Radio & Podcasts
Tune in daily to hear the internet's top jazz programs including Mondo Jazz, Jazz Bastard, World of Jazz, The Third Story, One Man's Jazz, Jazz at 100, Neon Jazz, A Broad Spectrum, Liner Notes and more. View our program schedule and check out the most recent JazzWeek Radio Chart.
Conversations Across Time: Makaya McCraven, Beat Scientist
by Leo Sidran
Makaya McCraven is a drummer, producer, and composer who has carved out a unique space in contemporary music as a self-proclaimed “beat scientist." His work blurs the lines between live performance and production, drawing on a broad range of influences from jazz, hip hop, and global traditions. Known for his improvisational prowess and innovative approach to rhythm, McCraven's projects challenge conventional boundaries and redefine how music is created and experienced.Born into a musical family, McCraven's father, Stephen McCraven, ...
Continue ReadingJacob Collier's First Interview: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by Leo Sidran
In 2013, after having posted a series of videos recorded in his family home in North London of himself singing a cappella arrangements of classic--yet sometimes obscure--songs on YouTube, a critical mass began to form around Jacob Collier. His videos of Stevie Wonder's “Isn't She Lovely" and “Don't You Worry Bout A Thing" were passed around by musicians and music enthusiasts and by 2014 he was being managed by Quincy Jones and traveling around the world. He was one of ...
Continue ReadingConversations with Aaron Parks and Marta Sanchez
by Leo Sidran
To close out the season, here are two compelling and complementary conversations with pianists Aaron Parks and Marta Sanchez. Each of their stories is deeply personal, and yet their experiences echo one another beautifully.I interviewed Aaron Parks last January at Winter Jazzfest in New York City, just a few days before he made the life-changing decision to leave the United States and move to Portugal. At the time, he was quietly working on a new project, Little Big ...
Continue ReadingSamora Pinderhughes And Jack Deboe: Patience Is Extremely Freeing
by Leo Sidran
Despite their long standing collaborative relationship, composer, pianist, vocalist, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes and drummer/producer Jack Deboe had never done an interview together before. Samora's music has a certain gravity to it. It deals with weighty, often difficult themes: incarceration, mental health, structural violence. His work asks us to reckon with uncomfortable truths about our world, and it does so with a sense of purpose and intention. But in person, Samora is funny, lighthearted, and full ...
Continue ReadingLife Comes In: Maria Schneider Celebrates 30 Years
by Leo Sidran
As she celebrates 30 years of running a band, composing and recording work and touring, Maria Schneider is considering her trajectory, and going through something that may or not be a crisis. She says, “I'm looking at my life and just saying 'ok, what's next?'" In 1994, Schneider released her first album Evanescence and began to establish herself as one of the most compelling, sensitive and creative big band composers of her generation. She has joined ...
Continue ReadingChop Wood And Carry Water: Ben And Leo Sidran On The Election
by Leo Sidran
When everything you thought you knew turns out to be mistaken, when your compatriots let you down, when your neighborhood is on fire and your friends are drowning, when even Quincy Jones decides he's checking out, it helps to have someone to talk to, to help make sense of it all. For me, it's my dad Ben Sidran. Our talks don't really begin or end, they simply continue. This podcast has given me the chance to document some ...
Continue ReadingSpeaking in tongues with Andrew Bird
by Leo Sidran
Andrew Bird has been searching for meaning in sound since he was a young boy growing up outside of Chicago, learning to play violin. He got a degree in violin performance from Northwestern University in 1996, and although his college training set him up for a career in music, it also disoriented him. He was at home playing classical and folk music, he loved rock & roll, and listening to jazz piano trio recordings from the 50s. Specifically ...
Continue ReadingAaron Goldberg: It's Impossible To Separate Jazz From The Civil Rights Movement
by Leo Sidran
After the election of George W. Bush in 2000, Aaron Goldberg began wondering what he could do in the next election to help make a difference. At the time, he was a 26 year old pianist only a few years out of college, but who was quickly establishing himself as a credible musical voice in the jazz world, and a musician who is dedicated to helping move people in multiple senses of the word. Aaron was raised outside ...
Continue ReadingThe Joy, Community And Resilience Of Lucy Kalantari
by Leo Sidran
Lucy Kalantari was a self described singer of angsty adult music, hustling her way through New York bar gigs and wondering why she wasn't more successful. She knew music was a passion early on, but she grew up in a family where becoming a professional musician was not on anybody's radar. She was raised between the Dominican Republic and New York, and in both places she felt she had to adjust who she was in order to fit in.
Continue ReadingRiley Mulherkar is in pursuit of a feeling
by Leo Sidran
Riley Mulherkar grew up in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest enclave that has been home to so many musical innovators over the years. He went to Garfield High School, a school that has fostered countless talents going all the way back to Quincy Jones who was himself a young trumpet player at the school in the 1940s. Riley was just eight years-old when he began seeing the legendary Garfield High School big band play free gigs in his Seattle neighborhood; it's ...
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