Michigan, how talking about evolutionary psychology is emotional, why organized religion is dubious, where he likes to go bird watching, and who he really is when the spotlight is turned away.
Read MoreSinger-Songwriter ALA.NI on the job of the artist (“to see the world through a different lens and then share that experience”), the nature of Grenadians (“uppity”), improvised circle singing (“When we enter back into the child and the imagination, there’s no rules!”) and the genetic memory of violence in the black experience. In other words, all of it.
Read MoreSinger-songwriter-guitarist Camila Meza on growing up in Chile, the nature of translation, improvisation, self observation, bootleg videotapes, identity, cruise ship living, synesthesia and distortion.
Read MoreRyan Scott on his love affair with an 8 track cassette recorder, crossing the “jazzy line”, “keeping things open”, moving to New York right out of high school and falling in with a crowd of itinerant musicians who taught him how to “roll cigarettes and drink beer”, and what it’s like inside his head.
Read MoreWriter and scholar Jeremy Dauber on his book Jewish Comedy: A Serious History, how comedy evolves through context, the “complicated relationship of ownership and loss” among contemporary Jewish comedians in America, what’s so funny about fart jokes, and whether or not it’s possible to hide inside an apple pie.
Read MoreSinger, songwriter, composer, writer Peter Himmelman on finding “beauty in tragedy”, confronting “the harsh architecture of now”, and unpacking questions of ergonomics, economics, loss, discovery, desire, faith, fearlessness, impermanence, songwriting, real estate, college tuition, doing meaningful work, and performing naked.
Read MoreRichard J. Davidson had an intuition early on: the mind was fundamental to the human experience. “If we wanted to promote a different way of seeing the world, we needed to change our minds.” Here he outlines his personal journey and how it intersects with his work, why he sees this as a crucial moment for humanity and what mind training can do to help, why “reality is a movie”, how his relationship with the Dalai Lama has informed his choices, what it means to meditate with compassion, and what jazz bassist Charles Mingus has to do with any of this.
Read MoreChris Potter is an incredibly influential saxophone player. Downbeat Magazine has called him “one of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet”. In this introspective and philosophical conversation he talks about art, the search for something new, what motivates him today, what he sees as his role, responsibility and contribution to the history of jazz.
Read MoreWriter David Maraniss on his process, approach, technique, and the values that inform his work. What does it mean to be a nonfiction story teller? Where does he feel most at home? When is it time to go swimming? Why is the lost art of letter writing so important to historians. Can we really ever really know what someone else is thinking?
Read MoreThe multifaceted Ben Sidran on falling in love with bebop as a young boy, counter culture in the 1960s, jazz as a form of journalism, how to get paid like a musician, his proudest moments, writing a misunderstood rock and roll anthem, getting to Carnegie hall, facing fears, and what he learned from his heroes.
Read MoreIn this textured, rollicking, mezcal fueled conversation recorded on a hot summer night in Brooklyn, Richard Julian tells the story of how “a blue collar boy from Delaware” came to be one of the most celebrated songwriters of his generation in New York, watched some of his friends get famous and others get lost, and end up negotiating the ever shifting Brooklyn demographics as a club owner in Bed Stuy.
Read MoreDonald Fagen on what’s so punk about Steely Dan, what’s so sweet about bebop, why making his first solo record was so personally disruptive to him, when he decided to finally grow up, and who he never wants to see again.
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