Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show
The Award-winning jazz podcast, hosted by Jeffrey Siegel.
Episodes
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.
For the first time ever, the complete Vince Guaraldi soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, the timeless 10th animated Peanuts special, from writer and creator Charles Schulz, director Bill Melendez and Phil Roman and producers Melendez and Lee Mendelson. Originally airing on Nov...
Perennial DownBeat Critics Poll winner trombonist Michael Dease has embraced his role as a torchbearer for his mentors and the great jazz ancestors over his 15 deeply-swinging,...
Keyboardist Jon Cowherd has been on my list of interview subjects for a long time, and after an unconscionable delay, Podcast 956 features him and his latest release, a trio album on the Le Coq Records imprint called "Pride and Joy." And what a trio it is - Cowherd joined by long-time friend and musical running partner Brian Blade on drums, and the sensational John Patitucci on bass. Add guest spots by Chris Potter on saxophone and...
As a fan of the Great American Songbook (and really, who isn't?) I'm always looking for new and different approaches to these storied songs. Enter the Nigerian born singer Douyé, whose latest release The Golden Sèkèrè, is a wonderful meld of polyrhythms, swing and soul.
Having grwon up listening to American torch singers as well as Afrobeat, it was inevitable tha...
Pianists Joe Alterman and Les McCann make something of an odd couple. The pair are separated in age by more than half a century; McCann is confined to a medical rehab facility in Los Angeles, while Alterman left New York City to return to his native Atlanta, Georgia six years ago. But since their paths first crossed back in 2012, according t...
Listeners to Straight No Chaser know I have great fondness for the music of the piano trio, an art I consider one of the highest forms of jazz in terms of improvisation and collaboration. The music these groups make grows richer over time, so those groups that stay together can often take their...
"I'm freer than I've ever been in my personal life, and I'm freer than I've ever been in my music. I'm accepting who I am. I love who I am. And as I continue to evolve – my artistry, my sexuality, and my overa...
Wayne Escoffery was riding high the morning I spoke with him. And why not? Just that weekend he had become the first person of color to conduct a performance of Charles Mingus' epic "Epitaph.," a piece he had played before under the direction of Gunther Schuller. His latest album, Like Minds, ws just out on Smoke Sessions Records, and featured top notch guests like Read more
A new face on the New York jazz scene, 25-year-old guitarist-composer Tomer Cohen made his debut as a leader earlier this year with the release of Not the Same River, an album that shows how painting with sound and silence can create...
If you think Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s remarkable, 1960 interpretation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet, The Nutcracker, is the final jazz word on the popular orchestral work, think again. Performed by drummer/leader Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band, The Pan American Nutcracker Suite is a distinctly different take on the famous score, integrating the polyrhythms and distinctive percussion from ...
If it’s June, then jazz festival season must be underway. As always, the early highlight for me is Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, held in lovely Saratoga Springs’ Performing Arts Center June 24-25.
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It’s been a while, but I’m pleased to say that Straight No Chaser is back in business! There is a lot of great content coming up, so please spread the word.
We’ll kick things off with my conversation wi...
Looking for some new Christmas jazz tunes to brighten your hoilday spirit? Our annual consumer guide gives you a chance to hear a track or two from recent releases of holiday music. This year features "new" releases from Norah Jones and Vince Guaraldi (deluxe versions of previous albums) and a comprehensive collection from Louis Armstrong. There are also single/EP only tunes from Laila Biali, Samara Joy, and Matt Wilson.
I'm featur...
We heard from promising young jazz singer Samara Joy in Podcast 943 last week, and today it’s Tawanda’s turn.
When she tied for first place with Gabrielle Cavassa in the 9th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, the feat was all the more impressive given that Tawanda had performed her first full show just a year before. Raised in the deep south of New Mexico on the border with Texas, she is proudly a first gene...
On Straight No Chaser this week, we feature two promising young female vocalists and their most recent releases. Both Samara Joy McLendon and Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim have professionally dropped their last names. Both were winners of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition, in 2019 and 2021, respectively ( Tawanda’s competition was originally slated to be held in 2020 but delayed due to COVID). Both are following well-wo...
Back in the early 70’s, drummer Mike Clark and bassist Paul Jackson were best friends, living in East Oakland, playing flatbed gigs at Black Panther rallies and generally raising hell. Cooking was not their forte, so the barbecue joint next door became a hangout. Mrs. Jones (of Everett and Jones) asked them to write a song to promote the spot, and they came up with the first version of ‘God Made Me Funky.’ Bill Summers worked with...
Bobby Watson continues to carry the Hard Bop torch well into the 21st century. And he sounds as vibrant as ever on his latest release, Back Home in Kansas City (Smoke Sessions Records), which was released last month. He’s joined by some familiar faces – his longtime rhythm section of bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Jones along with two stars in their own right - pianist Cyrus Chestnut and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.
The album is...
Marshall Gilkes keeps one foot firmly in the world of jazz, and another in the classical world. On any given night in New York, you might find the trombonist playing with the New York Philharmonic, filling in a Big Band brass section, or soloing with a salsa band. He is in demand as part of the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the WDR Big Band, as well as the Slide Monsters Trombone Quartet, and leading his own projects This has led t...
I enjoyed having author Sammy Stein on the podcast so much (check out Podcast 810), when I learned she had a new book out, I had to have her back.
The Wonder of Jazz: Music That Changed the World is slim in size but not in scope, as she takes both the jazz newbie and the aficinado on a tour of jazz past, present and future. Backed with a long listening list, it represents the ideal read for those looking to get deeper into this gr...
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