Shows
The Third Story with Leo Sidran288: Crossing the river - 20 years of "Al otro lado del rio"Twenty years ago, “Al otro lado del río" became the first Spanish-language song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Written by Jorge Drexler in a single day while staying in Madison, Wisconsin, and recorded in a mix of home and studio settings, the song’s journey was as unexpected as its lyrics suggested. At the time, it felt like an anomaly. This year, when “El Mal” from Amelia Perez won the same award, it barely registered as unusual. That alone says something about how much can shift in 20 years—culturally, personally, globally. Here we...2025-05-161h 22
The Third Story with Leo Sidran289: Nels ClineFor decades, Nels Cline carved out a career on the fringes of rock, jazz, and experimental music, balancing day jobs with an uncompromising artistic vision. Then, at nearly 50 years old, everything changed—he joined Wilco, bringing his avant-garde sensibilities into a beloved band and reaching a global audience. But Cline’s story isn’t one of sudden success; it’s about persistence, reinvention, and creative restlessness. In this episode, he reflects on his journey—from growing up in Los Angeles with his twin brother, drummer Alex Cline, to navigating the punk and avant-garde jazz scenes, to his latest album, Consentrik...2025-03-181h 04
Deep Conversations PodcastA Deep Conversation With Grammy Award Winning Musician And Podcast Host Leo SidranLeo Sidran is a multi instrumentalist musician, producer, arranger, composer, recording artist, and podcast host.The Third Story podcast features long-form interviews with creative people of all types.Their stories of discovery, loss, ambition, identity, improvisation, risk, and reward are deeply moving and compelling for all of us as we embark on our own creative journeys.He was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, which is sometimes referred to as 70 square miles surrounded by reality. His father...2025-03-041h 03
The Third Story with Leo Sidran288: Jorge Drexler, 20 Years After an Unexpected Oscar WinTwenty years ago, “Al otro lado del río" became the first Spanish-language song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Written by Jorge Drexler in a single day while staying in Madison, Wisconsin, and recorded in a mix of home and studio settings, the song’s journey was as unexpected as its lyrics suggested. Here we revisit that historic night through conversations with Jorge Drexler, Ana Laan, Amanda Sidran, Ben Sidran, and the song’s co-producer: me. From the song’s humble origins, its Oscar nomination, and the moment when Drexler—barred from performing his own son...2025-03-041h 22
The Third Story with Leo Sidran287: Steven Greenberg (Lipps, Inc.)Steven Greenberg, the creative force behind the hit "Funkytown," on crafting one of the most enduring dance tracks of all time, bridging the transition from disco to synth-driven pop, and the discipline required to bring musical ideas to life in an era before digital shortcuts. 00:00 Intro 4:00 Magic Mind 5:42 Interview www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with with my link: https://www.magicmind.com/LEOJAN #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance2025-01-311h 13
The Third Story with Leo Sidran286: Makaya McCravenDrummer, producer, and composer Makaya McCraven, whose work bridges improvisation, production, and cultural synthesis, on rhythm, time, and the balance of tradition and innovation, plus his creative journey, from his roots in Northampton, Massachusetts, to his innovative projects like In The Moment and In These Times. This hybrid episode spanning interviews from 2022 and 2025 offers a deep dive into the mind of a true beat scientist. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with with my link: https://www.magicmind...2025-01-241h 20
The Third Story with Leo Sidran285: Jacob Collier's First InterviewIn 2013, after having posted a series of videos recorded in his family home in North London of himself singing a cappella arrangements of classic - yet sometimes obscure - songs on YouTube, a critical mass began to form around Jacob Collier. His videos of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” and “Don’t You Worry Bout A Thing” were passed around by musicians and music enthusiasts and by 2014 he was being managed by Quincy Jones and traveling around the world. He was one of the first career artists to emerge on YouTube. Jacob’s journey since the...2025-01-021h 38
The Third Story with Leo Sidran284: Aaron Parks and Marta SanchezPianists Aaron Parks and Marta Sanchez on how music has helped them navigate life's complexities. Aaron talks about his move to Portugal, the release of his latest album Little Big III, and how addressing mental health shaped his journey. Marta reflects on leaving Madrid for New York and the deeply personal inspiration behind her album Perpetual Void. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story2024-12-261h 10
The Third Story with Leo Sidran282: Allan TannenbaumAllan Tannenbaum's career reads like a tapestry woven with history, art, and an extraordinary eye for the moment. From his serendipitous epiphany outside a post office in 1964 to becoming one of the most iconic photographers of his time. Starting with a handful of frames of Jimi Hendrix in the late 60s, Allan went on to chronicle the cultural pulse of 1970s New York as chief photographer for the SoHo Weekly News. He captured unforgettable images—Sid Vicious in handcuffs, Andy Warhol at Studio 54, Patti Smith, the Rolling Stones, John and Yoko, and many more. In the...2024-12-051h 09
The Third Story with Leo Sidran279: Andrew BirdAndrew Bird has been on a quest for meaning in sound since childhood, starting with the violin at age four and earning a degree in violin performance from Northwestern University. His journey has taken him from classical and folk roots to the vibrant Chicago swing scene, to creative isolation in a barn in Western Illinois, and eventually to become a genre defying artist and composer with a unique voice. Andrew’s lyrics are both confessional and impressionist, often leading listeners on a journey through evocative imagery. With just a looping pedal, he reinvented his sound, blending classical, fol...2024-10-311h 01
The Third Story with Leo Sidran277: Lucy KalantariFamily music artist Lucy Kalantari on the power of intention, why gardening is her favorite metaphor for living a creative life, staying curious, parenthood, her new record, and the Grammys. www.third-story.com https://leosidran.substack.com/ https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story 2024-10-101h 20
The Third Story with Leo Sidran276: Riley MulherkarRiley Mulherkar grew up in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest enclave that has been home to so many musical innovators over the years. He went to Garfield High School, a school that has fostered countless talents going all the way back to Quincy Jones who was himself a young trumpet player at the school in the 1940s. Riley was just eight years-old when he began seeing the legendary Garfield High School big-band play free gigs in his Seattle neighborhood; it’s one of the reasons he picked up the trumpet. He was clearly meant to play the instrument. By...2024-09-241h 24
The Third Story with Leo Sidran275: Jesse HarrisJesse Harris belongs to a generation of New York singer songwriters who came of age in the late nineties. He has made over 20 solo albums that walk the line between folk, jazz, pop, Brazilian and art rock. He’s also a much sought after co writer and collaborator who has written songs for and or with many others like Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Lana del Rey, and most famously Norah Jones. Jesse was already well into his career when he met a young Norah Jones on a road trip through Texas and played his songs for her. He...2024-09-031h 15
The Third StorySinger-songwriter Jesse Harris: 'I always take things as they come.'On the next edition of The Third Story podcast, host Leo Sidran profiles singer-songwriter Jesse Harris2024-09-031h 15
The Third Story with Leo Sidran274: Ella FeingoldElla Rae Feingold is a guitar player, composer, orchestrator, educator and content creator. She has spent three decades devoted to the soulful side of the electric guitar, and has worked with an impressive list of artists, including Bruno Mars, Erykah Badu and Common, The Roots, Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Queen Latifah and many more. On her Instagram and TikTok she is a rhythm ambassador, focussing on the importance of groove, pocket and feel in her playing and demonstrating various techniques and traditions in rhythm guitar. Hearing Ella play and talk about music...2024-05-281h 42
The Third Story with Leo Sidran272: Ben Sidran on RainmakerIn a career spanning over fifty years and thirty five records, Ben Sidran has established himself as a philosopher poet. Equally celebrated for his precise, probing writing style as he is for his improvised spoken word jazz raps, he has carved out a truly unique space for himself. The Times of London aptly described Ben as “the world’s first existential jazz rapper,” and The Chicago Sun Times once referred to him as “a renaissance man cast adrift in the modern world.” He is one of a kind. And he is, of course, also my dad. There is no one el...2024-04-3052 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran271: Shabaka Shabaka Hutchings grew up between the UK and Barbados. He started playing clarinet as a young boy in Barbados and eventually moved back to England to go to music school in the early 2000s. After college he began a period of working furiously on a kaleidoscopic range of projects and became an icon of the new sound of London jazz, which integrated African rhythms and modes, Caribbean and Middle eastern sounds and was largely danceable. Shabaka himself has never fully embraced the jazz label. While the music is highly improvised, and it owes much to the Am...2024-04-181h 05
The Third Story with Leo Sidran270: Jose JamesSinger Jose James on his new record 1978, his professional and personal journey, the unique demands of being a jazz singer today, why he believes good art should be transformative, how he stays healthy, the creative challenges brought on by happiness and whether or not one needs to suffer in order to make good art. This episode is dedicated to the late saxophonist and vocoder master Casey Benjamin who passed away on March 30th at the age of 45. Casey, a brilliant and influential musician, spent much of his career at the crossroads of jazz and hip hop. I ne...2024-04-081h 06
Deep Conversations PodcastA Deep Conversation With Grammy Award Winning Musician And Podcast Host Leo SidranTo learn more about Leo and his music and work, visit http://www.leosidran.comTo learn more about Leo's podcast, visithttp://www.third-story.comLeo Sidran is a multi instrumentalist musician, producer, arranger, composer, recording artist, and podcast host.The Third Story podcast features long-form interviews with creative people of all types.Their stories of discovery, loss, ambition, identity, improvisation, risk, and reward are deeply moving and compelling for all of us as we embark on our own creative journeys.He was born and raised i...2024-03-201h 03
The Third Story with Leo Sidran268: Ten Years of The Third Story - with Will Lee and Amanda SidranTen years ago, on a bit of a whim, I invited bassist Will Lee to come over to my home studio in Brooklyn to do an interview with me for a new project I was starting: a podcast. A year or two earlier, my friend Michael Fusco-Straub had turned me on to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, and I was totally hooked on the concept of casual long form interviews among peers. At the time Maron spoke almost exclusively to comics, and I thought there might be a space for something similar but focused on music. Although I...2024-01-311h 01
The Third Story with Leo Sidran262: Clyde and Gracie LawrenceSiblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence have been making music together since they were little kids. They say there was never a moment when it switched from something they did for fun to something they did professionally. It has been a long, steady climb for them. Along with the other members of their band, Lawrence, they have been diligently chipping away at a pop music career, growing more popular every year, making music that straddles the line between pop, R&B and soul, and doing it on their own terms. Here they talk about the overnight s...2023-11-161h 34
The Third Story with Leo SidranTodd SickafooseBassist and composer Todd Sickafoose shows up in a lot of places: on stage with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco or drummer Allison Miller, behind the scenes as a record producer for artists like Noe Venable and Anais Mitchell, orchestrating the music for the Broadway musical Hadestown (which earned him both a Grammy for record production and a Tony for orchestration), and as a bandleader. His new record Bear Proof is his first album of original music in nearly 15 years. He describes it as “62 minutes of music for eight musicians.” The sound is evocative, melodically rich, rhythmically intense, and featu...2023-10-1948 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran259: Alan LightmanAlan Lightman is a physicist, writer (of novels, essays, memoir and science texts), and social entrepreneur. For this unusual episode, his interview served as inspiration for an original song. Made in collaboration with the Podsongs podcast, this conversation covers his career at the intersection of science and humanities, mortality, success, the cosmos, technology, consciousness, writing fiction, embracing ambiguity, out of body experiences, and the idea that there are no answers to profound questions. Also thanks to everyone who voted for the Signal Awards! We received a Silver Signal award for Music podcast. www.third-story.com2023-10-121h 10
The Third Story with Leo Sidran258: Gregory HutchinsonGregory "Hutch" Hutchinson is one of the most highly regarded and highly recorded jazz drummers on the planet. Part of what makes him so special is that he sits at the crossroads of the old school and the new school. He was mentored by old jazz masters like Red Rodney, Ray Brown and Betty Carter. He worked extensively with Joshua Redman and Roy Hargrove, among many other innovative jazz musicians of his generation. He has also collaborated with the likes of Common, Karriem Riggins and James Poyser, all practitioners of a new school rhythm approach, influenced by...2023-10-031h 06
The Third Story with Leo Sidran255: Warren Zanes41 years ago this month, Bruce Springsteen released his sixth studio album, Nebraska. He recorded much of the album on one winter night, sitting on the edge of the bed in a rented house in New Jersey, playing acoustic guitar and singing, using a 4 track cassette recorder. The album would go on to have lasting influence, inspire other works of art including movies and books, and other records. And Springsteen would later muse that Nebraska may be his best album. Four decades later the story of Nebraska continues to be an object of fascination. Among those who obsessed ove...2023-09-061h 08
The Third Story with Leo Sidran253: Ben Sidran at 80For the fifth consecutive year I interview my father on his birthday. This year he’s turning 80 and I surprise him with reflections and anecdotes by friends and colleagues from throughout his career, including Jeff Greenfield, Boz Scaggs, Jann Wenner, Michael Cuscuna, Phil Upchurch, Georgie Fame, Gil Goldstein, Janis Siegel, Jorge Drexler and many more! www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story 2023-08-141h 38
The Third Story with Leo Sidran250: Brandee YoungerWhen 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 classical, orchestral musical education and the hiphop, soul and pop music that she grew up loving. She spent her early years musically code switching, trying to figure out how to make s...2023-06-2751 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran248: Ben WendelFor 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 Terence Blanchard. Wendel is no stranger to experimentation or to collaboration. As a member of the genre bending group Kneebody, he has always had one foot in contemporary music. And previous solo projects were m...2023-05-1733 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran247: Beth Nielsen ChapmanBeth 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 Martina McBride, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Crystal Gayle, Juice Newton, Bette Midler, and most famously co-writing Faith Hill’s hit song “This Kiss”. She has released sixteen...2023-05-021h 37
The Third Story with Leo Sidran243: What's TrendingThis 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/thirdstorypodcast www.wbgo.org/studios www.leosidran.com2023-03-0738 min
The Third StoryLeo Sidran shares his process on ‘What's Trending’This week on The Third Story podcast, host Leo Sidran turns the tables on himself and shares the stories and the creative process behind his new record What’s Trending.2023-03-0738 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran239: Rachael & VilrayRachael & 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 American songbook standards from the 1930s and 40s, and decided to create a project to showcase Vilray’s special gift of channeling classic songwriters in his...2023-01-101h 03The Third Story with Leo Sidran238: Best of The Third Story on The Art of the Story, 2022A 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 Drexler, Christian McBride and Larry Goldings. www.third-story.comwww.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story2022-12-2739 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran237: The Ones That Got Away (2022 Holiday Edition)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 Breiwick, and pianist Randy Ingram with singer Aubrey Johnson, collected around the world this year. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story 2022-12-211h 17
The Third Story with Leo SidranLarry Goldings RevisitedWhat'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 pillars of his musical life for over 30 years, and the three have remained United for decades. Their most recent record, Perpetual Pendul...2022-12-131h 15
Behind the NotesEpisode 1: Ben & Leo Sidran Neranenah’s Joe Alterman has a fascinating conversation with two true renaissance men: musician, producer, arranger, composer, and podcast host Leo Sidran, and his iconic father - legendary writer, pianist, journalist, and producer Ben Sidran. Ben’s book “There Was A Fire: Jews, Music & The American Dream” has been an inspiration and guiding light for the entire Neranenah organization.2022-08-181h 04
The Third Story with Leo Sidran224: Ryan LermanRyan Lerman has a few tricks up his sleeve. Best known as the cofounder of Scary Pockets, a dynamic funk band from LA who came to prominence on YouTube, Ryan is also an accomplished singer songwriter, bassist, arranger and producer. His early work with Michael Bublé, John Legend, Vanessa Carlton and Ben Folds prepared him for a career as a session player, and his early solo records showcased his plain spoken, plaintive and soulful connection to the human condition. Lerman met his Scary Pockets cofounder Jack Conte when the two were still in high school in Marin Cou...2022-06-141h 19
The Third Story with Leo SidranEric Harland (WBGO Studios Preview)We’re back with another classic episode from the archive in honor of the new partnership between this podcast and listener supported WBGO Studios. All month I’m revisiting some of my favorite episodes from over the years, and starting in June I’ll be back with all new fresh episodes. You can find these at www.wbgo.org/studios where you will also discover their ever expanding selection of hipster content. And if you want to dig on the full Third Story archive, you can find that at www.third-story.com where we’ve always been. Eri...2022-05-241h 09
The Third Story with Leo SidranJason Moran (WBGO Studios Preview)Jason Moran is so prolific and multifaceted that any attempt to summarize his career poses a daunting challenge. Now think about what it’s like preparing for a conversation with him. He’s a composer, conceptual artist, educator, and public intellectual with a critical disposition — critical in the sense of challenging the status quo, while still respecting the accomplishments of his mentors. First and foremost, he’s a piano player who straddles avant-garde jazz, the blues, classical music, stride piano, and hip-hop. In other words, he’s just an incredibly thoughtful person. Moran is interes...2022-05-101h 18
The Third Story with Leo SidranThe Art Of ConversationA story about stories. How seven years and nearly 200 episodes of podcast interviews inspired the record The Art Of Conversation. Excerpts of conversations with Amy Cervini, Andre De Shields, Jorge Drexler, Kat Edmonson, Kurt Elling, John Fields, Larry Goldings, Tatum Greenblatt, Ryan Keberle, Jo Lawry, Orlando le Fleming, Adam Levy, Howard Levy, Anya Marina, Matt Munisteri, Ricky Peterson, Becca Stevens, Doug Wamble. www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.leosidran.com/theartofconversation 2021-05-3046 min
The Third Story with Leo SidranCovid Chronicles Vol. 1 - Reunion EpisodeIn March 2020, just as the world was closing under the advancing cloud of Covid 19, I spoke to a handful of musician friends from around the world to hear how they were doing and to explore some of the pressing questions around the shutdown and the arts. One year later, I check in with (almost) all of them to hear what the last year has been like for them, what were the challenges and opportunities of the first Covid year, and how they see the future. Italian singer Gege Telesforo, saxophonist John Ellis, bassist Joe Dart (so...2021-03-281h 26
The Third Story with Leo SidranBilly Martin aka illy BBilly Martin (also known as illy B) is many things. He's a visual artist, a filmmaker, a teacher, a builder, a composer, a record producer... But if you know his name, chances are it's from his band Medeski, Martin and Wood, a project he’s had for 30 years now along with bassist Chris Wood and keyboardist John Medeski. Billy refers to his artistic approach as playful and he is committed to the idea of play and experimentation in art. He is also totally serious about what he does, he’s a serious thinker, and he takes enormous care...2021-01-181h 12
The Third Story with Leo SidranJeff CesarioIn the late 1970s Jeff Cesario was positioned to be one of the most in demand wedding band conga players in Wisconsin and some parts of Minnesota too. So why did he trade all that in and move to LA to pursue a career in comedy? Here, he tells that story. Since then, Jeff has been an actor, comedian, producer and writer, who has written and produced for Dennis Miller Live and The Larry Sanders Show. He has appeared on Adam Carolla, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Comedy Central Presents among other shows. Cesario w...2020-09-181h 27
The Third Story with Leo SidranPhilip DizackTrumpeter Philip Dizack was once named by Downbeat Magazine as “[one of twenty-five] Trumpet Players for the Future”. That’s not to say that he isn’t for the present and with a deep respect for the tradition as well. After nearly 20 years in New York, playing with a long list of notable musicians ranging from mentors like Brian Lynch, Eddie Palmieri, and Bobby Watson to members of his own cohort including Ben Wendel, Shai Maestro and Sullivan Fortner among many others, Philip moved to Denton, TX in 2019 to join the faculty at University of North Texas. Ear...2020-09-121h 05
The Third Story with Leo SidranEric KrasnoEric Krasno is in a lot more places than one might realize. Known for his work with the bands Soulive and Lettuce, he also works with all kinds of groups as a player - including the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, Oteil Burbridge and Friends...it’s a lot of friends. Maybe that’s because he has one foot in the jam band world: the universe of extended grooves, risky riffing and close contact with a community of fans. What surprised me about Eric is how much stuff he actually does - he’s part frontma...2020-08-111h 31
The Third Story with Leo SidranLouise GoffinSinger-songwriter Louise Goffin says she is “uncomfortable with nostalgia”. Louise Goffin says that “in order to take care of the world, you have to take care of your inner soul.” Louise Goffin says “don’t believe everything you think.” Her new record Two Different Movies was co-produced by Louise and Dave Way, and features a long list of incredible musicians and collaborators. Our conversation itself is kind of like two different movies. One of them deals with an independent songwriter, with a decades long career (she made her first record at 18). The other explores what it was like to grow u...2020-06-141h 23
The Third Story with Leo SidranBecca StevensBecca Stevens is a singer, songwriter, teacher and genuinely lovely person, and also one of the few repeat offenders on the Third Story Podcast. I first talked to her in 2015 and I remember our conversation as being truly connected, candid and comfortable. We had never met before but I left the experience feeling that we were genuinely friends. She has that thing about her that makes you feel like you know her even when you only know her work. Becca’s new record, Wonderbloom, came out last month just as the world began to shelter in place, an...2020-05-041h 10
The Third Story with Leo Sidran156: The Covid Chronicles, Vol. 3Since the very beginning of this podcast, my father (Ben Sidran) and I have been having occasional, timely conversations to process our own shared experience and often the experience of the world around us. Here we are again, contemplating the future after Covid-19, considering the consequences, and wondering what jazz has to do with it (and what it has to do with jazz). www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.bensidran.com2020-03-2420 min
The Third Story with Leo Sidran145: Caleb HawleyHere is what Caleb Hawley says about himself in his website biography: Caleb Hawley is a Harlem based, Minneapolis-raised singer, songwriter, and producer who has been shoveling Gobstoppers into ears for the past decade. Combining catchy melodies with dark and satirical lyrics, one has to be careful not to slip while dancing in a puddle of their own tears. I don’t know about the Gobstoppers, but the rest of it feels pretty accurate to me. In our conversation he tells his journey of self discovery, addiction, creativity, Tourette Syndrome, longing, how telling the truth is...2020-01-101h 15
The Third Story with Leo SidranAri HerstandWhen Ari Herstand first came on the Third Story Podcast in 2016, he was still in the process of becoming. He struggled with the what he saw as a “duality” between being a musician / performing artist and a business person. Would success in one realm undermine success in the other? “I got to the point where I have accepted that I am equally both,” he tells me now. “Success is very personal and nobody can really define success for you,” he says. And Ari has spent much of the last decade examining many of the biggest successes in the independe...2020-01-021h 14
The Third Story with Leo Sidranboiceboice-Terrel Allen (better known simply as boice) is a podcast host, musician, and writer. His podcast, Talk Music Talk, started in 2014 and features long form conversations with musicians, authors, music psychotherapists and meditation teachers, DJs, musicologists, MacArthur Fellows, Grammy nominees and such from all musical genres. In 2019 he started his second podcast, The Strandcast, a literary podcast from the Strand Bookstore featuring author interviews, reading recommendations and literary horoscopes. To celebrate the 200th episode of Talk Music Talk, here the tables are turned and he lays out his personal and professional development, creativity, spirituality, Buddhism...2019-12-191h 17
The Third Story with Leo SidranJeremy Dauber on Jewish comedyWhen Adam Sandler first sang his “Hannukah Song” on SNL in 1994, even he was surprised by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response it received. He was singing something we all understood even if we didn’t know the details: The Jewish contribution to American comedy and entertainment is significant, undeniable, indelible. And the American contribution to global popular culture in the last century is equally palpable. So… what? One question to ask is, is the Jewish comedy of today related in any way to the Jewish comedy of yesterday? And if so, how? Are there themes in Jewish comedy that go...2019-10-011h 01
The Third Story with Leo SidranRichard J. DavidsonRichard J. Davidson had an intuition early on that the mind was fundamental to human experience. As a child of the 60s he believed early on that “if we wanted to promote a different way of seeing the world, we needed to change our minds.” At the same time that he began to dabble in meditation and mind training, he also became a serious student and began a path that ultimately became his life’s work. He is the founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As Davidson explains it, the...2019-09-1754 min
The Third Story with Leo SidranDavid MaranissDavid Maraniss has a motto: go there. What he means is that when he’s researching one of his books, whether it’s a biography of a person or the history of a place and time, he believes that in order to fully understand the story, he has to go to the physical location. Not, like, just for a weekend. He really goes there. He moves in. But there’s another meaning behind the phrase “go there”. He moves in, not only to the space, but also to the nuance, subtlety, complexity of a life, of a time, of th...2019-08-231h 04
The Third Story with Leo SidranBen SidranMusician, singer, writer, producer, philosopher... Ben Sidran is a hard person to define. He belongs in multiple categories, or none at all. He says that his main focus throughout a career that began 50 years ago has been to document what he saw, felt, and heard, by way of various “idioms” (including performances, interviews, essays, recordings, etc.). That’s why he sees himself primarily as a journalist. Or at least, he sees what he does as a form of journalism. I’ve been engaged in a series of conversations - one long conversation really - with Ben Sidran since bef...2019-08-151h 01
The Third Story with Leo SidranRichard JulianNo matter what Richard Julian is doing, he “just wants it to be awesome”. As a songwriter, he says he was arrogant before he probably deserved to be, and in fact that it “took years to get beaten into the submission of humility.” That may be so, but along the way he wrote some pretty fantastic songs. His album Slow New York (2006) helped to put him on the map and place him squarely in the center of the musical scene from which Norah Jones had emerged a few years earlier. In fact he and Jones still have a country band tog...2019-08-081h 12
The Third Story with Leo SidranDonald FagenJust when you think you know all there is to know about Donald Fagen, he surprises you. There are legendary stories, traded like playing cards in chat rooms, fanzines, and merch lines. Along with his musical partner, the late Walter Becker (who passed away in 2017), Fagen has influenced countless musicians, producers and songwriters by setting the gold standard in record production and arrangement with his band Steely Dan. This is known. There are the solo records, including The Nightfly, which was nominated for seven Grammys and which continues to be one of the best sounding records ever made nearly 30...2019-07-301h 22The Third Story with Leo SidranJoey DosikAs a younger man Joey Dosik thought he might make a contribution on the saxophone. He loved playing basketball and playing piano too, and he had a sweet, soulful singing voice. But if you asked him he probably would have told you that he was going to be a jazz sax player. That’s what took him out of LA and to the University of Michigan. Sometimes the stars align and the right people show up in the right place at just the right time. Later on we realize that something special was going on, but in the...2019-07-081h 10The Third Story with Leo SidranBen Thornewill (Jukebox The Ghost)Singer, songwriter and pianist Ben Thornewill started his band, Jukebox The Ghost, with two friends in 2003 when he was in college at George Washington University. “From day one we were just kind of making it up,” he says. He adds “It’s the same three members from the very beginning and everything is a series of great compromises.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. He says, “It tends out to work out to something that defines who we are.” The power pop trio features piano, guitar, and drums. Their songs are clever, catchy, poppy, joyful, sometimes dramat...2019-06-2557 min
The Third Story with Leo SidranAndre De ShieldsWhen the 73 year old performer Andre De Shields accepted his Tony award last night for his role as Hermes in the hit Broadway show Hadestown, he began with these words: “Baltimore, Maryland are you in the house? I hope you’re watching at home because I am making good on my promise that I would come to New York and become someone you’d be proud to call your native son.” In this conversation, recorded in 2014, he tells the story in detail about growing up in Baltimore (he calls himself “lucky number nine”), a career spanning five decades “on...2019-06-101h 26
The Third Story with Leo SidranEli "Paperboy" ReedEli Reed took a trip. It started in a Boston suburb with a cheap suit and a paperboy cap. He took his suit, cap and guitar to Clarksdale, Mississippi. He stayed there just long enough to become a local musician. They called him “Paperboy” because of the cap. Then he headed up to Chicago and pretended to study sociology at the University of Chicago. While he was pretending to study, what he was really doing was looking for old records to play on his radio show, and becoming the minister of music at a church on the south side. Afte...2019-06-061h 30
The Third Story with Leo SidranMelissa ClarkIf Melissa Clark is in your life already, then she needs little introduction. Maybe you have one of the 40+ cookbooks that she has authored. Maybe you’ve made one of the recipes from her New York Times column “A Good Appetite”, watched one of her cooking videos online, seen her on the Today Show, as a guest judge on Iron Chef America, or heard her as a guest host on The Splendid Table radio show. If you’re one of these people, then you may already consider Melissa Clark to be a kind of honorary member of your family already...2019-05-231h 07
The Third Story with Leo SidranAnya MarinaAnya Marina was the hottest DJ on the hottest radio station in San Diego. She had a natural, direct and conversational way of talking on the mic that made her a perfect fit for FM radio, she was a witty improviser, and she was fearless in the face of celebrity. Plus from an early age, she loved comedy and had even considered a career in comedic acting. She could see her life laid out ahead of her. The only problem was, it wasn’t the life she wanted. So she walked away from her career in radio fo...2019-05-141h 12
The Third Story with Leo SidranSophie AusterSophie Auster grew up in a house of writers (her father is Paul Auster, and her mother is Siri Hustvedt, both acclaimed authors). For Sophie, the creative process always “was quite normal”. As she saw it, “artists are everywhere.” So it was somewhat inevitable that she began a creative career when she was a child, first as an actress, then as a singer and songwriter. Her latest record, Next Time took her to Sweden to work with producer Tore Johansson. Sophie describes the songwriting on the project as an exercise in “archetypes of men and women depicted in the cult...2019-05-0133 min
The Third Story with Leo SidranKassa OverallKassa Overall will tell you, “I love being the first thing of a thing. It’s one of my favorite things.” Kassa will also tell you that grew up in the cut. Between two kinds of music. Between two neighborhoods, in Seattle, that were “actually divided and separated”. He related more to the black neighborhood that he lived in, but he went to school mostly with white kids. “Looking back on it now I realize we’re all from the same stuff” but at the time it felt like he was in the middle of two worlds. In fact...2019-04-161h 32
The Third Story with Leo SidranCory WongGuitarist Cory Wong wants you to know that “smooth-jazz” is not a dirty word. At least not as he sees it. That’s why he started referring to himself as the “millennial smooth jazz ambassador”. Cory comes from Minneapolis and got his start working with many of the great Minneapolis funk musicians who worked with Prince; they showed him the ways of the funk. It’s a deep and very special legacy. Cory is an infectious performer, with incredible energy and positivity on stage. One night a half dozen years ago, some young musicians from Michigan wer...2019-03-121h 13The Third Story with Leo SidranJacques Schwarz-BartJacques Schwarz-Bart says that he never fit neatly into any one category. He says, “I knew early on in my life that I could not go down a regular path. It would be hard for other human beings to totally accept me the way I am.” From the very start, Jacques’ life was unusual. Born in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to a pair of writers (his mother the Guadeloupean novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart and his father, the French-Jewish writer and intellectual André Schwarz-Bart.) The family traveled widely, living in Senegal, Switzerland, and Goyave, Guadeloupe. Young Jacques was an ex...2019-02-191h 05The Third Story with Leo SidranAaron ParksHow does pianist Aaron Parks describe himself? “A bit odd. I play piano, write songs, and take pictures of doors with my phone.” Raised on a small island near Seattle, Washington, Aaron found himself hungry for more creative and intellectual stimulation than his immediate surroundings could offer. He enrolled in college at the age of 14, studying music, math and computer science. It wasn’t long before he dropped the math and computer stuff and focused on music; he moved to New York at age 16 to study at the Manhattan School of Music, and by age 18 he was playin...2019-02-051h 10The Third Story with Leo SidranKenny WernerKenny Werner might try to talk you out of becoming a jazz musician. “Please don’t become a jazz musician just because you think you should. That’s like saying you think you should become a typewriter salesman. Nobody needs you. I would do everything I could to talk them out of it and if they couldn’t be talked out of it then I would say go for it. It’s got to be a thing of extreme love because it doesn’t make any sense otherwise.” For Kenny, playing piano always came easily. Even as a young boy gr...2019-01-181h 17The Third Story with Leo SidranRick MargitzaAs a boy in Detroit, Michigan, Rick Margitza’s mother asked him “do you want to hear a recording of your grandfather playing cello”? Then she put on the Charlie Parker with Strings album. After hearing Charlie Parker play, Rick knew that he wanted to be a jazz saxophone player. Margitza’s paternal grandfather, a Hungarian Gypsy violinist, taught him to play the violin at the age of four. His father also played violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (and recorded on classic Motown sessions). So it was almost inevitable that Rick would be a musician, and he was d...2018-12-2158 minThe Third Story with Leo SidranJoe DartJoe Dart was on his way to Boston. He had enrolled in the Berklee College of music - a somewhat inevitable step for the young, very talented bass player from rural Michigan who loved funk and soul music. Although he had already been performing regularly in and around his home of Harbor Spriannngs, Michigan, he knew he would have to get out of town to achieve his goal of being a touring and recording bass player. But he didn’t go. Something kept him in Michigan and at the last minute he changed his plans and decided to move to...2018-12-071h 20The Third Story with Leo SidranJohn FieldsJohn Fields was a normal kid growing up in a normal family in the Boston suburbs, in prime position to take over his father’s hosiery business. Instead, he moved to Minneapolis straight after high school to hang out with his uncle Steve Greenberg, whose hit “Funkytown” had been a huge international success. Fields quickly became his uncle’s right hand man, learning the ropes as an engineer, producer, and bass spanker. His band Greazy Meal was a mainstay on the Minneapolis scene in the 1990s, and his early record production work earned him a reputation as an enthu...2018-11-121h 59The Third Story with Leo SidranMary SweeneyMary Sweeney needs some air. “There has to be a flow of fast and slow, and a pause to allow the listener or the spectator to digest and to project their own thoughts.” She thinks I should leave more space in my podcasts, to let it breathe. She tells me this as we sit in the screened in porch behind her summer house in Madison, Wisconsin. As she tells me this, cicadas chirp loudly, as if to underscore her point: “Today’s episode will not be edited! You will not remove us from this moment!” Mary Sweeney should know...2018-09-301h 23The Third Story with Leo SidranNate Chinen On Playing ChangesI first reached out to Nate Chinen to do an interview in 2015. At that time, I knew him as the jazz critic for the New York Times and a columnist for Jazz Times, and I also loved the book he wrote with George Wein Myself Among Others. (I interviewed George a few years ago as well.) In the intervening years, Nate left the New York Times, became the Director of Editorial Content at WBGO (one of the most important jazz radio stations in the country) and wrote the book Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century, which w...2018-08-221h 21The Third Story with Leo SidranHoward S. BeckerSociologist and musician Howard S. Becker is 90 years old. While he is best known for his contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art and sociology of music (his book Oustiders from 1963 was one of the first and most influential books on deviance), he also spent many of his early years playing piano in taverns, saloons and even strip clubs. As a young man in Chicago, while attending the University of Chicago in the 1940s he also studied piano with the legendary jazz pianist and teacher Lennie Tristano, and performed with local players of the day...2018-08-071h 01The Third Story with Leo SidranBen Wikler, Anat Shenker-Osorio, Dan KaufmanMadison, Wisconsin in the 1960s was one of the most radicalized university campuses in the country. It was a center for the kind of counter culture that has come to feel like a cliché today. There was plenty of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, sure. But there was also political activism, civil rights, environmentalism. Because of the University of Wisconsin, thousands of young people move through Madison and take the values of the city with them when they leave. Earlier this summer, The Madison Reunion brought over one thousand people with ties to Madison in t...2018-07-161h 11The Third Story with Leo Sidran108 - Lage LundWhat is there to say about guitarist Lage Lund that hasn’t already been said? Not much. And plenty. Lage has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene since moving here in the early 2000s as a “skinny kid from Norway with dreads”. The dreads are long gone, and there is very little about him today to indicate that he grew up in a small Norwegian city (Skien) where he had to take a three hour train ride to Oslo to buy the latest jazz albums, and that before he was one of the most creati...2018-07-061h 13The Third Story with Leo SidranBrendan B. BrownTalking to Brendan B. Brown about his life and music is like talking to a dozen guys at once. There’s the singer-songwriter - the guy who wrote the hit song “Teenage Dirtbag” and created the band Wheatus nearly 2 decades ago, and who has been riding that wave ever since. This is the guy who writes brilliant, provocative, genre bending pop songs, and who tours stadiums in the UK and Australia. There’s the kid who grew up in a “lobster town in decline” on long island in the 80s and was sent to an all boys high school...2018-06-211h 18The Third Story with Leo SidranJoe GoodkinJoe Goodkin was a part time singer songwriter, part time paralegal with a penchant for classical Greece and a sensitive side. After years of playing in bands he realized that the big record contract was not coming anytime soon and taking a band on the road was economically impossible. But he knew there was a place for him as a musical storyteller. One day, he dusted off a project he had started when he was just out of college, a musical companion to Homer’s Odyssey, and started thinking about how to present it and himself in a new wa...2018-06-071h 01The Third Story with Leo SidranDonovan Woods"If you're not sad you're not paying very much attention." Donovan Woods has a talent for writing songs that feel like “real life”: Funny and sad at the same time, plain spoken and poetic in the same breath, nostalgic and hopeful at once. As he says, "Two opposing ideas can be true at the same time." So it’s no surprise that he named his latest album Both Ways. He says that when he thinks about it, there’s just “so much sadness”. He says that he loves to watch an audience turn to mush, to m...2018-05-311h 09The Third Story with Leo SidranNate WoodNate Wood is a drummer, bassist, guitarist, singer-songwriter, mixing and mastering engineer. Raised and educated in Los Angeles, he joined the band Kneebody in 2001 (along with former Third Story guest Ben Wendel). Eventually Nate moved to New York where he has been a fixture on the scene for years, working as both drummer and bassist for the likes of Donny McCaslin and Wayne Krantz. In fact, it was Nate’s love of the music Krantz was making that helped to motivate him to move east. Nate is an extraordinarily gifted, natural musician. Although in recent year...2018-05-241h 10The Third Story with Leo SidranLarry KleinLarry Klein started out as a musician’s musician before becoming a producer’s producer. At a young age he was playing bass with his heroes in the jazz world, including a long and creative stint with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The way he explains it, Klein became more drawn to the world of songs, singers and popular music, and put off by the jazz insiders’ insistence on what was and what wasn’t “the real s*#t”. As a session player he worked on some of the most classic LA record dates...2018-05-141h 22The Third Story with Leo SidranDessaRapper, singer, spoken word artist, writer, and science nerd Dessa is an open book. As a young girl in Minneapolis, she dreamed of being a writer, and in high school she submitted essays unsolicited to the New Yorker. She refused to speak the Spanish own heritage (she’s half Puerto Rican) and instead insisted on learning French. She was, in her own mind, headed for a literary life on the Upper East side of Manhattan. “The third martini and witty repartee” she says. Life seemed to have other plans for her. She ended up channeling her love of lan...2018-04-191h 09The Third Story with Leo SidranLorrie MooreLorrie Moore is the kind of writer that inspires real devotion from her readers. She’s best known as a writer of short stories, although she has also published novels and critical essays. See What Can Be Done, a collection of essays and reviews (many of which were originally published in the New York Review of Books) was published this month. Lorrie is also a beloved creative writing teacher. She spent 30 years at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Nashville to teach at Vanderbilt University, where she still teaches. I was eager to talk to...2018-04-121h 02The Third Story with Leo SidranJon MadofGuitarist, bandleader, and label owner Jon Madof talks about how music and spirituality are related, what it means to create your own kind of authenticity, the difference between a job and a mission, and whether or not an artist’s work can be separated from their personal behavior. Jon’s band, Zion80 released their most recent album on Jon’s newly formed Chant Records label, which he launched in late 2017. What does it mean to create a record label in today’s musical universe? Visit Third-story.com for everything you want to know about the podcast...2018-01-1857 minThe Third Story with Leo SidranNadia AckermanSinger, songwriter, and illustrator Nadia Ackerman’s journey started in Australia. But early on, she knew she was leaving, and she was pretty sure America was the destination. Although she was already a jazz singer by the age of 20, it wasn’t so much the scene in New York that called to her at first so much as it was the American TV shows she loved, like The Brady Bunch. But after spending a summer in New York, she knew there was no going home. What she didn’t realize is that she had brought a dark part o...2018-01-101h 01The Third Story with Leo SidranBest of 2017 Vol. 2In this, the second of a two part Best of 2017 series, fragments of various episodes are strung together in order to tease out the big ideas, the underlying themes, and the tiny obsessions that have been propelling the podcast all year. Best of 2017 Part 1 looked at community and how community informs creative work. This second part looks at the more interior questions of process, identity and desire. And it explores the idea of the arts as political protest, and the potential disruptive power of creative expression. Featuring interviews with Peter Straub, Theo Katzman, Jonatha Brooke...2017-12-311h 30The Third Story with Leo SidranLaura Garcia LorcaLaura García Lorca grew up between two worlds. She spent her childhood in New York City, and to this day she considers herself to be a New Yorker. But America was always meant to be a temporary home for her parents, an exile from the Franco dictatorship that drove her family out of Spain. So when her family moved back to Madrid in 1967, the 13 year old Laura left her cosmopolitan New York life behind with a few LPs tucked in her suitcase and a lifelong identity crisis ahead. As she says, over time “things become natural eve...2017-12-131h 01The Third Story with Leo SidranAmericans in ParisThe tradition of American expatriate jazz musicians in Europe goes back a hundred years. What leads musicians to move halfway across the world to a place where they don’t speak the language, hold no currency, and are strangers? Love, what else? Both of the guys I’m talking to today, bassist Peter Giron and trumpeter Andrew Crocker, went to France with little or no understanding of what they were getting themselves into other than the desire to be with a woman, and maybe a sense that they didn’t fully fit where they came from.2017-12-071h 17The Third Story with Leo SidranTheo KatzmanTheo Katzman is many things. An only child. The youngest of four. An earnest singer songwriter with a deep love of classic rock and a great turn of phrase. A groove machine in one of the most talked about funk-soul bands around (Vulfpeck). A west coaster. A midwestern cheerleader. A long island native. Most of his fans likely discovered him through his work with Vulfpeck, singing, playing drums and guitar. But in this conversation he's definitely got some surprises that you might not be expecting. Like his deep ties to a generation of jazz musicians who most...2017-11-151h 32The Third Story with Leo Sidran86: Jack Stratton (Vulfpeck)Jack Stratton has a 20th-century heart and a 21st-century mind. As the leader of the band Vulfpeck, he excites, incites and inspires the YouTube generation to get funky. His video channel is a view into his brain, featuring in studio recording sessions, instructional tutorials, mashups of his favorite musicians, and a series of fugue state hallucinations ranging from dancing in public to funky salad making. (#maindishnotasidedish) In this rare extended conversation recorded in his childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio, Jack talks about growing up playing in a Klezmer band, creating Vulf, and why no one's looking up.2017-11-081h 08The Third Story with Leo SidranSettling the Underscore Vol. 4 The fourth and final episode in the Settling the Underscore series, exploring music for advertising. Finally, after weeks of talking to composers, producers, and editors, we hear from the musicians who made the glory days of the jingle business what they were. Bassist Will Lee, keyboard player Rob Mounsey, and guitar player Steve Khan. All three were part of a generation of players on the New York session scene in the 1970s and 1980s, sometimes playing on multiple projects every day. I’ve been eager to share these little mementos, because the deeper I got into the sw...2017-11-0128 minThe Third Story with Leo SidranSettling the Underscore - Vol. 1Behind every television commercial, there’s an entire economy dedicated to selecting, providing, creating and sourcing music. What was once considered the “jingle” business has now become one of the last sources of real income in recorded music. Today, publishers, bands, composers, production libraries, artists and labels are all vying for a piece of the pie. In this first of a series of episodes dedicated to the world of commercial music, I talk to two composer / entrepreneurs who have each put in their time on both the creative and business end of things. John “Scrapper” Sneider of Storefront...2017-10-101h 10The Third Story with Leo SidranJonatha BrookeJonatha Brooke has been one of my favorite singer songwriters since the first moment I heard her, 25 years ago. Her haunting, unique sound with the band The Story sent me reeling, and in many ways I’ve still never recovered. Since then, she’s recorded nearly a dozen albums under her own name. The most recent, “Midnight Hallelujah” came out earlier this year. Can songwriting be taught? What is the future for independent songwriters? How do artists monetize access? How much personal information is too much to share on social media? How has her personal journey changed her soun...2017-10-031h 06The Third Story with Leo Sidran60: The election (Ben and Leo Sidran)I woke up on the road in Paris the morning after the American Presidential election and saw the results. Then my father and I had this brief conversation. Nearly one year to the day after we lived through a terror attack in Paris, we found ourselves back in the same place. Only this time it was not our personal safety that had been placed at risk. It was something that felt somehow much larger. Last year we recorded a podcast conversation describing what it felt like in Paris on the night of November 13th. At...2016-11-1012 minThe Third Story with Leo Sidran57 - Michael FeldmanFor over 30 years, Michael Feldman hosted the nationally syndicated radio show “Whad’ya Know”. He built the show and his audience from his home base in Madison, Wisconsin. He loved his audience, and he loved his show. When it was taken off the air earlier this year, he suffered it as a great loss. This week he launches WYK 2.0 – the radio show in podcast form. Here he talks about a life in radio, why he thrives on performing in front of an audience, and why podcasts aren't radio.2016-09-231h 12The Third Story with Leo Sidran50th Episode Special: Leo Sidran (podcast host, musician)For this 50th Episode special, bassist and composer Michael Thurber turns the tables on Third Story host Leo Sidran. They explore Leo's musical career (which includes writing songs for the Steve Miller Band as a teenager, co-producing an Oscar winning song, and surviving in the jingle jungle of commercial music), the Third Story podcast, and finding his own path.2016-04-191h 24
The Third Story with Leo Sidran39: Musicians behind Late Show with Stephen ColbertThis week, Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” begins, replacing David Letterman and starting a new tradition for late night television. Colbert chose young powerhouse pianist Jon Batiste to lead his band, and Batiste in turn selectedMichael Thurber to play bass in the band.
I've talked with both Batiste and Thurber for this podcast in the past, discussing their early musical development and general outlook on music today. In celebration of The Late Show's kickoff, I compiled some highlights from our previous conversations, as well as a conversation I had with Will Lee, the veteran Late Show bassist from Letter...2015-09-091h 08The Third Story with Leo Sidran21: Steve KhanGuitarist Steve Khan was born and raised in Los Angeles in a house of songs. His father, lyricist and songwriter Sammy Cahn, made countless contributions to the American songbook. As a young boy, Steve was surrounded by his father’s friends and collaborators; Dean Martin was a regular at the house. But as he describes it, his father’s world was not particularly attractive to him, and he felt a real distance between himself and his father’s world.Coming of age in LA in the 60’s, Steve was drawn to music for somewhat more social reasons. His frien...2014-12-291h 28The Third Story with Leo SidranEpisode 17: Adam Dorn (Third Story vs. Compared to What Conversation)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, the results of a series of half-serious recording sessions. Since the release of his first album, Home Movies from the Brain Forest, the style has varied from a drum 'n' bass soun...2014-10-141h 28