Neon Jazz Interviews

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with GRAMMY® nominated Jazz Vocalist Denise Donatelli .. She gave us the full story on her new 2021 CD Whistling in the Dark – The Music of Burt Bacharach .. Her musical journey started in rural Allentown, Pennsylvania when she was only four years old with classical piano training that continued throughout her high school years .. It was h...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Venezuelan-born Veteran Jazz Pianist Edward Simon .. He just released a new 2021 CD called Solo Live that is his 15th album as a leader .. It was recorded at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company on his 50th birthday in 2019 .. This musician has been at the center of the jazz scene for the past quarter century shaping the music’s evolution...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Celebrated New York City Jazz Pianist Bill Charlap .. He has a new CD out called Street of Dreams done with his trio of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. This is a trio 25 years in the making celebrating their home of New York as it emerges from an unprecedented COVID period of no live music .. His father was Broa...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with New Orleans-based Record Producer, Performing Artist, Author & Runner Don Paul .. He is a creative force that opened up about his life in art and humanity .. He opened up about his CDs The Time We Have (Meld #1) & Women nd Music (Meld #2) .. Proceeds benefit Sticking Up For Children's partners in Haiti and he is a big proponen...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Veteran Hannibal, MO-born Jazz Drummer & Educator Marty Morrison .. Currently he is on the Jazz Studies faculty at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, but is a regular on the Kansas City scene. He knows a thing or two about big cities and spent a while in Washington DC .. and he laudes Kansas City for the strength...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Jazz Vocalist & Educator Shawnn Monteiro .. She just released a new 2021 CD called you You Are There - You Are There .. It is her sixth release overall and third for Whaling City Sound .. Overall , her artistry is crafted in the mold of Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McCrae, and Nancy Wilson. Her father was the late renowned bassist Jimmy...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Celebrated NYC Jazz Pianist Anthony Wonsey .. We caught up with him during a frank and open talk about the music .. He opened up about his new 2021 CD Lorainne’s Lullaby as it originated and celebrates the phrases "it takes a village to raise a child," One of those great people is Lorraine Tiezzi, who is a real lover of this...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Grammy-Winning Multi-Instrumentalist & Composer Nicholas Payton .. We talked to him the day his new 2021 CD Smoke Sessions came out .. On October 29, 2021 .. This veteran New Orleans-raised musician got to see his long-cherished dream of leading a session with Ron Carter on bass and to reignite the chemistry of the album he’d fall...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Kansas City Jazz Spoons Player & Utensilist Peter Shilliday ..  I have caught him live a few times with Bram accompanying him on either piano or according and his performance is very impressive .. He picked up the inspiration for spoons from his grandfather who played spoons as a pastime while deployed in Japan during WWII .. He w...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom & Percussionist Alison Miller on the new 2021 Project Tues Day .. In March and April of 2021, they came together on five Tuesdays to record some improvised sax and drum duets to see what might happen. They didn’t set out to make an album - they just wanted to play because they needed to improvise any way...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with New York Jazz Lyricist & Singer Lorraine Feather .. We had a good conversation about her storied life in music and art, along with her new 2021 CD My Own Particular Life done with her longtime co-producer/co-writer Eddie Arkin .. The album began in early 2019 and includes celebrated composers like Russell Ferrante, Shelly Berg, an...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Jazz Pianist & Composer Chad Lefkowitz-Brown .. We talked at length about his career and new 2021 CD Open World .. He’s been busy up to this point in his career .. He’s toured the world with pop superstar Taylor Swift, played with jazz greats from Dave Brubeck to Clarence Penn and been a member of Arturo O'Farrill's multi-Grammy w...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Celebrated NYC Jazz Trombonist & Vocalist Ron Wilkins .. We caught up with him to talk music and his latest 2021 CD Trombocalist .. He was in a coma with COVID and had to relearn how to live .. and now, he is more grateful than ever .. For over 40 years he has been performing on tenor and bass trombones, euphonium, tuba, bass trum...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series Italian-born, Baltimore-based Jazz Vocalist & Composer Irene Jalenti .. She talked with the program about her life in music and her debut 2021 CD Dawn .. On this long-awaited debut album she claims a place in the jazz world for her musical talents featuring guest appearances by two international stars: trumpeter Sean Jones and vibrapho...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview Jazz Pianist, Vocalist & Composer Rachel Eckroth .. She talked about her first release on Rainy Day Records .. The 2021 CD The Garden full of fresh sounds from her evolving artistry. The Garden emerged conceptually while she was writing new music during the pandemic. She was born in North Dakota and raised in Phoenix .. Later, she would move...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Indian Sitar Maestro Purbayan Chatterjee .. He opened up about a great deal of topics .. Namely his new 2021 CD Unbounded full of spirit, with musicians from India, Afghanistan, the US and UK, merging local flavors of Latin, jazz, folk, country, Sufi tradition, Western and Hindustani classical music .. He is heir to a Hindustani class...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Veteran Jazz Percussionist, Composer & Writer Barrett Martin .. He opened up about his new 2021 CD Barrett Martin's latest album Stillpoint recorded between 2019-2020 when lived in a remote cliff house on a wildlife refuge. He is well known for his work with the Seattle rock bands Skin Yard, Screaming Trees, Mad Season, along with...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Legendary Jazz Hammond B-3 Organist, Trumpeter & Vocalist Joey DeFrancesco .. We caught up with him about his tasty new 2021 CD More Music .. On this new offering he supplements his organ virtuosity with trumpet, piano, keyboard, vocals and, for the first time he uses the tenor sax. After a year of pandemic lockdown – with stages...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with LA-born, NYC-based Jazz Pianist & Composer Victor Gould .. He spent some time with the show talking about his new 2021 CD In Our Time .. It’s his four album as a leader in a trio set with bassist Tamir Shmerling and drummer Anwar Marshall .. This celebrated and talented cat was born in Los Angeles and now based in the New York are...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Veteran LA-Based Jazz Pianist & Film Composer Todd Cochran .. We caught up with him to talk about a great many things .. Namely his new 2021 CD Then and Again, Here and Now done with bassist John Leftwich and drummer Michael Carvin .. In his first album since his two underground classics for Prestige Records in ’72 and ’73, he mel...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Celebrated Jazz Drummer and Bandleader Gerry Gibbs .. He opened up about his new 2021 CD Songs from My Father .. A Celebration of the Music of Bebop Luminary Terry Gibbs, Prominently Featuring Musical Titan Chick Corea on his Final Recording ever .. This is his thirteenth release on an impressive double-disc masterwork featuring four...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with New Orleans-based Jazz Singer Carmela Rappazzo .. She opened up about her seventh recording “Love and Other Difficulties” where she explores the many aspects of love. Born and raised in upstate New York, she heard classic music from an early age. She moved to New York City singing in clubs and performing in off-off Broadway Theater an...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Kansas City-based Jazz Pianist, Composer & Educator Andrew Ouellette .. He’s originally from Hannibal, MO and is a fixture on the KC jazz scene ..  He learned under the watchful eye of the world-renowned saxophonist Bobby Watson at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory from 2008 – 2012 and these days he has quite a b...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series Kansas City-born, California-based Jazz Drummer John Armato .. We had a wide ranging talk about a great many things like his 2021 CD Debut The Drummer Loves Ballads done with a veteran all-star collection of KC jazz musicians .. It all started in KC and he was an early member of Kerry Strayer's groups and the Kansas City Boulevard Big Band...

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Award Winning Jazz Bassist & Composer Marc Johnson .. He opened up about his debut 2021 CD Overpass with a decisive and intriguing contribution to ECM’s solo bass tradition .. This Nebraska-born bassist first came to broader attention in the late 1970s as a member of Bill Evans’s last trio where the tune “Nardis” became effectivel...