No Cowards in Our Band is a musical drama telling the story of renowned activist and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) through his own words. With the performance just days before the 2024 Presidential Election, the piece is a striking reminder of the power of the pen, the voice, and the vote.

Based on a libretto by Anthony Knight, Jr. and interwoven with Negro spirituals arranged by GRAMMY-nominated jazz artist Orrin Evans, No Cowards in Our Band stars actor, artist, and TV personality Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass performing with a trio of opera singers, the “moving and electrifying performer” (Wall Street Journal) Nia Drummond, soprano – who went viral last year for a rendition of Happy Birthday that made Busta Rhymes cry – Metropolitan Opera tenor Edward Washington II, and Opera Ebony and Syracuse Opera’s Gregory Sheppard, bass.

Evans is a fixture on the jazz scene now, and is featured on the cover of Downbeat in November. As a deft tune deconstructor, he traverses a broad timeline of the vocabularies of swinging, blues-infused hardcore jazz and spiritual jazz/avant garde jazz traditions, as well as the Euro-canon, with the intuitive spontaneity of an ear player. He projects an instantly recognizable sound, sometimes eliciting flowing rubato poetry. He records and performs in collaborative projects include the Eubanks Evans Experience (a duo with eminent guitarist Kevin Eubanks); the Brazilian unit Terreno Comum; Evans’ working trio with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr.; Tar Baby (a collective trio of 20 years standing with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits); and the Captain Black Big Band, which just recently released Walk a Mile in My Shoe (Imani Records).

Orrin was just off the red-eye from gigs on the West Coast when I caught up with him by Zoom, and we discussed his very personal involvement with No Cowards in Our Band, as his mother was an opera singer, and his father a playwright. We also dig into Walk a Mile in My Shoe, from which you will hear the Captain Black Big Band take on Bread’s 70’s soft-rock standard “If,” with a wonderful vocal by Paul Jost.

Saturday, November 2nd at 7pm
Concept and Libretto: Anthony Knight, Jr.
Musical Arrangement: Orrin Evans
Director: Michael Hofmann

Masud Olufani as Frederick Douglass

Nia Drummond, soprano
Edward Washingington II, tenor
Gregory Sheppard, bass

Tickets: https://hudsonhall.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FUT000002I0d72AC
Tier 1: Reserved Seating, $45 (plus $5 fee)
Tier 2: General Admission, Mid-Center Section/Side Aisle, Front Mezzanine, $30 (plus $5 fee)
Tier 3: General Admission, Rear and Side Seating, far sides may be partially obstructed, $19 (plus $3 fee)

Tord Gustavsen has gone down many musical paths in his still-blossoming career. Classically trained and educated in musicology, Tord also has a deep knowledge of jazz, which he has seamlessly integrated with the folk and religious music of his upbringing in Oslo. In many ways a quintessential ECM artis (though in our conversation he says he did not think this was originally the case), he has performed and recorded in any number of traditional jazz formats, as well as integrating choirs, singers and world music into his sound.

With Seeing, Tord begins an intricate new chapter in his series of acclaimed trio recordings, initiated in 2003 with Changing Places – an album that is today considered a classic. The new recording with its compact, concentrated song forms features five Gustavsen originals, two chorals after Johann Sebastian Bach, a traditional Norwegian church hymn, plus the 19th century English chorale “Nearer My God, to Thee."Tord, together with long-time ally Jarle Vespestad on drums and Steinar Raknes on double bass digs deep into his unique blend of jazz, blues, gospel, Scandinavian folk and church music on the album. Fans of the deeply moving and meditative music for which Gustavsen has become famous will not be disappointed. Seeing, recorded in fall 2023 at Studios La Buissonne in Southern France, was produced – naturally - by Manfred Eicher.

Podcast 987 is our conversation, as we talk about his trio, the new album, his musical background and influences, and how he approaches improvisation. Musical selections include “Seattle Song,” taken from an improvisational idea he and the trio created as a sound check before a show in the Emerald City, and a stirring version of “Auf Meinen Lieben Gott,” which featuring a stunning bass solo by Steinar Raknes.

I’m always happy to preview jazz festivals across the US on Straight No Chaser. The big ones like Newport or Monterey are always great, and regional festivals like those held in Saratoga or by NJPAC are a blast. But I have a special place in my heart for the cities and towns who present festivals, places like Northampton, MA, or Burlington, VT, Hartford, CT or Portland, Oregon, or in the case, Hudson, NY.

Scheduled in February in years’ past, the 2024 Hudson Jazz Festival marks the festival’s official move to October, offering music lovers the chance to get out and enjoy the festival’s many offerings and the region’s idyllic autumnal landscape. Coinciding with the seasonal change, the festival is taking its events city-wide with the addition of three new festival venues that showcase well-loved Hudson destinations and a free pre-festival Community Dayfeaturing Melanie Charles’ Make Jazz Trill Again: Trill Mega Jam.

There are multiple free events each day, with top-notch ticketed events at historic Hudson Hall each evening. Friday night features Ekep Nkwelle presenting “Ella Fitzgerald - Against All Odds,” an evening of songs associated with the legendary Ella, and bringing attention to her little known incarceration in Hudson, NY as a teenager.

Saturday night’s headliner is trumpeter Riley Mulherkar (formerly of the Westerlies) leading a quartet with Chris Pattishall (piano), Barry Stephenson (bass) and Chris Icasiano (drums). Riley has released his first solo album, the eponymous Riley, and we’ll feature “Ride or Die” from that album. Sunday afternoon wraps up with the Ethan Iverson Trio, with the former Bad Plus pianist joined by Reuben Rogers on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

Podcast 986 is my preview of the festival with curator Cat Henry. Ms. Henry has previously curated concerts for MoMA Summergarden: New Music for New York, featuring composers such as Henry Threadgill, Myra Melford and Don Byron, and produced programs for Lincoln Center’s inaugural Poet-in-Residence, Mahogany L. Browne. Henry currently serves as Executive Director of Live Music Society, a foundation supporting grassroots music venues where musicians start their careers, connect with audiences and hone their craft. Previously, she served as Vice President, Concerts and Touring, for Jazz at Lincoln Center, where she managed all performance-related activities under the JALC brand, including concert seasons at Rose Theater and The Appel Room, worldwide touring of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and nightly sets at Dizzy’s Club. She is a fellow of the Executive Program in Arts and Culture Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BFA in Jazz Performance from The New School. Originally from the UK, she lives in Brooklyn with her teenage daughter.

Pianist and keyboardist Dan Siegel has covered a broad swath of the jazz spectrum over the course of his four-and-a-half decade career, from straight ahead swing to sleek contemporary sounds. While that’s a testament to Siegel’s multi-faceted talents and restless curiosity, it’s also the result of the diverse array of collaborators that have joined him along the journey – a roster that includes Bela Fleck, Steve Gadd, Larry Carlton, Ernie Watts, Ottmar Liebert, Lee Ritenour, Brian Bromberg, Eric Marienthal, Bob Sheppard, Boney James, Alex Acuña and others.

Siegel’s twenty-third release, Unity, is the latest and one of the finest examples of that alchemical process. It reunites the keyboardist with drummer Oscar Seaton for the first time in 20 years, since the recording of the 2004 album Inside Out. It also marks his first meeting with bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, Seaton’s rhythm section partner in Terence Blanchard’s electrically charged E-Collective band. From the time the trio entered the studio together, Siegel’s vision of the music he’d written for the session irrevocably changed, a display of the titular unity.

To the core trio, Siegel added a rotating cast of master guitarists, most of them longtime compatriots and friends who each added their own distinctive flavors to the tracks: Rob Bacon (Raphael Saadiq, Amp Fiddler), Allen Hinds (Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole), Michael Miller (Boz Scaggs, Chick Corea), Dean Parks (Steely Dan, Michael Jackson), and Michael Thompson (Babyface, Whitney Houston). Unity also features percussion great Lenny Castro, whose relationship with Siegel dates back to the keyboardist’s self-titled 1982 album, as does that of prolific saxophonist Tom Scott, who heads the album’s horn section.

During out conversation for Podcast 985, Siegel acknowledged that at 70, his long and rewarding career is entering a concluding chapter. It’s refreshing to hear an artist address the arc of his career, and Dan speaks eloquently for his fondness for his collaborators, his life as a musician and producer, and the possibility that he may still have more musical mountains to climb. Muscial selections from Unity include “free Spirit” and “Simple Things.”

‘Genre-fluid’ is a great word to describe the music of guitarist Ethan Margolis, aka “Emaginario.” A life-long student of music, he has traveled the world from his native Cleveland to bring African diaspora-Caribbean sounds and flamenco stylings to his musical base of the blues and folk-rock. Margolis has evolved into a creative and worldly artist, whose deep connections with flamenco, jazz, blues and even punk coalesce into a unique musical voice.

Elements of that Margolis style can be heard coming to fruition on his latest album, Interlude of the Duende (released on Ropeadope), in trio form with a pair of jazz masters Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland.

“Duende” is the Spanish word in the title, has been called “a heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity” and is often connected with flamenco and the Andalusian Romaní population. On this recording, the term appropriately reflects the complexity of the music, the power of the collaboration itself and more broadly Margolis’ life experience in Spain’s Romaní community. Ethan continues to translate that rhythmic language into American jazz formats and recordings in the vein of Hungarian Roma guitarist Gabor Szabó ("Gypsy Queen") and most importantly, the jazz-flamenco crossover playing of Lenny Breau.

In Podcast 984 we discuss his still-maturing musical saga, talk about past and future collaborations with pianist Chano Domínguez, and take a deep dive into the world of flamenco. Musical selections include the aptly titled “Beginning with a Groove,” and “A Beating Heart.”

Norma Winstone has been a one of a kind musician in the jazz scene for more than fifty years. A unique artist as both jazz vocalist and lyricist, and ability to sing in ensembles from Big Bands to Avant-garde ensembles to intimate duets and trios have made each release in her distinctive career a “must hear.”

Her first ECM recording in six years, Outpost of Dreams, finds Norma in a new duo with pianist Kit Downes. Norma brings her poetic sensibilities to new pieces by Downes as well as compositions by Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and John Taylor. The results are always striking, and often moving.

Take “Out Of The Dancing Sea.” Based on the work habits of noted Scottish painter Joan Eardley, Aidin O’Rourke and Downes wrote piece of music, which in turn was also inspired by James Robertson’s short story about Eardley. To this Norma brings her gifts, and the end result is one of the album’s highlights.

Podcast 983 is my talk with Norma, as we discuss how she and Downes came to work together, and the making of Outpost of Dreams. We also go back to some of Norma’s most memorably collaborations, including work with Kenny Wheeler and Fred Hersch. Musical selections include “Out Of The Dancing Sea,” and “Beneath an Evening Sky” from Outpost of Dreams and “My Soul” from her collaboration with Wheeler, Mirrors.

A reliably swinging presence and facile improviser on the New York scene since the late ‘80s, guitarist Greg Skaff has shared the bandstand with such jazz greats as Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, David “Fathead” Newman and Ralph Peterson Jr., as well current notables like Mike LeDonne, David Hazeltine, Orrin Evans, Ben Allison, Jim Rotondi and Joe Farnsworth. He has also toured and recorded with “Queen of R&B” Ruth Brown and jazz diva Gloria Lynne and recorded seven albums as a leader.

Skaff’s latest, Re Up, recorded with bassist Ugonna Okegwo and young drumming sensation Jonathan Barber, follows the guitar trio format he explored on 2021’s Polaris, which paired him with two legends: bassist Ron Carter and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath.

Greg speaks highly of his collaborators, who were all-in on the project, and put in the time rehearsing and playing live before going into the studio. It was on the bandstand that tasty covers (Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys” and Duke Ellington’s “Fleurette Africaine,” rendered as a sublime solo guitar piece) and Skaff’s sometimes challenging originals took shape. The result is Re Up (you’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear about the serendipity that led to the title).

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Skaff studied jazz at Wichita State University before moving to New York, where he soon began making an impression with his solidly swinging style. He held the guitar chair in tenor saxophonist Stanley “Don’t Mess With Mr. T” Turrentine’s band for five years and subsequently worked in bands led by saxophonists Bobby Watson and David “Fathead” Newman as well as in bassist Ron Carter’s big band. This is his seventh album as a leader.

Podcast 982 is my conversation with Greg Skaff, as he whips out his guitar to let us hear how some of the tracks on the album came to be. You can hear three tracks from the album, including a solo rendition of his dreamy “Peace Place,” which also has trio version.

The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner is Conrad Herwig’s latest reimagination of music from his musical heroes, and in this case, former boss on the bandstand. Backed by a band that includes his closest friends and long-time collaborators, including Craig Handy (tenor & baritone saxophone), Alex Norris (trumpet & flugelhorn), Bill O'Connell (piano), Ruben Rodriguez (bass), Robby Ameen (drums), and Camilo Molina congas & bata), the new album is a worthy companion to previous entries in the “Latin Side” series, Luques Curtis and Eddie Palmieri sit in on a track each.

Well-known as an anchor of the Mingus Big Band and a first-call session musician, Conrad has released more than twenty-five albums as a leader..Among his more notable credits include Joe Lovano’s 52nd Street Themes, Al Di Meola’s Orange and Blue, and Miles Davis’s final large-scale performance released as Live at Montreux.

Podcast 981 completes our two part conversation with Herwig, who spoke to me by telephone while sitting a in a park near his home. The bird calls you hear in the background add a wonderful ambience to our talk. In this second part, we discuss his musical history and future projects, and talk about some of my favorite Herwig sessions, including The Tip of the Sword with Richie Beirach and Jack DeJohnette, and New York Breed, with Beirach, Adam Nussbaum, Dave Liebman, and Rufus Reid. Musical selections from those albums include “Thought Precede Action” and McCoy Tyner’s “Search for Peace.”