Journalist, writer, novelist, television show host, and the editor of Latin music coverage for Billboard magazine, Leila Cobo on her journey from classical musician (she moved from Colombia to the USA to study piano performance) to one of the world's foremost experts in Latin music, and her new book Decoding Despacito.
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Imogen Heap on some of the major moments in her storied career. “I’ve just done so many random things,” she says. Like making her first record when she was a teenager, forming Frou Frou with Guy Sigsworth and their unlikely post-factum success, writing the song “Hide and Seek” and bearing witness to its many lives; working with Taylor Swift and with Jeff Beck, composing the music for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, inventing new instruments and tech tools, and being a mom.
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Singer, songwriter, guitarist and iconic recording artist Boz Scaggs is in turns philosophical, rhapsodic, nostalgic, and matter of fact about the 1960s, his brief stint at the University of Wisconsin, his solo career, success, ambition, rhythm sections, songwriting, performing, and what he’s reading today.
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Drummer Eric Harland tells his incredible story of growing up in Houston and how he came to weigh 400lbs by the time he was 16 (he eventually lost the weight in college), attending the Manhattan School of Music, becoming an ordained minister, living with singer Betty Carter during the last year of her life, learning from legendary mentors, and exploring “time”. He also shares his thoughts on practice, community, natural wine, and what you can learn about a person by how they drive.
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YouTuber, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, teacher Rick Beato on his personal journey, how he organizes his time, what motivates him and what inspires him, teaching “high information” music to children, making a living on YouTube, staying fresh, and walking the line between telling the story and being the story.
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Drummer, visual artist, filmmaker, teacher, composer, record producer Billy Martin on power of sincerity in music and in life, the importance of staying curious and being playful, what he calls the “world music view”, how “when you’re experimenting there is no such thing as perfection,” the similarities between music and visual art, why Instagram is such a useful tool for self expression, and what it means that "art is activated by the receiver".
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As Andres Levin will tell you, even he has trouble explaining his career and life in a succinct, organized, bite sized way. He’s a record producer, bandleader, filmmaker, composer, philanthropist, New Yorker, Venezuelan, Jew, funk practitioner, latin soul ambassador, big picture guy with a granular understanding of the mechanics of the business for over 30 years. Here he talks about learning how to produce, being comfortable in any room, discovering soul culture, programing synthesizers, and the mysteries mathematics of The Funk.
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Singer, rapper and entrepreneur Rexx Life Raj on his new EP California Poppy 2 (incidentally that is also the name of his new line of Cannabis products), growing up in Berkeley, discovering the world from the back of his parents’ delivery van, managing success & guilt, diversification, playing college football, finding the lane, building a brand, traveling around the world and giving back to his community.
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Singer, songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik on his career, his songwriting, technology in music, how meditating and chanting have helped him throughout the years, how becoming a father has influenced his work, his life in Covid and what it means to release music in these strange and trying times, and what exactly is Semiotics anyway.
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Johnny Brennan of the Jerky Boys on how he developed his characters, why his career was an unexpected success, the role of improvisation in his prank phone calls and how he knows when it’s a good one, what makes a classic skit, and why this was the right time to launch a comeback.
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Multi instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, arranger, video maker, surrealist, funk monkey, producer and personality Louis Cole on where he came from, what he’s doing now, and where he hopes to go. Along the way he touches on writing “nostalgic music that feels almost like a memory of something that never happened”, overcoming fear, being a better person, staying up late into the weird part of the night, “insanity music”, money, honesty, humor, the problem with 100bpm, YouTube Poop, and what Nate Wood, David Binney, Bob Mintzer, and Jack Conte have to do with any of it.
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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).
Keyboard master and singer-songwriter-bandleader Cory Henry on his early development playing music in church, learning to make music on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, how losing his parents at a young age affected his life and career, his experiences playing with saxophonist Kenny Garrett (Cory toured with Garrett at age 18), Snarky Puppy, and The Funk Apostles. Along the way he gives a master class on some of his favorite Gospel music, and an introspective explanation of much of the material on his new record.
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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.
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Writer and label owner Alec Hanley Bemis on the distinction between culture and subculture; that we are now in an era of “constant content”; the shift over time from the taste maker as an institution to the taste maker as an individual personality; and what he describes as “the economy of cool”.
Comedian Jeff Cesario on the “power of insulation” (working out your craft inside of a small scene), how he approaches his standup act like a big band chart, the double edged sword of having a lot of experience today, the intense value of commitment, and how his life in music helped prepare him for comedy.
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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”).
Israeli singer Noga Erez on starting as a jazz singer-songwriter and then transitioning to what she describes as “the music in my heart”, the curious relationship between Israel and the United States from the point of view of a contemporary Israeli pop act, what it means to be a political artist, whether or not music itself can really make a difference politically today, why she is “the offspring of limitations” and if the phrase “I don’t pop with that” actually exists or not. Also, an extensive tutorial on how to pronounce her name.
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For the second year in a row, I talk to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Ben Sidran in honor of his birthday. This time he’s turning 77, and we consider his recent projects, including the books The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma and There Was A Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream, and his latest single “Who’s The Old Guy Now”.
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Guitar player, songwriter, producer Eric “Kraz” Krasno on what he’s doing during these strange and trying times, his experience as a podcaster, producer, and provider of deep and soulful grooves, the development of Soulive, Lettuce, & Velour Recordings, the values and expectations of jam and jam band audiences, “the boom bap with interesting chord changes”, learning how to do less and better, and how many times one man can say the word “nugget” in an hourlong interview.
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