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Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Jeffrey Siegel

The Award-winning jazz podcast, hosted by Jeffrey Siegel.

music performing arts

All Episodes

27:54

Podcast 978: A Conversation with Edy Forey

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/06/04

Those who cover music love to categorize the music and musicians we focus on. I put myself all too often into this group. What should I call it? Is it Acid Jazz? Post Bop? Downtown Loft? But far too often muscians fall in between the cracks of these often arbitrary categories, and we are left looking for new descriptive words. Often the words fail us. The UK-based duo Edy Forey are definitely in those cracks, even if they call their music “Urban Jazz.” What does that sound like, and where does

32:46

Podcast 977: A Conversation with Nicola Caminiti

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/06/03

""In a world where it's easy to be cynical and bitter, what strikes me most about Nicola and his music is the pure joy and excitement that he brings and carries with him at all times. To be present in the euphoria of this art form is the most difficult skill the way I see it and many young artists seem to ignore that simple and powerful fact. Nicola, in addition to being an accomplished instrumentalist and composer, possesses that ineffable quality that draws us to his music." - Rio Sakairi, the

38:58

Podcast 976: A Conversation with Zaccai Curtis

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/06/01

Zaccai Curtis continues to be one of the most engaging piano players of the past decade. Whether as a band leader (alone or with his brother Luques) or backing the likes of the late Ralph Peterson, Lakecia Benjamin and Cindy Blackman Santana, his strong sense of rhythm and deep knowledge of Latin and Afro-Cuban sounds and Bebop chords make him a cornerstone of those artist’s sounds. Cubop Lives! is an album that stands as the culmination of his work as a composer/arranger, performer, and educator

29:09

Podcast 975: A Conversation with Charles McPherson,...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/04/25

Podcast 975 continues my conversation with the great Charles McPherson. A giant of the saxophone, Charles is a product of the rich jazz city of Detroit, where he was mentored by the late Barry Harris. His closest childhood friend was the future trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer; the two later played together with the iconic Charles Mingus, with whom McPherson would tour and record for more than a decade. McPherson and Hillyer lived just blocks from the famed Blue Bird Inn, a renowned jazz club where the

37:26

Podcast 974: A Conversation with Charles McPherson,...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/04/23

Reverence is Charles McPherson’s first release for Smoke Sessions Records, and a few listens reveal why he’s been held in such reverence for the last 64 years. The album captures a scintillating live performance from Smoke Jazz Club, where McPherson is joined by his remarkable current group featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Jeb Patton, bassist David Wong, and drummer Billy Drummond. The set is a showcase for McPherson’s gifts as both composer and soloist and bridges his deep and

31:52

Podcast 973: A Conversation with Linda Purl

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/04/20

You’ve probably seen Linda Purl act more often than you’ve heard her sing. Besides being Richie Cunningham’s girlfriend and Fonzie’s fiancée on Happy Days, Matlock’s daughter Charlene Matlock, and Pam’s Mom/Steve Carell’s girlfriend on The Office, she has had stints on Homeland, True Blood, and Hacks. She has starred in over 45 made-for-TV movies and is currently recurring on The Bold and the Beautiful. She’s been on the Broadway stage and a number of Off-Broadway productions, performing roles from

28:51

Podcast 972: A Conversation with Dane Alderson of...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/03/30

Since Yellowjackets’ eponymous 1981 debut album, the group has hewed its own creative path, influencing colleagues with enviable compositional craftsmanship and an ever-shifting blend of influences. In many ways Yellowjackets embody both continuity and renewal, with founding pianist/keyboardist Russell Ferrante providing the four-decade thread first joined by Will Kennedy, who took over the drum chair from 1987-99 and returned to the fold in 2010. Bob Mintzer, a Jacket since 1990, contributes

20:52

Podcast 969: A Conversation with Fernando Trueba

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/03/26

Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Bossa Nova-themed animated film They Shot the Piano Player will be in wide release nationwide from Sony Classic Pictures this week. Trueba and Mariscal are the duo behind the 2012 Academy Award nominated Chico and Rita, and their latest work features a who’s who of the best of Brazilian music, including João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, Milton Nascimento and Paulo Moura. The film follows a New York music journalist who goes on a

31:03

Podcast 971: A Conversation with George Coleman, Part...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/03/14

The legendary George Coleman’s latest project is a release from hard-bop supergroup One For All, an album appropriately called Big George on Smoke Sessions Records. One For All is composed of tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, trumpeter Jim Rotondi, trombonist Steve Davis, pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth. Coleman joins the group on three tracks, the Rotondi original “Oscar Winner,” standard “My Foolish Heart,” and Hank Mobley’s “This I Dig of You.” Coleman

29:40

Podcast 970: A Conversation with George Coleman, Part...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/03/12

New York’s premier hard-bop supergroup, One for All has evolved over the course of its quarter-century history from a sextet of young torchbearers to an assemblage of the music’s most revered traditionalists. Just how in-demand these six artists have become can be traced by the span of time that elapses between albums. 2016’s The Third Decade followed its predecessor by five years; seven years of that decade have now passed before the band’s long-awaited follow-up, Big George. Due out March 15,

36:07

Podcast 968: A Conversation with Ada Rovatti

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/02/28

Italy-born, Long Island, New York-based saxophonist and arranger Ada Rovatti’s seventh album as a leader, The Hidden World of Piloo is deeply personal, and stylistically varied. It features six improvisationally rich instrumentals that include blues grooves, samba vibes, straight-up lyricism, melancholic balladry and a comedic finale. Two songs include strings; another features the dobro, a country instrument unlikely to be in a jazz song. In a change for Ada, several compositions showcase

20:14

Podcast 967: A Conversation with Sullivan Fortner,...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/02/19

In Part One of our conversation, pianist and composer Sullivan Fortner talked about the creation of his latest release, the creative two-disc Solo Game. One disc is solo piano, the result of a curation in the studio with his mentor Fred Hersch, and the other electric keyboard and other musical toys to create both composed through and improvised soundscapes. Part Two talks about future Fornter projects, like his coming performance with the National Symphony in `Washington DC to salute Duke Ellington

29:13

Podcast 966: A Conversation with Sullivan Fortner,...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/02/17

The latest release from the rising star Sullivan Fortner shows off two very different sides of his musical pallet – lyrical and moving solo piano, and electronic explorations. Both will leave you wanting more, and to hear what he has next up his sleeve. Frustrated by his lack of musical outlets during the pandemic, “Game,” the second of two discs that make up Solo Game came first. Visiting a studio in Brooklyn to consider a project, Fortner began employing a range of instruments and effects —

39:27

Podcast 965: A Conversation with Giorgi Mikadze

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2024/02/03

Giorgi Mikadze (pronounced “Gih-ohr-gih Mih-kahd-zeh”) is a pianist who values his heritage and roots, having been born and raised in Georgia, at the foot of the Caucasus mountains. While his training and early carer arch may have seemed typical for an aspiring jazz musician – classical training, Berklee and Manhattan School of Music studies, time on the road with his elders – his choice of music is not. Rather than concentrate on the Great American Songbook or record only his own compositions,

31:12

Podcast 964: A Conversation with Nitai Hershkovits

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2023/12/31

Following in the footsteps of the giants of solo piano who have recorded for ECM Records, Call on the Old Wise is Nitai Hershkovits’ first record as a leader for the famous label, presenting his powerful pianistic ingenuity in a largely improvised solo setting. A veteran of Oded Tzur’s quartet (he appears on Isabela and Here Be Dragons), Nitai was also a mainstay of Avishai Cohen’s trio from 2011 to 2016. The album is partially dedicated to Nitai’s former piano teacher Suzan Cohen, with whom he

26:02

Podcast 963: A Conversation with Buster Williams

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2023/12/29

As 2023 comes to a close, Straight No Chaser posts a few conversations with artists who produced memorable albums this year. Today’s podcast features bassist Buster Williams, who released Unalome on the Smoke Sessions label this past winter. While the band on Unalome is familiar – drummer Lenny White, pianist George Colligan, alto saxophonist Bruce Williams and Vibes master Stefon Harris are all long-time running partners – the album adds vocalist Jean Baylor for covers and Williams originals that

30:16

Podcast 962: A Conversation with Dominic Miller

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2023/12/28

Dominic Miller may be best known to the world as Sting’s “right-hand man on guitar” and co-writer of “Shape of My Heart,” among the ex-Police bassist's other pop hits. But the multi-faceted Miller has a completely different outlet for his improvisatory talents as well. Vagabond is the guitarist’s third recording for ECM, and might prove his most poetic tale to date. After Dominic’s debut Silent Light (2017), which captured the guitarist in solo performances with occasional percussive injections by

17:49

Podcast 961: A Conversation with Ralph Towner, Part Two

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2023/12/27

On Part Two of our conversation, guitarist Ralph Towner talks about his growth as a guitarist from his early days playing trumpet and piano, through his time with influential bands like the Paul Winter Consort and Oregon, and then his many solo, duo and trio recordings. We talk about his work with Wolfgang Muthspeil and Slava Grigoryan (From a Dream and Travel Guide in 2008 and 2013) as well as his favorite duo recordings, especially those with bassist Gary Peacock. We also discuss some of his

32:30

Podcast 960: A Conversation with Ralph Towner, Part One

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2023/12/26

At the age of 83, guitarist Ralph Towner continues to write, perform and improvise on the highest of musical levels. He has been an ECM artist for more than fifty years, appearing in many different contexts, one of the most important being a run of solo recordings which began with Diary in 1973. At First Light is the latest addition to the solo guitar series. Never one to be pigeon-holed as an interpreter and composer of a specific type of music, this release features new and old Towner pieces, as

32:18

Podcast 959: A Conversation with Christine Jensen

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2023/11/20

One of the few positives of the horrid COVID pandemic that shook the music world to its core has been the release of musci composed during those uncertain days. Alton and soprano saxophonist Christine Jensen's lastest album, Day Moon (Justin Time Records) stands as a shining example of how a great musician turns struggle into art. Recorded with her quartet of pianist Steve Amirault and her long-time collaborators bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Jim Doxas, Day Moon is highlighted by the four-song

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