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
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He wasn’t political about it. He didn’t particularly talk about politics and stuff. He did it his own way. He didn’t have to talk about that. All h...

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


  • Added: Jun 19, 2012
  • Length: 11:34
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Todd Barkan
"One of the greatest joys I have had in my musical career has been providing employment for musicians, actually handing them [work]. Now I hand th...

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


  • Added: Jun 19, 2012
  • Length: 19:52
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Erica von Kleist
“Essentially Ellington…really made me feel like I could be part of something bigger, musically. Meeting all these other young people from around th...

Bought by Delmarva Public Media and KREV-LP


  • Added: Jun 19, 2012
  • Length: 10:37
  • Purchases: 2
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"And he said we’ll I don’t want to play any of those 7s or 11s or 13s or 22s. I don’t want to play any of that stuff that you’re writing. He said b...

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


  • Added: Apr 20, 2012
  • Length: 11:32
  • Purchases: 3
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"There’s an interesting thing that happens. You prepare a piece. You rehearse it. It sounds perfect...And you go out and play it on the first night...

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


  • Added: Apr 20, 2012
  • Length: 16:42
  • Purchases: 4
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"I had moved to New York and spent a couple of years here scuffling around. I was getting a little discouraged, playing a lot of weddings. It wasn'...

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


  • Added: Apr 20, 2012
  • Length: 13:41
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Vijay Iyer
"I kind of had a revelation once seeing him [Randy Weston] play live. It happened for me in a particular time in my life when I recently made the d...

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


  • Added: Apr 12, 2012
  • Length: 12:02
  • Purchases: 3
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"Up until the late 80's, it was not officially forbidden, but you were always like marked: 'Ah, he's interested in jazz. He's with Western culture....

Bought by KPIK-LP, Delmarva Public Media, KREV-LP, 90.5 WSNC, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 23, 2012
  • Length: 13:26
  • Purchases: 5
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“Their music affects your consciousness, it changes your DNA if you really, really let it settle into your soul; Odetta’s voice, Miriam’s energy an...

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


  • Added: Mar 23, 2012
  • Length: 12:33
  • Purchases: 3
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"I was brought up in small farm of my grandfather, and in the city. And My father was…working class. My father was working, my mother was working...

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


  • Added: Mar 23, 2012
  • Length: 12:59
  • Purchases: 5
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"You’ve got this reservoir of ideas are roaming around in your brain and you want to put them down on paper and pass those out to the trumpet playe...

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


  • Added: Dec 13, 2011
  • Length: 14:37
  • Purchases: 5
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"In San Francisco…I had a jazz group of my own... and I went to a beer bar on Vallejo Street. And I said I want to really get my band in here. I ca...

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


  • Added: Dec 08, 2011
  • Length: 13:06
  • Purchases: 4
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"There’s a certain thing on the bandstand that every now and then – not every night, not every composition – there comes a point when the collectiv...

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


  • Added: Nov 11, 2011
  • Length: 15:31
  • Purchases: 5
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“The essential ingredient of jazz is listening. And then the response... and out of that something unexpected comes rather than some fulfillment of...

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


  • Added: Oct 27, 2011
  • Length: 08:29
  • Purchases: 4
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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
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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“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
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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...

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


  • Added: Sep 02, 2011
  • Length: 07:43
  • Purchases: 6
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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"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