The Third Story with Leo Sidran

On this third installment of the Mob Town Tour series of episodes, we explore the Milwaukee jazz scene. I’ve always been interested in the Milwaukee players and sound, going back to when I was a youn…

On week two of the Mob Town Tour series of podcasts, we explore the Green Mill in Chicago. One of the greatest jazz clubs in the world. It’s a kind of jazz unicorn. A joint that walks the line and ma…

Morgan has a soulful voice: big pipes, lots of power, a certain swagger, and incredible technique. But although she has a classic sound,  fed by by the likes of Chaka Khan, Nina Simone and Eva Cassid…

Author Peter Straub started out with dreams of writing poetry and literary fiction. After publishing his first two novels and two books of poetry, he asked himself the question that so many artists f…

Trombonist, composer and educator Ryan Keberle has been active on the New York scene for nearly 20 years - which is really saying something considering he’s still a young man by many standards. He’s …

David Garibaldi is one of the funkiest, most influential drummers of his generation.

Those who know, know. They know about his incredible feel, technique, books and instructional videos, interest in …

Pianist, drummer, trumpeter, educator, blogger, George Colligan stopped by recently when he was visiting Brooklyn. After living in New York for 15 years, he relocated to Portland, Oregon for a teachi…

Recording and mix engineer Ryan Hewitt starting paying his dues in the business before he could even cash a check. He grew up surrounded by recording, assisting his father Dave Hewitt on mobile recor…

Ben and Leo Sidran remember record producer Tommy LiPuma and play some previously unheard interviews with him. These particular stories talk about a time in his life that hasn’t been talked about too…

Alexis Cuadrado is on a quest for the ecstatic truth. It either started in Spain when he was a young boy, or it started 20,000 years ago, depending on how you look at it.

The product of 1980s, post-F…

For a such busy guy, Adam Schatz manages to watch more television than you might imagine. At least, that’s what he says. Known to some as a music presenter, co-producer of the Winter Jazz Festival in…

Duchess is a three part close harmony vocal group comprised of Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou. All three are accomplished jazz singers in their own right, who came together for a o…

Benji Rogers was an ex sound-man, bartender, and broke 34 year old musician who was sleeping on an air mattress in his mother’s spare room, when he had a vision. Eight years later, he’s one of the mo…

Saxophonist Ben Wendel grew up in a loud household and he had to fight to be heard. Maybe that’s why it’s so important to him to be heard clearly.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Los Angeles, by the …

When Michael Dorf was a teenager in Milwaukee, he told his parents he was going to Madison for the weekend to visit a camp counselor. Instead he snuck off to New York for a lost weekend with a long d…

Pianist Spike Wilner belongs to the tradition of jazz musicians who also own and operate clubs. In his case it came by accident, or rather, a series of accidents.

Spike owns and operates Smalls and M…

I woke up on the road in Paris the morning after the American Presidential election and saw the results. Then my father and I had this brief conversation.

Nearly one year to the day after we lived th…