The Third Story with Leo Sidran

Trumpeter Philip Dizack was once named by Downbeat Magazine as "[one of twenty-five] Trumpet Players for the Future". That's not to say that he isn't for the present and with a deep respect for the tradition as well. After nearly 20 years in New York, playing with a long list of notable musicians ranging from mentors like Brian Lynch, Eddie Palmieri, and Bobby Watson to members of his own cohort including Ben Wendel, Shai Maestro and Sullivan Fortner among many others, Philip moved to Denton, TX in 2019 to join the faculty at University of North Texas. Earlier this year, we got on the phone to catch up, and that's what this episode really is: Something between a more structured career retrospective interview and a temperature check in the time of Covid, a conversation about what and how he thinks about playing, teaching ("preparing for my teaching is the most helpful thing that I've ever done for myself"), practicing ("the more specific your questions are, the more specific your answers will become"), potential ("I know I'm developing a lot but I hear so far beyond what I'm capable of doing right now"), and perspective ("if our perspective is right then we're always in complete humility"). Despite the informal nature of the episode, it's incredibly enjoyable and poignant. Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.philipdizack.com/

Israeli singer Noga Erez thinks about the fallacy of authenticity, the advantages of creative limitations, the way personal stories can be perceived as political, and what it means to make music with your heart instead of your head. She started out as a jazz singer, performing and recording her original songs with a piano trio. Those recordings are long gone, lost in a pile of defective hard drives. But anyway, she decided that her original concept was too intellectual and that it was time to make something more intuitive. Encouraged by her musical (and personal) partner Ori Rousso, she wanted to make something that wasn't so uncool. So she began producing tracks that straddle hip hop, pop. electronic, inspired by Bjork, Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus. Her first record, Off The Radar, came out in 2017 and included the song "Dance While You Shoot" that was featured in an Apple Music commercial. She toured in the states and Europe, and was positioned for a big year in 2020 as she prepared to release her new record. The more organic live versions of the songs were meant as a kind of creative exercise, but I really loved them, and as Noga explains it, so did a lot of her fans. If you haven't seen the video "VIEWS (Feat. Rousso) - [Live] Kids Against The Machine Vol. 1" by Noga Erez, it's something you should absolutely do as soon as possible. Noga's latest single, "You So Done" came out last week. We talked a few days before it was released about her career, starting as a jazz singer-songwriter and then transitioning to what she describes as "the music in my heart", but also the curious relationship between Israel and the United States from the point of view of a contemporary Israeli pop act, what it means to be a political artist, whether or not music itself can really make a difference politically today, what it means to be "the offspring of limitation" and if the phrase "I don't pop with that" actually exists or not. Also, an extensive tutorial on how to pronounce her name. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.nogaerez.com

For the second year in a row, I talk to my dad, musician/producer/journalist/philosopher Ben Sidran in honor of his birthday. This time he's turning 77, and we consider his recent projects, including the books The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma and There Was A Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream, and his latest single "Who's The Old Guy Now". Of course these are atypical times, and so this is an atypical episode, in which we discuss being alive on the planet in Covidtimes, watching livestream jazz, getting older, the difference between Troubadours, Shamans and Griots, going "underground", why jazz is sometimes called "the sound of surprise", whether or not the idea of "popular music" will endure into the 21st century, how a bill becomes a law, Miles Davis' posture, and just what exactly "hay foot, straw foot" means. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.bensidran.com

Eric Krasno is in a lot more places than one might realize. Known for his work with the bands Soulive and Lettuce, he also works with all kinds of groups as a player - including the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, Oteil Burbridge and Friends...it's a lot of friends. Maybe that's because he has one foot in the jam band world: the universe of extended grooves, risky riffing and close contact with a community of fans. What surprised me about Eric is how much stuff he actually does - he's part frontman, limelight guy, and part behind the scenes guy. For example, he also has another foot in the world of songwriting and production, and particularly in that space where soul and hip hop meet. He has produced and written songs for Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Talib Kweli, Nigel Hall, The London Souls, Marcus King, 50 Cent, and Lawrence. He also makes records as a solo artist. His most recent release Telescope came out last year, accompanied by a series of animated videos that hold together as a global narrative about the lives of a group of people who live in the same building in New York. Telescope would also turn out to be a kind of farewell love letter to New York, where Krasno was based and where he made so much of his statement for over 20 years. In late 2019 he moved to LA, settled down, and started his next act. Although he planned to focus on production, he still had over 100 gigs scheduled this year. Then the hammer of history fell, and he found himself locked down in LA. In Covidtimes, he's been doing his own podcast called Eric Krasno Plus One. We zoomed in recently to talk about what he's doing during these strange and trying times, his experience as a podcaster, producer, and provider of deep and soulful grooves. Along the way we talked about the development of Soulive, Lettuce, Velour Recordings, the values and expectations of jam and jam band audiences, "the boom bap with interesting chord changes", learning how to do less and better, and how many times one man can say the word "nugget" in an hourlong interview.

Drummer Jochen Rueckert has some things to get off his chest. Born and raised outside of Cologne, Germany, Rueckert started coming to New York as soon as he possibly could. By the time he was in his early 20s, he was already well into paying his dues. He can be heard on over 120 albums and worked or recorded with musicians and bands such as the Marc Copland Trio, the Kurt Rosenwinkel new quartet, the Mark Turner Band, the Melissa Aldana trio, the Sam Yahel trio, John Abercrombie, Pat Metheny (he tells that story here), Matt Penman, Kenny Werner, Bill McHenry, Seamus Blake, Guillermo Klein and Los Guachos as well as Madeleine Peyroux. He also leads his own band, programs and releases electronic music under the moniker Wolff Parkinson White, and has written a series of ebooks chronicling every hotel room he's stayed at with a self-timer photograph and short stories about some of the more annoying aspects of life as a touring musician, called Read The Rueckert. In this extensive and wide ranging conversation Rueckert meditates on his early years in Germany, why playing with great bass players is like eating great pasta, refusing to share hotel rooms, why he is a reluctant teacher, making electronic music, the rare innate heart condition he suffers from, how to groove with organ players, organizing tours, why one should never play with pop musicians, what it was like to play one gig with Pat Metheny, what he's thinking about when he performs, drummer Bill Stewart's time feel and volume level, Artificial Intelligence, the years he spent at Nublu in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and much, much more. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.com www.jochenrueckert.net/

Rudresh Mahanthappa has the kind of biography that suggests he might be an intimidating and serious person to talk to. He's the Director of Jazz at Princeton University where he teaches improvisation and directs small groups. He has been listed frequently in the Critics' Poll of Down Beat magazine. He studied music in India and brought that exploration into his own style of hybridized jazz (done in part for a Guggenheim Fellowship), an experience that he describes "as a way of getting to know what it means to be Indian American, it was a way of defining where I am as a person and it's almost like the music was a byproduct." Mahanthappa started playing alto saxophone as a young boy, first drawn to the more contemporary sounds of David Sandborn, Grover Washington, Jr, Bob Mintzer and Michael Brecker. In fact, here he reminisces about hearing saxophone players in popular songs on the radio (Huey Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd) when he was growing up. Eventually he heard a Charlie Parker record, which reoriented his playing. Later, he integrated his Carnatic concept as well. All three of those streams - the early influence of newer players, the bebop influence from Bird, and the Indian influence - are still evident in his approach. Rudresh has released more than 15 records as a solo recording artist, and another 30 albums as a sideman or collaborator. His new record, Hero Trio features bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston in a piano-less saxophone trio that leaves plenty of space for the unit to move together. While many of his projects have relied on original material, this record is made of interpretations, and he cast a wide net, recording material by Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, June Carter Cash, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman and others. So yes, he's serious about what he does, what he thinks about and what he plays. But he's also funny, and fun to talk to. Here we talk about his early development, the journey through music schools, cruise ships and merengue bands that ultimately led him to New York, exploring one's personal identity through music, teaching jazz in a non conservatory environment, Sesame Street, and why "just because you're improvising doesn't mean you're playing jazz". www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast

Brother and sister Clyde and Gracie Lawrence say that they've been professional musicians all their lives, they just weren't always making money at it. Raised around creative people (their mother is a dancer and their father a film director), Clyde and Gracie were encouraged to be creative from the very start. So it's no real surprise that at a very young age, they began making hip, accessible, fun, and deeply satisfying music together that walks the line between soul, funk, pop, and "Seinfeld". Whatever you call it, their music has been the soundtrack to my quarantine, something I've shared with my daughter through these strange months of physical distancing. Here Clyde and Gracie talk about bridging the gap between hip and pop, managing the creative process in a sibling band, making independent videos, defining success, creating space for young women in the world of funk music, working with producers and mentors (including Eric Krasno and Adam Schlesinger), and how to use their platform for good during these trying times. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.lawrencetheband.com

Singer-songwriter Louise Goffin says she is "uncomfortable with nostalgia". Louise Goffin says that "in order to take care of the world, you have to take care of your inner soul." Louise Goffin says "don't believe everything you think." Her new record Two Different Movies was co-produced by Louise and Dave Way, and features a long list of incredible musicians and collaborators. Our conversation itself is kind of like two different movies. One of them deals with an independent songwriter, with a decades long career (she made her first record at 18). The other explores what it was like to grow up as the daughter of young, talented parents who just happened to be two of the most celebrated songwriters of their generation (Gerry Goffin and Carole King). Songs have played an almost impossibly significant role in Louise's life, so it's no surprise that in addition to writing and recording, she also hosts the Song Chronicles podcast, where she talks to notable songwriters. This is one of those conversations that operates on multiple levels. It's both an insider's conversation about craft and career, but also a very intimate conversation about her personal journey, and why at 60 she feels like she's just getting started. https://www.third-story.com https://www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast https://www.louisegoffin.com/

I can't think of anyone I would rather talk to right now than Jason Moran. Here we consider so much about history, and so much about the present moment in our country. The conversation is as deep as it is wide, and along the way Jason considers truth versus passion, promoting the "Freedom Principle", America's unfortunate way of forgetting the past, what happens when innovation becomes rhetoric, what it means for African American musicians to move freely "from the stage to the table", the power dynamic within choosing repertoire, how Thelonious Monk and KRS-1 are similar, coming up in Houston among a generation of jazz innovators, what we still have to learn from Louis Armstrong, and what it means to be the "personal embodiment of your history". www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast

Orlando le Fleming is the kind of bass player who possesses that mysterious element, that sound, that groove, that thing that you want to hook up with. Maybe that's why some of the finest drummers in jazz have chosen Orlando to play in their groups - he logged serious miles playing with Jeff "Tain" Watts, Ari Hoenig, and Antonio Sanchez - three of the most influential drummers alive. And an early recording project with Jimmy Cobb helped to position Orlando as a bass player to know about. He's also a bass player that singers like to work with. He played with Jane Monheit for years, and spent much of the last few years on the road with Leslie Odom, Jr. (who is known for playing the role of Aaron Burr in Hamilton). Orlando co-leads a drummerless group called Owl Trio with saxophonist Will Vinson and guitarist Lage Lund, and his solo project Romantic Funk features his groovy fusiony funky tunes played by a collection of New York jazzheads. Orlando has taken his years of experience and strategies for getting it together and written a new book called Get It Together: Time and Sound Priorities for the Jazz Bass Player. Despite his exotic name, Orlando explains that he is really just a "slow Englishman". However, he does have a rather exciting secret in his past: before becoming a jazz bass player he was a professional cricketer in England. We had this conversation in early January of this year. In our talk we look at his career in general terms, talk a lot about playing the bass, the role and function of the bass in ensemble playing, ideas about composition and groove. But what we really settle into is a conversation about New York. In retrospect, the conversation is a kind of time capsule. It's a look at the jazz experience in New York just before disaster struck. From where we're sitting right now, it's hard to imagine how and when the city will open up again, what that will mean, and if jazz clubs will ever recover as they were before. Seen through that lens, today's episode is a window into a world that we can still remember but that we know is lost. Here Orlando considers how to get a sound on the bass, why he puts "rhythm before notes", what were the advantages to starting his career in England, when to leave New York, who were his mentors, the "jazz struggle" and why "groove comes from culture."