JazzStories

Series produced by Murray Street Productions

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Jazz musicians refer to what they do as telling stories. We bring you backstage stories from jazz legends and those in the making.

Jazz musicians refer to what they do as telling stories. We bring you backstage stories from jazz legends and those in the making. Hear what jazz sounds like when musicians put down their instruments. A companion to the weekly program Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio.


54 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: James Moody, Credit: Frank Stewart
"Moody's Mood for Love" is one of the most memorable and recognizable solos in jazz history. But for James Moody, the song contains a bigger history.

Bought by WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM, 90.5 WSNC and more


  • Added: Jan 20, 2011
  • Length: 08:15
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Sam Rivers, Credit: Frank Stewart
Sam Rivers has sounded his horn across six decades of jazz with Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor, and Dizzy Gillespie. Producer David Goren brings us an i...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM, WNCU, KFOK-LPFM and more


  • Added: Jan 20, 2011
  • Length: 09:23
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Jason Moran , Credit: Frank Stewart
Prolific pianist and composer Jason Moran fuses stride piano, avant-garde jazz and sampled sounds. Hear the 2010 MacArthur Fellow "a Texas computer...

Bought by WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WNCU, KFOK-LPFM and more


  • Added: Jan 26, 2011
  • Length: 10:37
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Hank Jones, Credit: Frank Stewart
Over the past eighty years, the late Hank Jones has been described as eloquent and impeccable. However, his career wasn’t marked by the normal road...

Bought by KMUW, WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, 90.5 WSNC and more


  • Added: Mar 07, 2011
  • Length: 10:54
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Lee Konitz , Credit: Frank Stewart
Widely admired for his original sound, the 83 year old alto saxophonist Lee Konitz is a master of improvisation who continues to travel the world s...

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  • Added: Mar 11, 2011
  • Length: 11:01
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Dianne Reeves
"I don't ever want you to open for me again" said Sarah Vaughan. The diva was paying her a compliment, but the modest Dianne Reeves didn't' know that.

Bought by WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM, 90.5 WSNC and more


  • Added: Mar 11, 2011
  • Length: 06:18
  • Purchases: 8
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Bobby McFerrin has spent four decades breaking ground in jazz vocals – and his music always feels fresh. Hear how Miles Davis changed his life.

Bought by WMOT, CJRT-FM, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM and more


  • Added: Mar 21, 2011
  • Length: 05:32
  • Purchases: 8
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Billy Taylor played with the best in the business. But his contributions to jazz went far beyond the bandstand.

Bought by WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM, 90.5 WSNC and more


  • Added: Apr 08, 2011
  • Length: 09:46
  • Purchases: 8
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Brazilian musicians Duduka Da Fonseca, Helio Alves, and Maucha Adnet discuss Samba Jazz and the Bossa Nova.

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WNCU, and KFOK-LPFM


  • Added: Apr 18, 2011
  • Length: 09:09
  • Purchases: 4
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Since the 1960s, writer and producer Nat Hentoff has confronted the question "Is jazz black music.' He discusses the issue in a 2008 conversation w...

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  • Added: May 03, 2011
  • Length: 09:31
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Father Peter O'Brien and Mary Lou Williams - Monterey Jazz Fest., 1971, Credit: Paul Slaughter Photos
“My father forced me to go to dancing school and take accordion lessons. I was a lousy dancer, couldn’t play, but there was this yearning for that ...

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  • Added: May 13, 2011
  • Length: 10:02
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Susie Ibarra
“I understand Filipino Kulintang, it's melodic phrasing, how it moves linearly, very similar to how perhaps bebop moves in jazz…there’s a lot of si...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, 90.5 WSNC, and KFOK-LPFM


  • Added: May 31, 2011
  • Length: 10:53
  • Purchases: 4
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"Well, growing up in Detroit I was exposed to a lot of different music, a lot of different cultures at a very young age without ever having to leav...

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  • Added: Jun 13, 2011
  • Length: 07:23
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Roy Haynes
“I got these small 20 inch bass drums. One of the first 20 inch bass drums…So when Lester Young saw these small little drums, right away he nicknam...

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  • Added: Jul 14, 2011
  • Length: 11:10
  • Purchases: 6
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"I was on my way to being a decent bass player, and at that time there were a lot of clubs in New York, a lot of recordings going on....talking to ...

Bought by KMUW, WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM and more


  • Added: Jul 14, 2011
  • Length: 08:59
  • Purchases: 8
Caption: Jose James
“Music was unexpected. I always wanted to be a writer and I still do. I was always turned on by words, by the way people could use words and that k...

Bought by WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, PRX Remix, and KFOK-LPFM


  • Added: Jul 28, 2011
  • Length: 11:59
  • Purchases: 5
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He said don’t have too many pregnant 19ths in there. Keep it simple…..Basie was as much as an arranger as any of the arrangers who actually wrote d...

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  • Added: Sep 02, 2011
  • Length: 07:43
  • Purchases: 6
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“And then we used to play hockey in the street, roller skate hockey. So while I was up there playing roller skate hockey I was moving my feet aroun...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 02, 2011
  • Length: 13:21
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Wynton Marsalis
"For me I always grew up watching my father and other jazz musicians, they never played for that many people, they were always struggling. They did...

Bought by WMOT, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, WCSU-FM, PRX Remix and more


  • Added: Oct 14, 2011
  • Length: 18:54
  • Purchases: 6
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“You always have to have boundaries. If you don’t have boundaries, you don’t have art. There has to be controls and boundaries. Otherwise when does...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, and WNCU


  • Added: Oct 25, 2011
  • Length: 12:15
  • Purchases: 3