Ben Sidran

On his 83rd birthday, Ben Sidran revisits a 1974 DownBeat profile and considers what has changed - and what hasn’t - over more than half a century of music and life. In his annual birthday conversation with his son Leo, he reflects on aging, ambition, practice, and the surprising persistence of a worldview formed long ago.

In his annual birthday conversation with his son Leo, Ben Sidran reflects on aging, ambition, practice and the surprising persistence of a worldview formed long ago.

Leo and Ben Sidran reflect on 250 years of America, jazz being arguably one of America's greatest contributions to the world, and democracy both conceptually and in practice.

On this episode of The Art of the Story, WBGO's Doug Doyle reports on the passing of South African pianist and NEA Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim

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.