Releasing EPs for musicians and artists often serve as a primary release strategy for both emerging and established artists. Usually featuring three to six tracks, EPs allow musicians to maintain consistent content, experiment with new sounds, and keep fans engaged.

Jazz singer, songwriter and arranger Alyssa Allgood feels that EPs allow her to release more content between costly major projects and stay relevant through her own social media efforts.

Alyssa has recently released a six track EP titled “Leap” that she self-composed and arranged, which captures the spirit of taking risks in life and love. She says it’s both a reflection of the struggle, and a celebration of the triumph, to make a leap.

This episode, take the plunge with me as I engage in a conversation with this fascinating and accomplished artist.

‘Euphonic Gumbo’ is not exactly a “Nawlin’s” menu item but instead a tasty musical delight that’s the title of of a new album on Club 44 Records from vocalist and Broadway star Julie Benko, featuring a dazzling seven-piece band directed by her pianist-arranger husband, Jason Yeager.

This recording is the result of the collaborating couple’s numerous trips to New Orleans where they developed a love for the Crescent City and its rich musical and cultural histories. The album’s title comes from Benko’s original play ‘Down the Line’ that is set in Storyville, New Orlean’s former red-light district, and features the legendary pianist Tony Jackson, a mentor to Jelly Roll Morton, as the central character. Eventually, Benko and Yeager were invited by Birdland mainstay Jim Caruso to bring their musical ensemble to the club where their Big Easy-inspired celebrations have become a beloved winter tradition.

All of this led to the development of the recording ‘Euphonic Gumbo’, and the story unfolds in my conversation with Julie Benko and Jason Yeager.

Since 1934, DOWNBEAT magazine has been considered by many to be the Oracle when it comes to coverage of what’s going on in the world of music, especially jazz. Every January, DOWNBEAT publishes their list of the best albums from the previous year. On that coveted list for 2025 is an album from the Wild Iris Brass Band called, “Way Up,” which is the subject of this podcast episode.

The Wild Iris Brass Band was co-founded by saxophonist Jeff Coffin and trombonist Ray Mason. Coffin has worked with Bela Fleck and currently with the Dave Matthews Band and is also the founder of Ear Up Records label. Mason is known for his work with Lauren Daigle and Elvis Costello and is a musician in high demand in the jazz world, as well as other music genres. “Way Up” is the debut album for the Wild Iris Brass Band and features a star-studded roster and guest appearances from Béla Fleck, Steven Bernstein, and Bob Lanzetti and others.

The story behind this recording is a fascinating one as you will learn from my conversation with Jeff Coffin and Ray Mason.

What do you get when you combine re-imagined classic rock and roll with jazz music delivered by a Grammy award winning Big Band orchestra and Grammy nominated vocalist? In this case, you get a newly-minted Grammy nomination for ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album’ from The Count Basie Orchestra, featuring Billboard’s #1 jazz artist - and our podcast guest - Deborah Silver, for “Basie Rocks!”

This 11 track project is packed with iconic hits from the likes of Elton John, Peter Frampton The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the Steve Miller Band and more, delivered by The Count Basie Orchestra and Silver, in collaboration with Arturo Sandoval, Kurt Elling, Wycliffe Gordon, Trombone Shorty, Bill Frisell and others.

Join me as our conversation with Deborah Silver discusses her fascinating story, and how her collaboration with The Count Basie Orchestra ultimately led to this extraordinary GRAMMY nominated album.

April Varner is a rising jazz vocalist and the 2023 winner of the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. Her full-length Christmas album, featuring unique and reimagined holiday standards, is called ‘Winter Songs Vol. 2’ just released on the Cellar Music Group label.

We have chosen to showcase the project as one of the standouts from a long list of holiday recordings produced every year at this time. The album features an impressive gathering of Varner collaborators, including GRAMMY- winning producer Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, pianist Luther Allison, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, and an outstanding vocal trio The Sunhouse Singers, featuring June Cavlan, Kate Kortum, and Joie Bianco.

My holiday gift to you is a conversation with this amazing and talented artist about the development of her holiday recording, as well as a little bit about the backstory of a vocalist and a name you’re going to want to remember.

The Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra also known as CCJO is one of the Midwest’s most prominent jazz bands. Founded in 2013, CCJO is currently a 17-piece not-for-profit ensemble dedicated to performing, preserving and teaching jazz as a living art form. More than a decade ago, Rob Parton – the former artistic director of the CCJO – floated the idea of creating a new jazz version of “Nutcracker.”

One might ask why, when in 1960 a couple of jazz giants named Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn created their own jazz version of the work called “The Nutcracker Suite,”which became an iconic and beloved holiday jazz standard.

Moving to the present day, along comes the dynamic duo of CCJO’s current artistic director Eric Lechliter and Doug Lillibridge the CCJO board president who were not at all intimidated, and have now created their own jazzy take on the Nutcracker called the “Nutcracker Remix”. This recording is a 12-track album featuring nine reimagined tracks from the Tchaikovsky ballet and three bonus Christmas-themed tracks sung by powerhouse jazz singer Mandy Gaines.

Eric and Doug have “thrown down the gauntlet” to establish CCJO’s place as a standard-bearer for holiday recordings. Here is our conversation, along with snippets of what we are sure will become a holiday classic.

There is a new jazz record of note on the scene created by Rin Seo, a Korea- born composer/conductor, titled ‘City Suite,’ released on the Cellar Music Group record label.

Rin was raised in a rich musical environment encompassing Western classical, Theater, and Korean folk music, but her work and life is now fully committed to jazz. This debut album is a remarkable musical journey for Rin. As an immigrant, her compositions reflect her decade-long life as a New Yorker, while also honoring her Korean heritage.

My fascinating conversation with Rin picks up with her moving to New York City and the development of her debut album.

Brandon Sanders, has always cut his own unique path. Born in Kansas City but spending his formative years in Compton, Brandon grew up in a musical household. He also honed his love of Jazz at the Kansas City jazz club, Casablanca, run by his grandmother.

But first, college called. After playing basketball for a junior college near Los Angeles, he enrolled at the behest of his grandmother—actually, she did the enrolling for him—at the University of Kansas. While studying communications there, Brandon became a walk-on practice player for the top-seeded team in the country where quickly gained a reputation as a dogged defender.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in communications, and Master’s in social work at Kansas, Brandon dedicated himself to that field. But eventually his passion for music caught up with him. So, at age 25, he taught himself how to play drums, until a Kansas City drummer named Todd Strait, who used to play with Marian McPartland, took Brandon under his wing. And with years of intense practice, Brandon attained such a high level of proficiency that he was accepted at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he formed friendships and musical associations with future jazz greats including Warren Wolf, trumpeter Darren Barrett, and drummer Kendrick Scott. He started playing in various bands at Boston clubs including Wally’s Jazz Cafe and the Wonder Bar, gaining experience that eventually led him New York.

Now living in Brooklyn, Brandon has a third album titled “Lasting Impression,” on the heels of two critically acclaimed releases “Brandon Sanders: The Tables Will Turn,” and his first titled, “Compton’s Finest.”

In this episode, I talk with Brandon about his remarkable career trajectory, and the forming of collaborations with a stellar list of jazz all-stars to create a path to his musical success.