The Third Story with Leo Sidran

Gil Goldstein is an arranger, composer, educator, pianist and accordionist. He has arranged projects for artists including Michael Brecker, Esperanza Spalding, Boz Scaggs, Michael Franks, Dave Sanborn, Chris Botti, The Manhattan Transfer, Paul Simon, and Pat Metheny, and produced projects for Bobby McFerrin, Jane Monheit, Mike Stern, Jim Hall and Randy Brecker…and more. His book, The Jazz Composer...

Jon Batiste  is one of the most exciting young jazz performers around, so it was no surprise to see him on the Colbert Report earlier this year, leading his band (Stay Human) and the entire audience (including Colbert) in a parade out of the studio and into the streets of New York. Born in Kenner, Louisiana into a musical family, Jon started performing as a young boy - singing and playing drums wi...

Adam Dorn , musician, producer and composer, got his start early. Encouraged by his father, legendary record producer Joel Dorn, Adam left his home in Philadelphia when he was still in high school to pursue a life in music. Over the years, he has worked as a session musician on countless records, and as a producer for other artists. His solo project, "Mocean Worker" came about almost by accident,...

Janis Siegel  was born in Brooklyn and fell in love with the pop music of her day – doo-wop, pop, girl groups and folk music. She began her professional singing career when she was 12 years old, and was already a seasoned professional by the time she finished high school.  Her early career sounds like a movie script: singing back up on pop records when she was a teenager, hanging out on the West V...

Saxophonist John Eliis grew up in North Carolina, in a family that valued the arts and creativity, but also surrounded by what he refers to as "country people". He attended high school and part of college at an arts academy in North Carolina before moving to New Orleans, and eventually settling in New York city, about 15 years ago. He works regularly as a sideman with other jazz artists including...

Greg Holden  is a Brooklyn based British singer-songwriter. He moved to New York in 2009 and quickly became part of the songwriter scene, appearing regularly at Rockwood Music Hall, and opening for larger artists including Ingrid Michaelson and A Great Big World. Holden's song "Home" was recorded in 2012 by American Idol winner Phillip Phillips and became a huge hit, selling over five million copi...

Michael Hearst is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer. He relocated to Brooklyn from Richmond, Virginia in 2001, and quickly became part of a burgeoning creative scene in Park Slope. Since then, Michael has developed a number of intriguing, inspired, curious, and collaborative projects, often with his band One Ring Zero, and more recently as solo endeavors. He often collaborates with unli...

André De Shields is an actor, dancer and singer with a career spanning over 40 years. He first came to national attention in 1975 when he was cast in the title roll of The Wiz on Broadway (a roll he helped to develop and create). Since then, he's been a mainstay on the Great White Way, as well as in television, film and regional theater.  Here, André talks about growing up in Baltimore in the 1950...

James Farber  is a Grammy Award winning recording and mixing engineer. He started his career in the mid 1970s working at the legendary Power Station studio in New York (now the site of Avatar Studios). After a stint working with Nile Rogers, he went out on his own as a freelance engineer in the 1980s. Since then, he's been one of the most highly respected and in demand engineers in New York, speci...

Emma Straub is the author of the novels The Vacationers and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. 

Arranger, composer, keyboard player and producer Rob Mounsey has been a steady studio cat since the mid 70s when he was discovered playing in a Boston bar band and invited to move to New York. Since then, he's worked with many of the greatest artists of the time - the list is too long to place here, but suffice it to say that he's worked on a lot of records you've heard.  Here he talks about his p...

Jesse Harris is a singer, songwriter, guitar player and producer who has been walking the line between jazz and pop since he got started in the mid 90’s. While he was on a road trip with a friend, he stopped in Denton, Texas to visit some other musician friends of his, and happened to meet Norah Jones, who was still a student. The two became friends and ended up starting a band together after Nora...

  Jazz trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt knew what he wanted to do from the first moment he heard the sound of Freddie Hubbard playing on the “Ugetsu” album by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, when he was just a boy. Here he talks about growing up in a jazz house, his early musical mentors, and his general philosophy about professionalism in music.  I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a few more ti...

  Jo Lawry  grew up in Australia in a family that valued music and study, and she started playing music very early. By the age of 13 she had already appeared in Les Miserables and was embarking on a musical journey that would ultimately lead her to New York. Although she intended to have a career primarily as a jazz singer, one of the real turning points for her professionally came when she was ca...

  Matt Pierson is a record producer, and for many years he was a record executive. He started at Blue Note records, and then was in charge of jazz at Warner Bros for over a decade. That tenure ended in the early 2000s, and subsequently he has emerged as one of the few successful  independent jazz record producers around. As the record business changed in the early 2000s, Matt left his job at a lab...

This week's episode features bassist, composer, performer, and all around feel good guy  Michael Thurber . We had an extremely candid and relaxed conversation about his early musical education, his move to New York, a debilitating injury that forced him to drop out of Juilliard, and ultimately overcoming that obstacle.  Among many other things, Michael is one of the founders of CDZA, a collective...

Daniel Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician and author. His books “This Is Your Brain On Music” and “The World In Six Songs” are both best sellers, and are both must reads for anyone interested in music and the brain. He teaches psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal. Dan stopped by on a recent evening to hang out, and ended up recording a spontaneous episode, in...

Michael Leonhart is a multi instrumentalist, arranger, producer and composer. He's also from a musical family - both of his parents are jazz musicians, as is his sister. However, his interests and his music are diverse and eclectic. Here, he talks about growing up in New York, his early development as a trumpet player - including some of the physical limitations he dealt with along the way, and so...

Will Lee might be best known as the bass player in the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman. Since moving to New York in the early 70's, Will has been a mainstay on the scene, playing on hundreds of records - many of them hits! Here he talks about growing up in a musical household, moving to New York in his late teens to join the band Dreams, his illustrious recording career, and hi...