The Third Story with Leo Sidran

Gregory Porter has one of the most recognizable voices in contemporary jazz. A two-time Grammy winner who regularly performs for audiences of thousands, he has built a career around a rich baritone that draws from gospel, blues, soul, and jazz. But he didn't release his first album until he was nearly 40. Growing up in Bakersfield, California, Porter was one of eight children raised by a mother who was a storefront preacher. She brought him along to sing in churches and introduced him to the people and places that would eventually inspire his 2016 Grammy-winning album Take Me to the Alley . Here Porter looks back on those early experiences, the influence of his mother, and the advice she gave him shortly before her death that helped set him on his musical path. Along the way, he talks about his early ambitions as a football player, his relationship with food and cooking, the connection between music and ministry, and a lifetime spent falling into — and staying in — love. Explore the archive at third-story.com and subscribe to Leo's Substack at leosidran.substack.com.

Legendary Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander reflects on his extraordinary journey from the early days of ska in Kingston to the New York jazz scene, where he befriended Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and countless other musical icons. He discusses his new album A Jamarican in Paris , his self-taught approach to music, and the positivity that has sustained him through more than seven decades at the piano. As Monty puts it, "I'm a student of joy." www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com/ www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Richard Marx was one of the defining voices of late-'80s pop, with hits like "Right Here Waiting," "Endless Summer Nights" and "Hold On to the Nights." But his career as a songwriter began long before his rise to stardom. In this conversation, Marx reflects on growing up in a musical family, the influence of his father, jazz pianist Dick Marx, his early mentorship by Lionel Richie, and a lifetime of writing and producing music. He also discusses his new album, After Hours , a collection of jazz standards and original songs inspired by the Great American Songbook, and why it represents one of the most satisfying songwriting experiences of his career. The Third Story is nominated for several Signal Awards this year, including the Listener's Choice Award. You can support the podcast by voting here , or simply by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Harry Connick, Jr. has spent four decades as one of the most recognizable and versatile figures in American music — a pianist, singer, composer, arranger, actor and entertainer whose career has moved freely between jazz, pop, Broadway, film and television. His new project, Babe: Elaboratio — A Tribute to My Mother , may also be his most personal and ambitious: an orchestral work and accompanying book devoted to his mother, Anita Livingston, who died when Harry was 13. Here Harry talks about constructing Babe from the fragments and misrememberings of childhood memory; growing up as a musical prodigy in New Orleans under the guidance of Ellis Marsalis and James Booker; recording with Ron Carter, Dr. John and Carmen McRae while still barely out of his teens; and experiencing his early success in what he now describes as a kind of "dream state." He also talks about composition and improvisation, his father Harry Connick Sr., the unusual confidence his mother gave him, and the challenge of spending a lifetime balancing serious musicianship with a desire to entertain. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Nicole Zuraitis has spent much of her career being asked (and asking herself) variations of the same question: where do you fit? Is the music jazz? Is it pop? Is it cabaret? Her new album, The Devil I Knew , doesn't exactly settle the question. Instead, it makes the question seem increasingly beside the point. It's a sprawling, 20-song project produced by Larry Klein, with string arrangements by Vince Mendoza, horn charts by Jerry Hey, and musicians including Larry Goldings, John Cowherd, Gilad Hekselman and Christian McBride, alongside her working quartet, which includes her husband, Dan Pugach, on drums. The conceit of the project, which is broken into five parts — The Mirror, The Martyr, The Malediction, The Reckoning and The Requiem — came when a friend described a moment in her own life when she realized that, after years of seeing herself as the victim, she had become the villain in someone else's story. Nicole was fascinated by the idea that the hero and the villain could be the same person. That became part of the world of The Devil I Knew . It's a record about reckoning with your own choices, told by an artist fascinated by narrative, drama and what she calls "jazz lore": the stories and mythology that surround the music. That same instinct led Zuraitis to found the Modern Songbook Society, a project devoted to the idea that the Great American Song book doesn't necessarily have to be a closed book. Nicole says she was a late bloomer. As she tells it, "I wasn't a fully baked cake until I was 37 years old. Like, I didn't burst into the scene when I moved to New York at 25. [...] I was so nervous. And just constantly learning. And so my cake was not even fully baked. But then once it's baked, I'm like, 'For crying out loud, nobody wants this cake? Like, this is good cake. Somebody wants this cake? No? Fine. I'll eat the cake. It's fine.'" By any conventional measure, the cake is baked. Her album How Love Begins won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2024. And yet, even after that recognition, she says she still feels like something of an outsider in the jazz business. She plays nearly 150 shows a year, mostly on the road, but remains fiercely independent and largely self-managed — still baking her own cake. We talked recently about all of this: about her early years as a rising soccer player and the injury that led her from one kind of pitch to another, her brief stint as a trombone player, her years of hustling in New York, what it means to live a jazz life in today's music business, and how she went about creating the world of The Devil I Knew . www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Duncan Sheik's career did not follow a straight line. After studying semiotics at Brown University, he emerged in the mid 1990s as a pop singer songwriter with his hit "Barely Breathing", and quickly revealed himself to bend toward more literate adult oriented rock. He continued to make records and land himself on the charts but also began exploring composition for film and theater. The success of 2006's Spring Awakening, a hit rock musical that featured Sheik's score (and which won the Tony for Best Original Score as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album) planted him firmly in the world of Broadway. He continued to write for theater, often collaborating with poet and playwright Steven Sater. Over more than three decades he explored electronic music, folk music, and enjoyed covering songs by his favorite writers, many of whom were influential to him as a boy. In this interview, recorded in late 2020, he talked about his career, his songwriting, technology in music, how meditating and chanting have helped him throughout the years, how becoming a father influenced his work, his life in Covid and what it means to release music in strange and trying times, and what exactly Semiotics is anyway. Duncan Sheik died on September 17, 2026. This conversation is a reminder of the breadth of his curiosity and the thoughtfulness with which he approached both music and life. It offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a singular artist whose creative journey was never quite what anyone might have expected. https://www.third-story.com/listen/duncansheik www.leosidran.substack.com

Sullivan Fortner is one of the most admired and influential pianists of his generation, a musician whose curiosity stretches from the traditions of jazz and gospel to synthesizers, studio experimentation and beyond. Here Sullivan talks about growing up in New Orleans, learning to play organ in church, nearly choosing medicine over music, and the teachers and mentors who shaped his path. He reflects on studying with Barry Harris, playing with Roy Hargrove and Stefon Harris, the importance of continuing to learn no matter how far you get, and his lifelong fascination with sound. He also talks about his relationship with Cécile McLorin Salvant, as a musical collaborator and partner in life, and how their connection has changed the way he thinks about accompaniment, lyrics, listening and space. Along the way, Sullivan discusses synesthesia, literally tasting music, making Solo Game and Leave That In There , and what it means to remain open to discovery while staying deeply connected to tradition. A conversation about listening, learning, collaboration, curiosity, and following the music wherever it leads. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

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. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

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. The record would go on to sell millions of copies and win the Grammy for Album of the Year. It would also generate enormous controversy over Simon's decision to record in apartheid South Africa during a cultural boycott. 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 . Here Ashley talks about his career, the making of Graceland, Paul Simon's unusual creative process, and the complicated cultural and political questions that have followed the album for forty years. www.third-story.com https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/art-of-the-story/2026-08-19/ashley-kahn-on-the-miracles-and-wonder-of-paul-simons-graceland https://leosidran.substack.com/

For his 83rd birthday, Ben Sidran revisits a 1974 DownBeat profile (done when he was 30) 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 Leo, he reflects on aging, ambition, practice and the surprising persistence of a worldview formed long ago. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story https://youtu.be/SZY4QRpJCTw

Ben Wikler has spent his career moving between comedy and politics, communication and organizing. Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, a city shaped by civic engagement, academic inquiry, and the satirical spirit that gave rise to The Onion, he developed a worldview in which humor isn't a distraction from democracy, but one of the ways people learn to trust one another enough to participate in it. Wikler has become one of the country's most closely watched political organizers. He was the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019-2025, and is the author of This Is the Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy. But this conversation isn't about campaign tactics or election cycles. Instead, it's about the values and experiences that shaped him: the Wisconsin Idea, the role of humor in public life, the changing media landscape, and why curiosity, optimism, and solidarity remain essential ingredients of democratic life. Recorded at the Madison home where Ben grew up, and where he and his wife are now raising their own family, this is a conversation about place, purpose, and what it takes to keep believing in the promise of democracy. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

A conversation with Ben Sidran, from Greece on America's 250th birthday, about jazz, democracy, identity, and what remains when the scaffolding begins to shake.

Before The Irish Goodbye became one of the most acclaimed debut novels of 2025, Heather Aimee O'Neill spent years quietly writing it while building a career helping other writers tell their stories. Here, she discusses the vulnerability of ambition, the challenge of living an authentic life, and the strange transition from observer to protagonist when a lifelong dream finally comes true. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Saxophonist and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin has become one of the most dynamic voices in jazz today. Here she talks about hanging up on Clark Terry, finding her way from Washington Heights to the international stage, and how the mentors, heroes, setbacks and aspirations that shaped her journey continue to inform her new album, We Dream . www.third-story.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Miles Davis spent his life searching. He changed the sound of jazz repeatedly, assembling generations of musicians around him and pushing constantly toward something new. Few artists loom so large over the history of the music. To mark what would have been his 100th birthday today, I'm revisiting a rare 1986 conversation between Miles and my dad, Ben Sidran, recorded on the terrace of Miles' Malibu home. At a time when Miles was reticent about revisiting his past, in this interview he reflected on Kind of Blue , his early musical development and influences, as well as his ideas about creativity, individuality and what it means to make a meaningful artistic contribution. To start the episode, Ben and I had our own conversation about the Miles interview, his memory of doing it, how it resonated at the time and how it resonates today. In the 40 years since it was recorded, the interview has become one of the definitive documents of Miles' thinking during that period. Ben's original interview with Miles Davis was originally made for his NPR program Sidran on Record, and is now part of his Talking Jazz project. The full archive is available at https://talkingjazz.bandcamp.com/album/talking-jazz Today's episode image is borrowed from "Notes from the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame" produced by Quoted Studios and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas on how growing up in Tijuana - a border city suspended between Mexico and the United States - developed an instinct for living "in-between," musically and personally. She traces her path from a musically curious childhood in Tijuana to her move to Mexico City, the emergence as one of Latin music's defining singer-songwriters and her return to her roots through her new album Norteña and memoir, both of which revisit the border identity and intuition that first shaped her artistic life. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Dida Pelled on her latest album I Wish You Would , a blues-focused project recorded with Tony Scherr, Kenny Wollesen, and Sullivan Fortner. Along the way she considers her approach to tradition, identity, and finding a personal voice across genres. And she talks about she discovered the truth about her sexuality, her singing, and the six strings she loves so much. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Singer, songwriter, and founder of Song For You , Emily Cavanagh on music, service, resilience, and finding purpose in uncertain times. In the early days of the pandemic, Emily began calling hospitals with one simple question: "Does anyone need a song?" That question became A Song For You, a nonprofit that has delivered hundreds of personalized songs to patients, families, and healthcare workers. She talks about her Chicago roots, accidentally becoming famous in Ireland, relearning how to walk after a mysterious illness, running away from the altar, and why she says she's never felt lonely or lost. A warm, funny, and moving conversation about what music can do when it matters most. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

At his monthly series The Tell , writer and storyteller Michael Leviton brings together performers and audiences for an evening where nothing is scripted and no lineup is announced. At The Tell , audiences arrive without knowing who will take the stage. Each night features four storytellers and two musical performances, unfolding over two sets. The result is a dynamic and unscripted experience where stories can be funny, moving, surprising—or all three at once. Leviton created The Tell as an alternative to more formal storytelling formats. Rather than polished, rehearsed narratives, he favors stories that are chronological, unpredictable, and rooted in real experience. As he explains, he's drawn to stories that are "wild rather than relatable," and to storytellers who embrace vulnerability over resolution. Over the past decade, The Tell has grown into something more than a performance series. It has become a community—one where people connect, form relationships, and share experiences in a space built on honesty and curiosity. Despite its success, Leviton resists pressure to expand or commercialize the series. For him, the goal isn't growth—it's maintaining the spirit of the experience itself. Here he explains the philosophy behind The Tell , and what it reveals about the role of storytelling in our lives. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

When singer Janis Siegel was invited to help produce a Women's History Month event at the United Nations, everything seemed aligned—until she was told, just days before, that she would not be allowed to speak. She had been flagged for her social media posts. Here she reflects on that moment and what it reveals about a broader cultural shift. Drawing on conversations about jazz, democracy, memory, and fear—and voices ranging from Louis Armstrong to Milan Kundera —this piece explores how authoritarianism doesn't arrive all at once, but quietly, through hesitation and self-censorship. At a time when voices are still rising in protest, the question remains: what happens when speaking starts to feel like a risk? www.leosidran.substack.com