The Third Story with Leo Sidran

Conversations on community, artificial intelligence, identity, fan engagement, healthy living, life on the road and more, recorded at the 2023 Montreal International Jazz Festival. Featuring Michael League, Nate Smith, Carlos Homs, Julius Rodriguez, Benny Benack III, Emmet Cohen, Stacey Kent, and more. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast

When it comes to instruments that are not easily designed for improvising soloists, there is perhaps none more difficult to handle than the harp. And when it comes to contemporary jazz harpists, there is perhaps none more influential in this moment than Brandee Younger.  From the very beginning, as a young music student growing up on Long Island, Brandee Younger was toeing the line between her cla...

Multi instrumentalist singer-songwriter Theo Katzman (known for his work with the funk band Vulfpeck) bought a van from a teenager in California and drove across the country, settling in the woods of Michigan where he set up a studio, started a label, and got down to the business of writing a new record.  Along the way, he discovered the Wim Hof breathing and ice bathing techniques and came out wi...

For saxophonist Ben Wendel, the pandemic provided the space for him to develop his latest solo record, All One (Edition Records), a project that is both very solitary and very collaborative. It features a woodwind choir of saxophones and bassoons performed entirely by Ben, and then joined by special guests like singers Cecile McLorin Salvant and Jose James, guitarist Bill Frisell, and trumpeter Te...

Beth Nielsen Chapman is a songwriter's songwriter. She began writing before she had any idea that it could be a career; it was just something that came naturally to her. When she first started out, there was no way to possibly imagine just how important songs would become in her journey - both professionally and personally. Here she talks about that journey, which includes writing songs for Martin...

Pianist-composer Vijay Iyer has been described by The New York Times as a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway." He has been praised by Pitchfork as "one of the best in the world at what he does," by the Los Angeles Weekly as "a boundless and deeply important young star," and by Minnesota Public Radio as "an American...

To say Christian McBride is prolific is both obvious and an understatement. The list of his projects is too long to fit neatly into any one container - he's a musician, an educator, a composer, an artistic director, and a broadcaster. He's an ambassador, a personality, an icon. And of course, he is a bass player.  One gets the sense that his days are simply fuller than most people's days. He alway...

Accepting her Grammy award for Best New Artist last month, Samara Joy looked out at a sea of faces that she had grown up admiring and said, "I've been watching y'all on TV for so long…I'm born and raised in the Bronx."  It was almost as though she was reminding herself of just how far she had come, and just how quickly. That was a big moment for the 23 year old singer who was just a year and a hal...

This week on the Third Story Podcast I'm turning the tables on myself and sharing the stories and the creative process behind my new record What's Trending. Featuring excerpts of past episodes with artists who collaborated on the record and inspired the songs, including Boz Scaggs, Louis Cato, Janis Siegel, Michael Leonhart, Peter Coyote and more. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodc...

While almost everyone is sharing the most polished and curated versions of themselves, Braxton Cook is asking "Who Are You When No One Is Watching?" Actually, as it turns out, it's a question he's asking of himself, and in a somewhat postmodern and ironic twist, he's doing it quite publicly on his new record, called (surprise!) Who Are You When No One Is Watching? which comes out February 24 on Ne...

Music is not only a form of expression, it's also a way of traveling. It's astounding how many people's lives have been completely transformed by their relationship with music - and sometimes the simplest experiences we have as kids can profoundly alter the course of everything that follows.  A few seemingly unrelated events during Andy Narell's early childhood in New York helped to lay out a path...

Will Page was working for the UK Government Economic Service in the income tax division, and moonlighting as a music writer for Straight No Chaser magazine when his life changed almost overnight. Pretty soon he was living in London, and helping to shape the new music business and the economics of music streaming.   Page eventually went on to work at Spotify where he was the chief economist. Will's...

Rachael & Vilray are a perfect example of the idea that sometimes what that once seemed old fashioned can actually resonate as new again. Their new record I Love A Love Song! comes out this week.  Rachael Price is best known as the singer in the band Lake Street Dive. She and Vilray met at college two decades ago. But it would take them years before they discovered their mutual love of the America...

A collection of Art of the Story pieces for WBGO News by Leo Sidran / The Third Story Podcast from 2022, including coverage of the Montreal and Umbria jazz festivals (featuring Dave King, Julian Lage, Samara Joy, Matt Pierson, Terence Higgins, Gregory Porter, Kurt Elling, Dave Koz and more) as well as short profiles on Lau Noah, Michael Thurber, Tomasz Stanko, Tyshawn Sorey, Jesse Harris, Jorge Dr...

Every year, The Third Story collects more interviews and conversations than we are able to publish as full episodes, and 2022 was certainly no exception.  Finally, we have found a solution: THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY, 2022 HOLIDAY EDITION. Conversations with saxophonist Bill McHenry, keyboard player/producer Didi Gutman, pianist Jon Dryden, pianist Dan Tepfer, trumpet player/graphic designer Jamie Bre...

What's so funny about Larry Goldings?  He has been such a major musical force for so long, it's hard to remember a time when he was not around. He's one of the most accomplished, respected and admired hammond organ players alive and much of his career has been devoted to that instrument.  The trio he formed in the early 90s with guitarist Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart has been one of the pillar...

When drummer Antonio Sanchez released his album Bad Hombr e back in 2017, he was responding to a few events that took place in his world at the same time.  On a political level, the music was a response to the racism of the Trump campaign against Mexicans. In fact the title of the record Bad Hombre seemed to be an answer to Trump's assertion that a wall needed to be built at the US Mexican border...

When Ibrahim Maalouf's parents decided to move to Paris from Beirut in the early 1980s, it was meant to be temporary. The Lebanese civil war was raging and they chose to raise their family away from the violence. But the intention was always to return to Lebanon when the war ended. They did their best to educate their children in the traditional way, and because they were both musicians themselves...

Jorge Drexler started out as a doctor in Uruguay but eventually emigrated to Spain to try his luck in music. 30 years later, he is widely considered to be one of the most influential Spanish language songwriters alive. He has recorded 15 albums, received 31 Latin Grammy nominations (he won 7 so far and he's nominated for 9 more this year) and an Oscar win for his song "Al otro lado del rio" in 200...

Multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Tyshawn Sorey on his latest recordings ( Mesmerism and The Off​-​Off Broadway Guide to Synergism ), his recent composition "Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)", making work that defies category, growing up in Newark, comedy as a form of self care, the radical idea of blackness, exploring alternative musical models, his photographic memory, the interaction...

As one of the most acclaimed and influential producers of the modern era, Daniel Lanois helmed iconic albums for everyone from Bob Dylan and Neil Young to U2 and Peter Gabriel. As a prolific and critically acclaimed songwriter, he's composed scores for Oscar-winning films and blockbuster video games in addition to releasing more than a dozen genre-bending solo records. Rolling Stone declared that...

Peter Straub was the best selling author of novels, short stories, novellas and essays. He passed away earlier this month at the age of 79. Peter started out with dreams of writing poetry and literary fiction. After publishing his first two novels, and two books of poetry, he finally asked himself the question that so many artists find themselves asking: how do I make a living at this? An agent su...

Long before singer Cyrille Aimée spent any time on the road she was already a citizen of the world. She grew up in a small French town, Samois-sur-Seine, but says that she never felt fully French. She never felt fully any one thing. Her mother is Dominican, her father is French, and she says that "when you're a mixed culture, you're kind of your own thing." Samois-sur-Seine is very small but in th...

Creed Taylor was an inspiration to generations of music lovers. He was behind some of the greatest records ever made. He passed away on August 22 at the age of 93. For forty years, Creed Taylor was one of a small handful of jazz record producers and label managers who shaped and defined the sound of jazz recording. Through his work with the Bethlehem, ABC, Impulse!, Verve, and CTI labels, he produ...

Earlier this month Stephen Colbert made an announcement about his band. Jon Batiste would be leaving and Louis Cato would be the new musical director.  For some, Louis Cato is not a familiar name. In fact he has been hiding in plain sight for years now, both as a member of Batiste's Stay Human Late Show band and also as what he refers to as a super sideman . Louis Cato is living proof that some pe...