Radio & Podcasts
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Jake Sherman Gets Sexy
by Leo Sidran
Jake Sherman is everywhere at once and yet somehow maintains a certain air of mystery. There he is singing romantic '80s inspired jams. Here he comes making a jazz Hammond organ record at Dizzy's Club and jamming with Larry Goldings. Don't look now but he's hanging out in LA with his friends in Scary Pockets, or with his project Jake and Abe (a duo with drummer Abe Rounds). Is that him playing on the new Rosalia record? Wait, he plays ...
Continue ReadingMelissa Aldana: Sound, Time, Ideas
by Leo Sidran
Melissa Aldana is meeting her moment right now. At 33 years old, she's already a quarter of a century into a musical trip that started in Santiago, Chile. Her father and grandfather were both jazz saxophone players in Chile, and she started early, at six years old, on the alto sax. She and her father would listen to Charlie Parker, and, as she tells it, try to understand the emotional content of the music.When a few years later ...
Continue ReadingAmir ElSaffar: In search of ecstasy
by Leo Sidran
Amir ElSaffar has spent much of his life in search of the ecstatic moments that help connect to something bigger. In his case, he does this through his relationship with music and culture. Trying to define or even explain what he does is not so simple, even for him. He leads five ensembles and has released seven albums over the past 16 years. His primary instrument is the trumpet, and he has devoted much of his career to ...
Continue ReadingAdam O'Farrill: Removing the external
by Leo Sidran
Trumpet player / composer / bandleader Adam O'Farrill on belonging to a rich musical legacy (he is the grandson of Chico O'Farrill and son of Arturo O'Farrill), how video games, literature and most of all the films of Paul Thomas Anderson and scored of Ryuichi Sakamoto have informed his work, what he learned from working with Rudresh Mahanthappa and Mary Halvorson, the hazy lines around labels and categories, the importance of making space for other musicians to support one another, ...
Continue ReadingBenny Benack III: Presentation matters
by Leo Sidran
Benny Benack III didn't necessarily start out thinking he would be a hipster crooner. He spent his 10,000 hours dealing with the trumpet, and he's still dealing with it. He tells me that he brings it with him everywhere--even on dates. He says, “Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Roy Hargrove, and Clark Terry were my early idols and everything about my musical identity is steeped in the trumpet vocabulary." Benny grew up in Pittsburgh, the third in a trilogy ...
Continue ReadingLionel Loueke: Our Story Is What We Play
by Leo Sidran
When Lionel Loueke was coming of age as a young guitarist in his home country of Benin in West Africa, there were no music stores of any kind. He would have had to travel to Nigeria—the next country over--just to get his hands on some new strings. So he made due with what he had, cleaning and soaking, reusing his strings and even going so far as to tie knots in them when they broke. Lionel's story is ...
Continue ReadingThe Art Of Aging Gracefully Through Music
by Leo Sidran
Advice from friends and family ranging in age from 10 to 93 about how to stay young, what makes a meaningful life, ambition, desire, fear, success and music. With Sol Sidran age 10, Zelta Sils age 10, Zane Gruber Baruth age 21, Michael Thurber age 34, Michael Leonhart age 47, Jorge Drexler age 57, Daniel Levitin age 63, Gil Goldstein age 71, Ben Sidran age 78, Howard S. Becker age 93. ...
Continue ReadingMadison McFerrin is "shedding the narrative"
by Leo Sidran
Madison McFerrin says she's “Shedding the narrative about what it means to be an artist in the music industry." In fact, she says she's had to learn to shed a lot of things. Like her “identity."She calls herself an independent singer-songwriter, which is both true and also not entirely the whole story. Questlove calls her a “soul-appella" singer because she first found a wide audience doing solo a cappella songs, just her and a looping pedal. In fact, ...
Continue ReadingMonica Martin: All The Feelings
by Leo Sidran
Singer, songwriter, hairdresser, amateur photographer, schtick enthusiast Monica Martin talks about discovering her musical talent in her late teens, what it means to be “Wisconsin sober," the complex and delicate dynamics of her first band Phox, her mental health struggles, why it's so expensive to be poor, the many ways that she has had to integrate in her life, staying in bed all day, the influence of Fiona Apple and Billie Holiday on her music, working with James Blake, Vulfpeck, ...
Continue ReadingThe Legendary Nate Smith: What's the story?
by Leo Sidran
Drummer, composer and bandleader Nate Smith is known and celebrated in many circles. In recent years his drumming has become as influential as it has been ubiquitous. Transcription books of his playing have been written, and any drummer trying to play funk or pocket oriented music today will have to confront Nate's playing one way or another. He has a very specific and personal way of drumming, both deeply reliable and rooted, and also very fluid and flexible.
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