Drummer Jochen Rueckert on his early years in Germany, why playing with great bass players is like eating great pasta, refusing to share hotel rooms, why he is a reluctant teacher, making electronic music, the rare innate heart condition he suffers from, how to groove with organ players, organizing tours, why one should never play with pop musicians, what it was like to play one gig with Pat Metheny, what he’s thinking about when he performs, drummer Bill Stewart’s time feel and volume level, Artificial Intelligence, the years he spent at Nublu in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and much, much more.

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Saxophone player and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa on his new record "Hero Trio", his early musical development, the journey through music schools, cruise ships and merengue bands that ultimately led him to New York, exploring one’s personal identity through music, teaching jazz in a non conservatory environment, Sesame Street, and why “just because you’re improvising doesn’t mean you’re playing jazz”.

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Pianist, composer, conceptual artist Jason Moran on truth versus passion, promoting the “Freedom Principle”, America’s unfortunate way of forgetting the past, when innovation becomes rhetoric, what it means for African American musicians to move freely “from the stage to the table”, the power dynamic in choosing repertoire, coming up in Houston among a generation of jazz innovators, what we still have to learn from Louis Armstrong, and what it means to be the “personal embodiment of your history”.

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Bassist Orlando le Fleming on how to get a sound on the bass, why he puts “rhythm before notes”, what were the advantages to starting his career in England, when it’s to leave New York, who were his mentors, the “jazz struggle” and why “groove comes from culture.”

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