Follow Your Dream - Music And Much More!

Amanda Ekery is a Grammy nominated, Syrian-Mexican, multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer. She combines music, research and jazz into her compositions and performances. She has collaborated with a wide range of people including historians, artists, engineers and bakers. She has performed at the Portland Jazz Festival, the Panama Jazz Festival, and The Kennedy Center among others. Her latest r...

Iris Bergcrantz is a wonderful Swedish jazz and folk singer and composer. She’s been nominated for a Swedish Grammy and a Danish Music Award. She is the leader of her own band which has released four albums. She’s performed on Swedish TV and at the Rochester Music Festival. She’s also a member of the Swedish á capella folk music group Akervinda.  My featured song is “The Captain Of Her Heart”, my...

This is a tribute to Bert Kaempfert, German orchestra leader and songwriter who was responsible for some of the biggest and most important songs of the pop era, including signature hits of Frank Sinatra and Wayne Newton. And he had a major impact on the career of the Beatles too. Kaemphert was born in Hamburg in 1923 and studied at the Hamburg School of Music. He formed an orchestra and had his fi...

Tony Trischka for over 50 years has been considered one of the best and most influential roots music banjo players. His playing has inspired generations of bluegrass and acoustic musicians.  He’s a 3x Grammy nominee and he’s released seventeen solo albums. His latest is a tribute to Earl Scruggs, featuring Billy Strings and Vince Gill, which was nominated for a Grammy. He’s recorded and performed...

Joe Iconis is  a celebrated musical theater writer and performer, and a musician. In theater he’s been nominated for a Tony Award, four Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, and he’s the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Award and a Richard Rodgers Award. His musical, “Be More Chill”, played on Broadway, in London and in Tokyo. His new show is called “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S...

“MI CACHIMBER ALL STARS” is Robert’s new single. It’s an expanded version of “Mi Cachimber”, Robert’s recent release, a tribute to his father, Bert Miller, who played the trumpet and who loved Latin music. This All Star version adds two spectacular players into the original lineup. They are Camila Cortina, an extraordinary Cuban born keyboard star, and Xito Lovell, a Panamanian trombone star. Both...

Gil Even-Tsur is an architect and designer based out of New York and Tel Aviv. His work focuses on cultural projects among others. He started out playing the saxophone and he studied at The Jerusalem Academy Of Music And Dance. But he switched to architecture and now has over two decades of architectural experience. He was a Finalist To Design The Israel National Library. And he is also an author...

Kali Rodriguez-Pena is a Cuban born, Latin Grammy nominated, trumpeter, bandleader and composer. His music combines traditional Cuban music with classic jazz. He has led his own bands in top venues and festivals in North America and shared the stage with artists including Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, Anat Cohen and Esperanza Spalding. He won the top prize in Havana’s JoJazz...

OKAN consists of Cuban-Canadian musicians Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne. They are a 2x Juno Award winning Afro-Cuban group. They fuse Afro-Cuban and other global rhythms with jazz, folk and classical. They bring a fresh perspective to Latin and world jazz fusion. Twice they’ve won Juno’s World Album of the Year award. My featured song is “The Queens Carnival” from the album of the same...

Laurence Luckinbill is an acclaimed Emmy Award winning and Tony Award nominee, actor, playwright and director. He’s worked in film, television and theatre, in the latter as a writer, director and actor. He has starred in several celebrated one-man shows including as Teddy Roosevelt, Clarence Darrow and Lyndon Johnson. And he became a cult hero portraying Spock’s half-brother Sybok in the film “Sta...

Drew Stone is a filmmaker and also a hardcore punk rocker. As a filmmaker his works include music videos for acts like Run DMC and Insane Clown Posse, commercials, documentary films and television. His documentary, “Who The F… Is That Guy? The Fabulous Journey Of Michael Alago”, profiles the life of a well known music A&R guy. As a punk rocker he was the lead singer for bands in Boston and in New...

John Treacy Egan is a Broadway star. He’s an actor and a singer. He’s perhaps best known for his work in The Producers, where he started off playing Franz Liebkind. Then he took over the role of Roger De Bris. Then he graduated to the leading role of Max Bialystock. And he was in the film version too. He’s also been in many other shows including The Little Mermaid, Jekyll and Hyde, Bye Bye Birdie,...

Divinity Roxx is a 2x Grammy nominated spectacular bass player. Divi has two sides to her professionally. On the one hand she’s been the bassist and musical director for Beyoncé. And she tours with Victor Wooten, one of my favorite bass players of all time. Her music combines funk, hip hop and rock. On the other hand she’s into children’s books and music. Her compositions have been adapted into ch...

Dan Lauria is an acclaimed actor and playwright. He is perhaps best known for playing the dad on the hit television series “The Wonder Years”. He has been featured in over 70 television episodic programs and more than 20 Movie of the Week productions plus a number of feature films. He has performed, written or directed over 50 professional stage productions. On Broadway, he starred as legendary fo...

This past year was another stellar year for the podcast. I aired 260 episodes, mainly interviews with famous and amazing musicians and other creatives, but also Special Episodes featuring my new musical works, tribute episodes, and Encore episodes. As I’ve done in the past, I’ve put together a Highlights Show featuring some of the best excerpts from ten of the episodes.  Ann Hampton Callaway is on...

Kavita Shah is an Indian-American award-winning vocalist, composer and polyglot. She’s been hailed by NPR for possessing an “amazing dexterity for musical languages”. Her music covers modern jazz, new music, and her own exploration of folk traditions from Brazil to West Africa to India. Her album “Interplay” was nominated for France’s Victoire de la Musique for Jazz Album of the Year. She regularl...

Darius de Haas is a fabulous, award-winning singer whose work runs the gamut from Broadway to recordings to concerts. Here’s all you need to know. He was the singing voice for the character Shy Baldwin on Amazon's smash hit “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” for three seasons. The New York Times describes him as "An astonishing vocal acrobat combining the timbre of a pure wind instrument with the swingin...

Lucie Arnaz is a renowned actress, singer, and producer. For nearly three decades, she has performed her acclaimed nightclub act throughout the United States and Europe, in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, at Feinstein’s, 54 Below, Birdland and the Café Carlyle. She has performed at The Academy Awards show and at the White House. And she’s released several acclaimed CDs. She's known also for her roles in...

BEATLES EXCLUSIVE!! Featuring the first recordings by John, Paul, George and Ringo, recorded “live” in Hamburg, Germany in 1962.  My guest today is Nigel Pearce, Beatles expert, who previously was a guest on this podcast. The songs you will hear were recorded over the last four nights of their final run in Hamburg at The Star Club. The recordings were made on an amateur tape recorder with one micr...

Eric Jacobsen is a renowned cellist who is also the Music Director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. He is known for combining fresh interpretations of traditional works with cutting-edge collaborations across musical genres. If I’ve got this right he’s also the Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Classical Tahoe Musical Festival. Eric is...

Dani Howard is originally from Hong Kong but she’s now a renowned British composer and orchestrator. Her works have been performed by the London Symphony, BBC Symphony and Royal Philharmonic among others. She won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for her Trombone Concerto. Her debut album features the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and trombonist Peter Moore. Dani was Resident Artist with the Natio...

Shayna Steele is a soul, jazz and blues singer extraordinaire. This woman has done it all. She has performed at major venues all over the world including the Monterey Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and with a whole bunch of Symphony Orchestras including over 100 North American orchestras. She’s performed with Chris Botti, Moby and Snarky Puppy to name just a few. She has sung on the soundt...

Peter Spirer is an Academy and Emmy Award-Nominated director and producer.  His films have been official selections at the Sundance Film Festival. He’s directed over 20 feature films including “Rhyme and Reason”; “Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel” and “Notorious B.I.G”. His latest films include “The Legend of 420” which explores the legalization of cannabis, and “Sacheen”, about the Native American activi...

Rachel Therrien is a Canadian born, Grammy and Juno nominated, trumpeter, composer and bandleader. She’s a winner of the TD Grand Prize Jazz Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Stingray Rising Star Award. Her music reflects her influences from North and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. She has performed with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Claudio...

Berta Moreno is a Grammy nominated, multi-award winning jazz saxophonist and composer from Madrid, Spain. Her music combines contemporary jazz, Latin, African and Soul. She’s performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Birdland, Dizzy's, and the North Sea Jazz Festival. She has shared the stage with artists like Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter, John Patitucci and Steve Ga...