Leo Sidran

Twenty-five years ago, New York’s jazz clubs went dark after the September 11 attacks. Some reopened within days. Others never recovered. A look at the musicians, clubs and institutions that kept the music alive.

At a late-summer celebration in Central Park, Verve Records marked its 70th anniversary alongside SummerStage’s 40th season. From a new generation reimagining Getz/Gilberto to Samara Joy and Christian McBride carrying the jazz tradition forward, the evening was a reminder that musical history is kept alive by the people who believe in it — sometimes quietly, one person at a time.

The first Labor Day parade took place in New York City in 1882, but it didn’t get moving until a group of workers from Newark arrived with a band. Leo Sidran traces the musical origins of the holiday and considers the enduring question of musicians as both artists and workers.

Leo Sidran revisits a 2023 conversation with singer Samara Joy about her experience studying at SUNY Purchase

Singer, composer, and producer Sofia Rei talks with Leo Sidran about “Folk and Futurism,” rediscovering tradition from a distance, and how her collaborators and students continue to influence the music she makes.

Argentine singer, composer, and producer Sofía Rei talks about leaving Buenos Aires and rediscovering the music of home, moving beyond the boundaries of jazz, embracing electronics and production, and learning from collaborators and students. Her new album Antónima brings those threads together through what she calls “Folk and Futurism” a meeting place for tradition, technology and a distinctly contemporary musical identity.

Singer and composer Manuela Sánchez Goubert grew up between Bogotá and New York, where studying jazz eventually led her back to the folkloric traditions of her childhood. She talks with Leo Sidran about the value of seeing home from a distance, the connections between musical traditions across Latin America, and jazz as a shared language that allows those influences to meet and evolve.

As new jazz clubs open across New York, The Pocket is bringing live music back to the heart of Midtown. Co-founder Martin Porter talks about building a musician-first listening room, carrying forward lessons from the Jazz Standard, and why there’s no bar to shake cocktails during the ballads.

Forty years ago this month, Paul Simon released Graceland, an album that became one of the defining records of his career, and one of the most celebrated and debated albums of its era. Music historian Ashley Kahn tells the whole complicated story in his new book, Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland.

Ray Long reviews the latest record from singer-songwriter Jacob Jeffries (of Vulfpeck fame) entitled You Got The Right Idea