Global trumpet sensation Ibrahim Maalouf on his childhood in France, developing his sound and concept, making elevated popular music, embracing the historical moment, refusing to be limited by labels or genres, and what it means when Quincy Jones orders sushi.
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Multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Tyshawn Sorey on his latest recordings (Mesmerism and The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism), his recent composition “Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)”, making work that defies category, growing up in Newark, comedy as a form of self care, the radical idea of blackness, exploring alternative musical models, his photographic memory, the interaction between improvisation and composition, processing ancestral trauma through music, and bad Italian food.
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Producer Daniel Lanois on his early development in Canada and how it influenced his work, his ongoing creative relationship with Brian Eno, why he likes to travel for work, his attraction to melancholy, projects with U2, Peter Gabriel, Brian Blade, Brian Eno, Rick James (yes, Rick James), Neil Young, Terence Malick, when to use the word “we”, the importance of silence, reconnecting with innocence, his production technique of turning “garnishing into a devotion” and why “contemporary work has more to do with vision” than with technology.
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Singer Cyrille Aimée on growing up in Samois-sur-Seine in France, what she learned from the Gypsies, moving to America, how to learn new languages, the importance of confronting and overcoming fear for creativity, how to be honest with the audience, and where to find good cheese.
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For the fourth year in a row, I talked to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Ben Sidran in honor of his birthday. This time he’s turning 79 and we consider the sociological implications of mowing the lawn, Donald Fagen’s solo recordings, the significance of the 1960s in popular culture today, Pharoah Sanders album Pharoah’s First, interviews he conducted in the 1980s with Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, the myth of Sisyphus, and his most recent album Swing State.
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Keyboardist John Medeski on the healing power of music, what attracted him to the piano as a boy, his creative and professional development (playing in bar bands as a teenager in Florida, studying at NEC in Boston, moving to New York), developing Medeski, Martin & Wood, learning from nature, and the moment in 1996 when MMW discovered their jam-band audience.
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Pianist Emmet Cohen on how he straddles the line between tradition and modernity, starting out as a prodigy in Miami, being a “repertory player”, his community in Harlem, “blues therapy” and the common lesson he learned from all his mentors.
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Spend a day at the 2022 Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy with producer Matt Pierson, artistic consultant Enzo Capua, drummer Terence Higgens, saxophonist Dave Koz, and singer Kurt Elling.
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Conversations with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bill Charlap, Scott Colley, Aaron Goldberg, Samara Joy, Allison Miller, Gregory Porter, and various concert-goers, festival organizers and locals all helped to tell the story of the Montreal Jazz Festival 2022.
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Singer Stacey Kent on why she’s a fatalist, escaping from New Jersey and from the bounds of category, crossing borders (in many senses), and her latest release Songs From Other Places.
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Ryan Lerman has a few tricks up his sleeve. Best known as the cofounder of Scary Pockets, a dynamic funk band from LA who came to prominence on YouTube, Ryan is also an accomplished singer songwriter, bassist, arranger and producer. Here he talks about his happy place (“in the middle of business thinking and artistry”), what he learned about leadership by working as a sideman, how tried to become a lawyer but ended up playing funk music instead, and what minor nine chords have to do with any of it.
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Guitarist Matthew Stevens on growing up in Canada, how the business of jazz has evolved in his lifetime, how the pandemic reoriented him both personally and musically, gear, practice, teaching, the local scenes in Toronto and Pittsburgh, and the universal question: what is production?
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Saxophonist, educator and composer Walter Smith III on his early development, the Houston sound, his thoughts on education, practice, improvisation, leadership, raising a family as a musician, meeting your heroes, and LA real estate.
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Singer songwriter Michelle Willis on how she thinks about her music and her career, how working extensively with David Crosby has affected her, how collaborating with Becca Stevens, Mike League, Louis Cato have informed her journey, what the process of working with producer Fab Dupont was like, her childhood in Canada, her songwriting process, imposter syndrome, getting the right “blend”, the job of the songwriter, reading poetry, and whether or not it’s okay to be comfortable.
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Comedian Nate Craig on the parallels between music and comedy, what is the “job” of a comic, how “what’s funny” has changed over the last 25 years, the “contract” between audiences and comics, how he got started and what it means to be successful as a comic today.
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Vocalist Lauren Henderson on growing up one of the few people of color in a small New England town, playing varsity Field hockey, deciding to become a jazz singer, discovering her latin roots, managing her mental health, what she learned in business school, working with Sullivan Fortner, how to book a tour, embracing imperfection, and managing her online identity.
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Keyboardist/singer/producer Jake Sherman on his love of the hammond organ and Weird Al Yankovic, surrealist comedy, finding his lane, learning to sing, what he learned from Dr. Lonnie Smith, why LA is too sunny, making friends with social media, and why he keeps saying ladies’ names in his songs.
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Saxophonist Melissa Aldana on growing up in Chile, her journey to America, practicing, teaching, numerology, playing the blues, “the gender thing”, learning to embrace imperfection, her new record “12 Stars”, her idea of success, and what she values most in music: sound, time and ideas.
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Singer-songwriter David Poe is a kind of Zelig-like figure who appears where you least expect him, and somehow manages to fit right in wherever he shows up. Talking to Poe, one is reminded that at their best, songwriters are popular philosophers. Rather than creating a diversion from everyday life, they illuminate the human struggle, and elevate the human experience. Here he talks about his philosophy on song-craft, collaboration, art and commerce, New York in the 90s (he worked at CBGBs Gallery for years) and why his new motto is “don’t hate fun”.
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Trumpeter, vocalist and composer Amir ElSaffar on his ongoing search for the ecstatic by way of what he describes as the human “sea of connectivity”, how working with Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Cecil Taylor influenced him, the value of coming of age in Chicago, and how his Zen Buddhist practice has helped him to “lift the veil” between his sense of what’s outside of him and what’s inside.
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