Ben Sidran and I discuss the results of the 2020 election and how it relates to the beauty of old things, Tikun Olam (the Jewish concept of healing the world) as a response to a universal call from deep in the frontal cortex, “The cruelty of our own DNA”, Chaos theory, the future of small jazz clubs, and how “we are all survivors of chaos”. Plus, Les McCann’s recording of the song “Maxie’s Changes” (with the largely unknown tenor saxophone player Frank Haynes).

Musician, bandleader-arranger-composer, and YouTuber Brian Krock on the role of critical analysis in music, the “unintended consequences of the capitalist nature of music education,” what it means to improvise like a composer, how reading James Joyce influenced his relationship to listening to and writing music and led him to “create artwork that invites people to put forth some effort,” why he loves “to be actively involved in things that you're a beginner at,” his concerns about his “own memory and the world’s ability to focus,” and what happened to him after playing over 1000 performances of Dirty Dancing The Musical.

Trumpeter Philip Dizack (named by Downbeat Magazine as “[one of twenty-five] Trumpet Players for the Future”) on how he thinks about playing, teaching (“preparing for teaching is the most helpful thing that I’ve ever done for myself”), practicing (“the more specific your questions are, the more specific your answers will become”), potential (“I hear so far beyond what I’m capable of doing right now”), and perspective (“if our perspective is right then we’re always in complete humility”).

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.

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”.

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”.

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.”