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.
Joe Alterman: Seeking wisdom from the masters
by Leo Sidran
In this episode, pianist Joe Alterman talks about his new record The Upside of Down, southern charm, “finding in jazz and black music what [he] had tried to find in Synagogue," tipping the doorman, being born 50 years too late, playing for regular people, using adversity as an opportunity, what he learned from his friendships with Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Nat Hentoff, and Ahmad Jamal.Joe is a southern guy with a sunny disposition. He came from Atlanta, and ...
Continue ReadingGeorge Wein at 90 (from 2015)
by Leo Sidran
George Wein opened his first jazz club, Storyville, in the early 1950s when he was a young man. He then created the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954. The festival became an icon among music festivals and influenced the way music was presented around the world. I spoke to George just before he turned 90, in 2015. At the time he was still vital and vibrant, working tirelessly to further the mission of his festival and his foundation (Newport Festivals Foundation). ...
Continue ReadingAntwaun Stanley: A Constant Process Of Discovery
by Leo Sidran
By the time Antwaun Stanley entered the University of Michigan in the late aughts, he was already 15 years into a successful singing career. He was signed as a contemporary gospel artist, had made the rounds on TV shows and singing contests, had been through a series of managers, producers and handlers who all recognized the immense electricity in his singing and his stage persona. Meanwhile, he was also just a regular kid from Flint, Michigan, raised by ...
Continue ReadingBen Sidran at 78: This is the other side
by Leo Sidran
For the third year in a row, I talked to musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Ben Sidran (my father) in honor of his birthday. This time he's turning 78, and we consider the “buddhist roots of jazz," joy and pain, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, the wisdom of Phil Woods, the final recordings of Lester Young, saxophonist Willis Jackson's 1978 album Bar Wars, drummer Nate Smith's latest record, how you know when you're old, and the Baal Shem Tov. ...
Continue ReadingJon Lampley: Get In Where You Fit In
by Leo Sidran
Jon Lampley knows how to “get in where you fit in." He's been doing it since he was a boy in an Ohio suburb, spending his week as “the only black kid at school" and his Sundays at Apostolic church in Akron, learning to play gospel music and call the spirit down. He also learned early on that commitment is crucial to what he does, commitment not only to the music he plays but also to the people ...
Continue ReadingMichael Mayo: Living Without Labels
by Leo Sidran
Virtuosic singer-composer Michael Mayo on managing his relationship with social media, which he describes as finding the “balance between staying sane and being seen," the subtle space between practice and performance, live looping, bi erasure, the “syllables discussion" in jazz singing, generational trauma, his debut record Bones, discernment, and living a life authentically without labels. ...
Continue ReadingJulian Lage: Notes With The Weight Of Words
by Leo Sidran
When Julian Lage plays guitar, it's hard not to get swept up in it. His relationship with the instrument is natural and contagious. Maybe that's because it's been with him for most of his life. When he was just 8 years old, Julian was the subject of an Academy Award nominated documentary film called Jules at Eight. Before he entered his teens, he had already performed with Carlos Santana and jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. While still in high school he ...
Continue ReadingRoxana Amed: Collecting Memories
by Leo Sidran
When singer/songwriter/educator Roxana Amed moved from her home in Argentina to the United States, she didn't walk. But she might as well have. She describes her new record as being like “a bag full of songs and memories" that she collected on her way from one shore to another. She seems to stand with one foot wading in the waters of the Hudson River and the other in the Rio de la Plata.She left Buenos Aires with an ...
Continue ReadingSG Goodman: Keep It Humble
by Leo Sidran
Singer-songwriter SG Goodman on growing up in a farming family in Western Kentucky before becoming a beacon for the progressive south, how music in many ways saved her life when she had to leave her farm life behind, and also gave her a way to honor her family's southern storytelling tradition, and how to maintain that Old Time Feeling (also the name of her debut album) in a modern world. ...
Continue ReadingImogen Heap: Here come the Heapsters
by Leo Sidran
Imogen Heap has to put her daughter to bed, then she can talk about what she's been working on. She can tell you about her latest single, “Last Night Of An Empire" which she released on December 9th. Coincidentally, that's also the day she launched The Creative Passport, a verified digital ID for Music Makers. In fact, December 9 has always been an auspicious day for her; it's her birthday and “everything is just a little more special on that ...
Continue Reading
