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.

Gregory Porter Returns To The Alley

by Leo Sidran
November 4, 2026

Hearing Gregory Porter sing, it's hard to imagine there was ever a time when he considered doing anything else.He's known for his rich, unmistakable baritone, a voice that draws equally from jazz, gospel, blues, and soul. Today he's a celebrated, Grammy-winning artist who plays for audiences of thousands. He plays four nights in a row at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He is simply a fact of life for those who light up at the sound of ...

Monty Alexander: A Student of Joy

by Leo Sidran
October 28, 2026

For more than seven decades, pianist Monty Alexander has occupied a singular place in jazz, combining the swing and improvisational language of American jazz with the rhythms and musical traditions of his native Jamaica.Here Alexander traces his journey from Kingston recording sessions with ska pioneers to the New York jazz scene, where an unlikely connection with Frank Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo led to friendships and collaborations with some of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.

Richard Marx After Hours

by Leo Sidran
October 24, 2026

For a period of time in the late 1980s, it was nearly impossible to turn on pop radio without hearing a song by Richard Marx. One of the most commercially successful singer-songwriters of his generation, Marx's music helped define the sound of late-'80s pop and rock ballads. Songs like “Right Here Waiting" and, later, “Now and Forever" became so ubiquitous that they could almost be taken for granted. Classics hiding in plain sight, but often coming out after ...

The Iconic Harry Connick, Jr.

by Leo Sidran
October 6, 2026

From the time he showed up on the scene in his late teens, Harry Connick, Jr. seemed destined for an unusual career. His early Columbia recordings placed him alongside musicians like Ron Carter, Dr. John and Carmen McRae; the When Harry Met Sally... soundtrack made him a star at 22. In the decades since, he has moved freely between jazz, pop, Broadway, film and television, while continuing to work as a pianist, singer, composer and arranger. But by ...

Nicole Zuraitis Baked Her Own Cake

by Leo Sidran
September 30, 2026

Nicole Zuraitis has spent much of her career being asked (and asking herself) variations of the same question: where do you fit? Is the music jazz? Is it pop? Is it cabaret?Her new album, The Devil I Knew, doesn't exactly settle the question. Instead, it makes the question seem increasingly beside the point.It's a sprawling, 20-song project produced by Larry Klein, with string arrangements by Vince Mendoza, horn charts by Jerry Hey, and musicians including Larry ...

Sullivan Fortner: The Music Tells You Where to Go

by Leo Sidran
September 16, 2026

It is hard to overstate the exuberance and awe expressed by other musicians when talking about Sullivan Fortner. At under 40 years old, he is one of a small handful of pianists who have moved the instrument and its potential forward. And by doing so, he's demonstrated that innovation can happen from within the tradition of what came before rather than reinventing it outright. To those who know, he is both a living reality and, as a jazz ...

Folk and Futurism with Sofia Rei

by Leo Sidran
September 9, 2026

Argentine singer, composer and producer Sofía Rei talks about leaving Buenos Aires and rediscovering the music of home, moving beyond the boundaries of jazz, embracing electronics and production, and learning from collaborators and students. Her new album, Antónima (GroundUP), brings those threads together through what she calls “Folk and Futurism" a meeting place for tradition, technology and a distinctly contemporary musical identity. ...

Ashley Kahn on the Miracles and Wonder of Paul Simon’s Graceland

by Leo Sidran
August 26, 2026

Forty years ago this month, Paul Simon released Graceland, an album that became one of the defining records of his career, and one of the most celebrated and debated albums of its era.The story famously begins with a cassette of South African township music that Simon couldn't stop listening to. He followed that sound to Johannesburg, where he began recording with local musicians, eventually building an album that also incorporated zydeco, Norteño music, gospel and the sounds of ...

Ben Sidran At 83: “Entropy Is Inevitable, But The Antidote Is Available”

by Leo Sidran
August 19, 2026

Last week my father, Ben Sidran, turned 83rd, and as I do every year, I talked to him for The Third Story podcast.These annual conversations have become a tradition, a way of tracking our relationship, and an artist, over time.Ben is a jazz musician, producer, writer and broadcaster. He was once described by the Chicago Sun-Times as “a Renaissance man cast adrift in the modern world." This year, I came across a 1974 DownBeat cover story ...

Julieta Venegas Has A Good Memory

by Leo Sidran
May 20, 2026

Julieta Venegas grew up in Tijuana, a city that sits at Mexico's northwestern edge and the United States' southwestern edge. Maybe it makes sense that someone raised in a city suspended between identities would resist fixed categories herself. Julieta Venegas has spent much of her career moving fluidly between musical worlds. Like Tijuana itself, Julieta seems most comfortable in the in-between. She was born in 1970 in Long Beach California, and raised in Tijuana. Her parents ...