PODCAST

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Jeffrey Siegel

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

music performing arts

All Episodes

01:13:39

Podcast 659: Joshua Redman @ 50

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/02/01

Much like was said about Bruce Springsteen 15 years earlier, it sometimes seems that if Joshua Redman had not existed, the jazz press would have had to make him up. The story is too perfect – the son of noted African-American jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer/librarian Renee Shedroff who was, the daughter of Polish Immigrant Jews, picks up the clarinet and saxophone before his tenth birthday, and excels at both. He listens to earth, Wind & Fire and Led Zeppelin as often as he hears John

28:13

Podcast 658: A Conversation with Ben Wendel

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/01/31

The story of The Seasons, Ben Wendel’s fine CD released late last year, is absolutely fascinating. It’s a story of artistic discovery and whimsy, and it ends with a top-notch band playing top-notch music. It begins in 2015, when saxophonist-bassoonist-composer Wendel heard a set of twelve piano pieces written and released in a music magazine each month by Tchaikovsky in 1876. Inspired by this idea of subscription oriented art, he composed and released twelve original jazz chamber duets – one a month

51:25

Podcast 657: A Conversation with Alfredo Rodriguez &...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/01/27

After pianist Alfredo Rodriguez arranged to get percussion master Pedrito Martinez to appear on a few tracks of his 2014 Mack Avenue release The Invasion Parade, it seemed inevitable that they would collaborate further. Both born and raised in Cuba, Pedrito is a decade older than Alfredo, but they displayed a natural feel for playing together, and bring out the best in one another. Duologue is the album that shows just how much the two can do together. Stripping things down to just the pair, they

41:38

Podcast 656: A Conversation with Jamie Saft and Bobby...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/01/25

For the past five years, we’ve had a rare chance to hear the music of a kinder, gentler Jamie Saft. The prolific keyboardist-composer-producer-entrepreneur is known for his long association with the downtown aesthetic of John Zorn and Tzadik Records, and for bringing the sound of everything from death metal to dub into the jazz scene. Recording primarily for the RareNoise label for the past few years, he continues to show new and engrossing facets of his musical personality, whether in traditional

Repost: Podcast 406: "I Have a Dream" for Martin...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/01/21

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow

29:21

Podcast 655: A Conversation with Joe Lovano

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/01/20

I have always associated Joe Lovano with the Blue Note label. For 25+ years, he recorded as a leader with that august label, primarily due to his friendship with the late Bruce Lundvall. But at the same time, Lovano was a fixture at ECM, recording as sideman for John Abercrombie, Paul Motian, Marc Johnson and Steve Kuhn. The results are many of my favorite jazz recordings of the past few decades. It was only a matter of time before he would record with Manfred Eicher as a leader, and one of the

32:48

Podcast 654: A Conversation with Natalie Weiner about...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2019/01/18

1959 has always been one of my favorite years. It gave us “Ben-Hur”, the Guggenheim Museum, Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Twilight Zone”. John Kennedy started his campaign for President. Heck, I was BORN in 1959. It was an auspicious year for jazz recordings as well. Before the new decade started, classics such as Kind of Blue, Giant Steps, Time Out, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Mingus Ah Um and Sketches of Spain were all released. So influential are these albums that I truly don’t need to

Noted in Passing 2018

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2018/12/26

We lost a number of major talents in the jazz world this year, but perhaps none were more of a shock than the passing of trumpeter Roy Hargrove at the age of 49. Far too young, with way too much music left inside him. Just last week we lost singer Nancy Wilson. Well-known performers we list this year include saxophonists Nathan Davis, Charles Neville and Sonny Fortune; pianists Randy Weston and Henry Butler; and singer Rebecca Parris. Other noted in passing include: Clarinetist Perry Robinson;

The Official Straight No Chaser Song of Christmas Day...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2018/12/25

Merry Christmas to you all. I am a practicing Jew who does not celebrate Christmas as the birth of the messiah. However, I can appreciate the universal themes of peace, love and understanding that are prevalent this time of year, and so the Official Straight No Chaser song of Christmas Day is "Peace" written by Horace Silver,. This year we have a wonderful duet version of the song, as performed by the François Moutin (bass) & Kavita Shah (Vocals) Duo form their Interplay album. Considered one of the

The Official Straight No Chaser Song of Christmas Eve

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2018/12/24

t's December 24, which means that once again it's time to break out the Official Straight No Chaser Song of Christmas Eve. It's not really a song, actually, but Louis Armstrong reciting "Twas the Night Before Christmas", in his inimitable raspy voice. Recorded on February 26, 1971 at his home in Queens, New York, this ended up being the final recording Armstrong made, before succumbing to a fatal heart attack on July 6th. The poem, written by Clement Moore, is technically titled "An Account of a

06:01

11_-_Peace.mp3

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2018/12/23

The Jazzbo "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2018/12/22

For years I've been sharing this with you. Originally published in Mad Magazine #52 Jan 1960. It never gets old. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the pad, Not a hipster was swinging, not even old Dad; The chimney was hung in the stocking routine, In hopes that “The Fat Man” would soon make the scene; The moon and the snow were, like, faking together, Which made the scene rock in the Day People weather, When, what to these peepers should come on real queer, But a real crazy sleigh,

If Billie Holiday sang "Away in a Manger": Santaland...

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show ·

2018/12/20

A Christmas tradition in our house is listening to David Sedaris read his hilarious essay, “Santaland Diaries.” An abbreviated version of his some-what exaggerated memories of working as a Christmas Elf in Macy’s Department Store in New York first was heard on NPR’s Morning Addition in 1992. Since then it has grown to be a long-form essay in his collections Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice. I’ve seen Joe Mantello’s stage adaption for one actor a few times. For me, Sedaris’ humor is always dead on,