For more than three decades, vocalist, composer and educator Theo Bleckmann has occupied a place all his own in contemporary music.
Born in Germany and based in New York since the 1990s, Bleckmann has built a career that defies easy categorization. He's been Grammy nominated, collaborated with artists ranging from Meredith Monk to Ambrose Akinmusire, recorded standards, original songs and electronic experiments, and developed a vocal language that can sound at once deeply human and almost otherworldly.
But perhaps what's most striking about Theo is his comfort with ambiguity. He seems happiest in the spaces between things: between jazz and experimental music, tradition and innovation, technique and intuition, individuality and community, love and anger.
When I spoke with him last year for The Third Story podcast, as he was releasing his album Love and Anger, our conversation considered records and repertoire and larger questions like what does it mean to sustain a creative life? How do artists support one another in an increasingly fragmented world? And how does he help younger musicians discover not just a career, but a sense of purpose?
Theo's answers touched on what he calls "coding the self,"developing a personal language and worldview rather than simply mastering someone else's, and on the importance of community among artists.
You can hear my full Third Story podcast conversation with Theo Bleckmann here.
