Six Count

Mark Wells is a pianist and vocalist for Peter Lamb & the Wolves , among other bands in the Triangle. You can find the Wolves next on Sunday, March 5, at SideBar in downtown Cary from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Mark shares about the Benny Goodman Small Groups, the King of Swing’s original trio and quartet from the early 1940s. The pianist played a tribute performance at the Sharp Nine Gallery on February 4...

Christian Tamburr is a vibraphonist, pianist, composer, and arranger based in the Triangle. The musician joined Six Count to share about the Trio Legacy of Jazz Series at the Fuquay-Varina Arts Center happening this spring in Fuquay-Varina. Christian also shares about his varied career so far, which has included touring with Julio Iglesias and Cirque du Soleil! Upcoming events  Thursday, March 9,...

Al Strong shares with Six Count about the winter live music series he’s been curating on behalf of Beyu Caffe in Downtown Durham. The shows, at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, will continue through February.  You can purchase tickets ($25 for seating, $12 for standing) on the venue’s website .  This message features live music by flutist Rebecca Kleinmann from her shows at Beyu on Jan...

Vocalist Frankie Alexander grew up listening to her sister’s jazz records, but never thought she’d become a musician herself until her late twenties. A North Carolina native from Concord, Frankie was discovered by Baltimoreans Yusuf Salim (born Joseph Blair), a jazz pianist and composer, and Bus Brown, a vocalist and friend of Billie Holiday.  Yusuf moved to Durham in the 1970s to escape Baltimore...

Jazz flutist Rebecca Kleinmann moved to the Triangle in February 2022 after more than 20 years in California, and a dozen in the Bay Area alone.  The internationally renowned musician joined Six Count to share about her first year in North Carolina after a busy year splitting time between both coasts. Her first 12 months included selling out her Durham debut show at the Sharp Nine Gallery ; joinin...

Ittai Korman (upright and electric bass), Theous Jones (drums and percussion), and Joe MacPhail (piano and keyboards) of DreamRoot joined Six Count in Durham. The trio released Leaf , the group’s second album, on October 28 at the NorthStar Church of the Arts.  DreamRoot recorded Leaf in the Catskills of Upstate New York (not far from where Six Count originated, in Albany, New York!) in the summer...

Pianist Michael Pelz-Sherman and multi-instrumentalist Hal Goodtree joined Six Count at Chatham Street Records , an indie record label in Cary, North Carolina. The label supports local artists through artist management, fair-share royalty collection, music production, and distribution.  Michael and Hal’s next album, “Notes from the Suburbs,” released November 8. Follow the Lounge Doctors on Spotif...

North Carolina native Ellis Dyson (of the band Ellis Dyson & The Shambles ) joined Six Count just before a performance at The Cave in Chapel Hill.  The show was the first gig on The Shambles’s short tour along the East Coast this October. The band is known for combining “old-time influences ranging from early New Orleans Jazz to Piedmont Murder Ballads.” Now based in New Orleans, Ellis shares abou...

Thrio is, you guessed it, a trio (“. . . because there’s three of them!”) featuring Andrew Berinson on piano, Donovan Cheatham on drums, and Paul Creel on bass. They released the group’s first album, Volume 1, in fall 2022. This interview was recorded on September 23, 2022, before Thrio’s performance at the Sharp Nine Gallery in Durham through the Durham Jazz Workshop. You can catch Thrio next at...

For a special episode of Six Count, the women of Jazz Voices reunite. Peg Delaney , a pianist, composer and arranger, is responsible for the vocal group with Jody Shayne , Colleen Pratt and Teresa Broadwell . Thank you for listening to Six Count. This show, hosted and produced by Xara Wilde, seeks to promote and preserve the jazz and swing scene in the Capital Region of New York. Six Count is a li...

Rod Ferrone is a tap dancer and vaudevillian based in Upstate NY. After dropping out of college, Ferrone went on to lead a long-standing dance career in NYC. He eventually partnered up with Joe Orrach, a boxer-turned-tap-dancer. On a park bench outside of McGeary’s Irish Pub in downtown Albany, Ferrone shares some of their most memorable performances, including a two-hour act where Gregory Hines m...

William Kennedy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and journalist based in Averill Park, N.Y. As a reporter for Albany's Times Union, Kennedy interviewed Louis Armstrong at the Kenmore Hotel. He shares about this conversation with Satchmo as well as his other run-ins with jazz greats including Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall and Duke Ellington at a prom in Upstate N.Y. The author also details the...

Six Count caught up with pianist Wayne Hawkins at the Halfmoon Diner in Clifton Park, N.Y.  Originally from Kansas City, Hawkins now plays in a variety of jazz styles around the Capital Region as well as composes and arranges music for films, commercials and recording artists. In showbiz, he’s collaborated with the movie stars Bruce Lee and Kristin Chenoweth, among others.  Learn more about Hawkin...

A Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. A public concert by opera singer Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. The World’s Fair in New York. All three events took place in 1939 and are at the center of crime novelist Frankie Bailey’s next novel. The historical thriller, “A Penny Struck by Lightning,” takes the reader into the world of jazz in New York City at the height of the Great...

Hudson Valley-based musician Rich Syracuse spoke with host Xara Wilde following a gig with the Chuck Lamb Trio at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Syracuse, who plays the string and electric bass, has been a mainstay in the area’s jazz scene for more than three decades. He began his jazz career at the age of 13 in New York City and received his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Mu...

Drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel and pianist Andre Peterson sat down with host Xara Wilde to chat briefly before a gig with bassist Ira Coleman at Grappa '72 in Albany, N.Y. Peterson, based in Johannesburg, shares what it was like to grow up around South Africa's jazz greats, how music was used as a political force during apartheid and where the scene is headed now. Siegel is a veteran of the jazz worl...

Graeme Francis is a percussionist who began playing jazz around the Capital Region four years ago after moving from San Antonio, Texas. Originally from Prince Edward Island, Canada, Francis has played with numerous chamber orchestras and ensembles, jazz bands and other musical groups across the country. Francis shares about his years working with Texas-based pianist Doc Watkins, including a perfor...

Vocalist Colleen Pratt performs in her four-piece band, “Colleen Pratt & Friends,” as well as a host of other jazz groups around the Capital Region. She is the daughter of musicians Helen and Norman Pratt and the niece of renowned jazz pianist and trombonist Bobby Pratt. Her uncle played with some of the biggest swing bands of the 1940s, regularly performing with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Sid...

Drummer Tim Coakley performs with Skip Parsons’ Riverboat Jazz Band, a dixieland band (featured in our pilot episode!), as well as his own trio. He has played with jazz greats including Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson and Buddy Tate.  Coakley is also the president of A Place for Jazz, a fall concert series in the Capital Region, and host of the Tim Coakley Jazz Show (Saturdays from 11 p.m. to midnight...

Joe Finn is a jazz guitarist playing in the post-bop style around Upstate New York. On this episode, Finn shares about teaching music lessons during the "Beatlemania" era of the 1960s, growing up with his father's vast record collection, and what it was like to start his professional jazz career by traveling across the United States and Canada during his twenties.  Finn, who received his bachelor'...

While visiting Galway, Ireland earlier this week, host Xara Wilde spoke with Alan Bramwell of Giants of Jazz Radio to share about the pilot season of Six Count. The station, based in Lancashire, England, will begin airing the show starting next Wednesday, Oct. 23. Episodes will broadcast on Wednesdays and Sundays at 12:30 p.m. EST (4:30 p.m. UK time). GOJR has an international audience and brings...

Tyler Giroux is a valve trombone and piano player based in Troy, N.Y. He performs around the Capital Region with the Giroux Brothers (featuring his brother, Nate Giroux, on sax and clarinet), Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra, the Dylan Perrillo Orchestra, Phil Allen's Concert Jazz Band, Bryan Brundige and the Piggly Wigglies, and Mike Jenkins and the Fat Ties, among others. You can find Giroux'...

Peter Fisher is the owner and founder of Collar City Guitars , a guitar shop that specializes in repairs, sales and service on 199 4th Street in Troy, N.Y. The luthier and rhythm guitarist is also the founder of the Gypsy Jazz Jam, a free and open event that takes place on the third Tuesday of every month at the Ale House in Troy. Jam nights are from 7-9 p.m. (or until everyone is kicked out). All...

Jeanine Ouderkirk is a vocalist based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. On this episode, Ouderkirk shares how she came to pursue life as a professional jazz singer while in college, how she battles nerves before performing and what working as a vocalist is like near the home of the Saratoga Race Course. Ouderkirk received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam....

Zach Cohen is the guitarist for Le Bēt, an electro-swing band with roots in gypsy jazz, and swing and electronic music. On this episode, Cohen shares how he and clarinetist Jonathan Greene got the band started, what it was like to play with internationally-renowned guitarist Stephane Wrembel at WAMC’s The Linda, and about life as a professional musician in Upstate New York. Follow Le Bēt on Facebo...