Ben Sidran

After traveling to Spain to accept a surprising jazz award, Leo Sidran finds himself wrestling with an old question: what is jazz, anyway? The answer arrives later that night at Madrid's Café Central, where musicians and fans gather to sing an impromptu tribute to the late Sonny Rollins.

To mark what would have been Miles Davis's 100th birthday, The Third Story with Leo Sidran revisits a rare 1986 conversation between Miles and Ben Sidran, recorded on the terrace of Miles’s Malibu home.

To mark Keith Jarrett’s birthday, Leo Sidran revisits a rare 1980s conversation between Jarrett and his father, Ben Sidran - exploring the pianist’s deeply personal ideas about presence, improvisation, and the state of mind behind his music.

Long before 4/20 became a global code, marijuana already had a place in jazz culture — and few figures embodied that connection more than Mezz Mezzrow. The Chicago-born clarinetist became a legendary supplier in Harlem, so closely associated with cannabis that for a time, marijuana itself was nicknamed “Mezz.”

A birthday tribute to drummer Steve Gadd - whose feel, restraint, and imagination helped define the sound of modern recording - from a rare 1980s conversation with Ben Sidran.

Freddie Hubbard would have turned 88 this week. Leo Sidran pays tribute to the late trumpet master, and revisits his father Ben Sidran’s interview with Hubbard from the 1980s.

Leo Sidran goes behind the scenes with his father, Ben at the Palm Springs Jazz Festival. Part personal narrative, part exploration of how natural phenomena like overtones, particles, and waves shape our ideas of beauty — and part look at how creative work actually gets made.

Celebrating Bobby McFerrin on his birthday

On this episode of The Art of the Story, Leo and Ben Sidran pay tribute to the late guitarist Phil Upchurch

The Third Story host Leo Sidran remembers Phil Upchurch