Pianist/singer/songwriter, Sarah McKenzie, like so many of her fellow Australians, felt she’d have to leave her beloved country to pursue her dreams, which is exactly what she’s done, living in Paris and London, then moving on to Boston to study at the Berklee College of music, and now settling in Los Angeles. Sarah speaks of her experiences with the passion and appreciation of a poet and channels it all into her songwriting, which is featured on her newest CD, Secrets of My Heart.
Jeff Rupert
Saxophonist Jeff Rupert spent the early years of his career playing, touring and recording with everyone from Maynard Ferguson and Mel Torme to Diane Schurr and Benny Carter. While continuing his busy performing schedule, since 1995, Rupert has served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida where he is committed to inspiring young jazz musicians and helping them not only develop musically, but learn the skills to develop a lasting career, a conversation often skipped in university programs.
Jeff and I talk about Jeff’s music and inspirations and how he inspires the next generation of musicians.
Glenn Crytzer
Guitarist/bandleader/vocalist, Glenn Crytzer loves Jazz Age and Swing Era music and lives it, from his stylish vintage clothes to his swinging concerts.
Glenn was deep into his studies in classical composition and cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music when he discovered swing dancing and the Lindy Hop. His dancing adventures furthered his interest in early jazz, inspiring him to teach himself guitar, banjo, and jazz arranging. Glenn moved to New York, set aside that cello career and now leads The Glenn Crytzer Orchestra and his smaller band, The Savoy Seven, playing for fellow swing music lovers and feeding a craze that never completely goes out of style.
Danny Bacher
The late saxophonist/vocalist, Danny Bacher—who sadly died in December 2024 at the age of 48—was a jazz musician who was proud to call himself an entertainer, a label that is often shunned by the jazz community. Danny and his brother were a touring comedy team for years and Danny proudly mentioned his membership in the New York Friars Club in all of his press materials.
Danny drew on his acting and comedy experience and his love of American Standards with his CD, I’m Still Happy, which celebrated his positive take on life. Danny was one of the positive and generous people I’ve ever met. We recorded this conversation in NYC in 2018.
Dan Koontz
Composer/pianist/singer-songwriter, Dan Koontz, was an obsessive listener as a child. While other kids were outside playing ball, Dan stayed inside listening to his parent’s records of country and rock music and the jazz he discovered later. At the same time, he studied classical piano, and with a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition he headed off to Eastman School of Music.
Dan’s classical compositions have been recorded and celebrated but it’s his love of country and bluegrass thathecelebrates on his new CD, Whiskey and Wine, recorded with his father and brother with their trio, Edna’s Kin.
Isaac Mizrahi
Isaac Mizrahi burst onto the fashion scene in 1987 and quickly became a favorite with fashion editors, movie stars and fashionistas. Although he’s continued to have his hand in fashion--judging on Project Runway Allstars, and with his lines for Target and QVC--his primary passion is cabaret performance, which he’s been pursuing since the mid 1990s. Mizrahi’s shows combine standup comedy, the Great American Songbook, flirting like mad, asides about sex, and swag. Yes, there is often a giveaway at some time during his shows. Isaac and I talk about it all.
Jon Batiste
My 2019 conversation with pianist, composer, Jon Batiste, who is an exuberant presence, whether playing music or talking about the importance of putting good energy and meaningful work into the world. His band, Stay Human, is named to honor the belief that human interaction during a live musical performance can uplift humanity in the midst of the "plug in/tune out" nature of modern society.
Stephen Colbert, like Jon Batiste, has a commitment to social engagement, making Batiste a natural choice to lead the band on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Jon and I talked about his work with Colbert, his commitment to positivity and his CD, Anatomy of Angels.
Jon left The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2022 to pursue personal and professional interests, which this tireless talent has done in spades.
George DeLancey
Bassist/composer George DeLancey is one of the most sought after bassists on the scene today. At the tender age of thirty, he is already a composer and arranger of depth and maturity and a swinging, commanding player.
George and Judy met in Manhattan to discuss his jump from his beloved Midwest to NYC and his new CD, Paradise, which features his own compositions along with those of Ellington, Monk and others of his favorite musicians.
Cathy Segal Garcia
Vocalist Cathy Segal Garcia is a deep thinker, and like many great artists, looks beyond her own creativity to the larger meaning of it all. She grew up in a house filled with music and a father who was a professional saxophonist. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Cathy moved to L.A. where she thought a life as a jazz singer was for her—and it was, although, to her initial surprise, she also became a highly respected teacher and vocal coach. Judy talks to Cathy about her ever-evolving career and her latest CD, Dreamsville, a poetic musical exploration with guitarist, Larry Koonse and pianist, Josh Nelson.
D.A. Pennebaker
Judy’s 2001 conversation with the groundbreaking, Oscar-winning, documentary filmmaker, D.A. Pennebaker, one of her first interviews for Jazz Inspired. Pennebaker passed away August 1, 2019 in his home in Sag Harbor, NY—where Judy recorded this interview—at the age of 94.
Pennebaker is best know for capturing pivotal moments in the history of rock music and politics—including Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England and Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. He received an honorary Oscar for his innovative approach to filmmaking and received an Oscar nomination for The War Room, his documentary on Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The conversation starts with a discussion of Pennebaker’s first film, Daybreak Express, a five-minute short film, made in 1953, about New York’s soon-to-be demolished Third Avenue Elevated subway station. Duke Ellington’s classic recording of the same name was used as the soundtrack.
Bruce McGill
Stage, film and television actor, Bruce McGill, first came to fame as the motorcycle-riding, bad boy character, D-Day, in National Lampoon’s Animal House. McGill’s rugged looks led to more tough guy roles, but also to a wide range of everything from Shakespeare to voice acting on Family Guy, to long runs on MacGyver, Shades of Blue and Rizzoli and Isles.
Bruce McGill is an accomplished musician and golfer as well, and has used these skills to enhance or influence his take on multiple characters through the years, most notably, playing golf great, Walter Hagen in the film The Legend of Badger Vance.
Bruce and I met on Crystal Symphony on a Hollywood-themed cruise, where I was there to play a concert and Bruce to lecture about his long film career. One thing led to another and this fascinating conversation was recorded.
Julia Keefe
Vocalist/actress, Julia Keefe, is an old soul, connecting more with the music and performers of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s than the music of today. Julia thought her passion for jazz and theater made a musical theater major a natural, until a year into it, when she realized that contemporary musical theater is more Hamilton than Kiss Me Kate.
Julia honors her love of early jazz in her tribute shows to fellow Native American vocalist, Mildred Bailey. I talked with Julia Keefe in Manhattan a few days after she received her Masters Degree from the Manhattan School of Music and when she was still celebrating her first red carpet experience for her first feature film, Virginia Minnesota.
Bill Mays
Jazz pianist, Bill Mays is one of the most energetic, joyful people in the business. The jazz world is filled with cranky musicians because it’s a cranky business. But not Bill Mays. At seventy-five, he’s going strong, playing classical and jazz concerts, recording, playing tennis three times a week and pouring good energy into the world. His influences range from Earl Hines and Art Tatum to Horace Silver and Wynton Kelly and his musical associations range even further, from his work with Art Pepper and Stan Kenton to Tom Scott’s L.A. Express to Frank Zappa to rock and roll with a drag queen group in the 1970s at the Whiskey A Go-Go. He and Judy talk about it all.
Patrice Jegou
Dedication, drive, focus and practice come naturally to Canadian vocalist, Patrice Jegou. Patrice trained as an ice skater from the time she was seven and went professional at eighteen, first as a coach and later as a performer in a touring ice show. Popular music and jazz caught her attention and she redirected her focus. She listened, studied and eventually-- with the help of her jazz-loving husband, Yinka Oyelese--she gathered some of her favorite jazz musicians and arrangers to record her latest CD, If It Ain’t Love.
Richard Dowling Two
Steinway Artist, Richard Dowling has traveled the world playing Chopin, Beethoven and much of the repertoire one would expect from a top classical pianist. And although he fell in love with ragtime as a child, he didn’t make it a focus of his performances until the last few years, when, against the judgement of his agent and just about everyone else, he decided to record and perform the complete works of Scott Joplin. Now, with multiple sold-out concerts across the country—including Carnegie Hall, where he did Joplin’s fifty-three works in afternoon and evening sessions—and a highly acclaimed double CD, Richard has more than proved his point. I talked with Richard about this tour de force and the continuing appeal of this classic style of music.
Eric Goldberg
Animator/voice actor/director, Eric Goldberg is celebrated and greatly admired by his fellow animators as a specialist in animating musical characters, as he did with Robin Williams’s Genie in Aladdin. Eric is a fascinating historian of animation as well, so his conversation with Judy covered not only his own work but that of the great animators who inspired him, from Richard Williams of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame, to his favorite work of the great Carl Stalling.
Eric Reed
Pianist, Eric Reed feels the arts shouldn’t be viewed as contemporary, modern, traditional, old or new. He also doesn’t endorse cliques or camps, referring to how jazz musicians are often labeled as being from one school or another.
Eric came of age in the 1980s, during a resurgent interest in jazz. His great talent and the ‘80s jazz-friendly environment, allowed Eric long stints with many jazz masters—Freddie Hubbard, Buster Williams, Joe Henderson, Benny Carter and Wynton Marsalis. While he is appreciative of the opportunities available during this time, he is also aware and articulate about some of the disadvantages. Judy and Eric discuss this and celebrate Eric new CD, Everyone Gets The Blues.
Judy Wexler
Vocalist Judy Wexler has gobbled up life from the beginning. She majored in psychology and theater in college and immediately on graduating, formed her own theater company. From there, she moved to San Francisco and became a street juggler and--with three girlfriends, who, in Judy’s words were also on the short side--formed a performing group with the fetching name of “Caught In The Act, A Theater Collective of Four Short Women.”
In a jazz world that often focusses on vocal acrobatics, Judy is a refreshingly straight-forward interpreter of song, using her acting experience and soulful focus to bring out the meaning she finds in her favorite music. Judy’s latest CD, Crowded Heart, showcases this attitude.
Randy Waldman
Pianist, arranger, composer, and conductor, Randy Waldman’s arrangement of the "Spiderman Theme" on his Superheroes album garnered the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals at the 61st Grammy Awards. Randy talks about this CD and his lifelong love for Superheroes and his work as Music Director for Barbra Streisand (a bit of a superhero herself) for over thirty years.
Alan Pasqua
Pianist Alan Pasqua’s career is wide and varied, from his present post as Professor of Jazz Studies at USC, to his early stints with Bob Dylan and Santana, to recording with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Elton John and Queen Latifah, to multiple collaborations with legendary jazz musicians. He’s equally comfortable in all these worlds and feels each has contributed to his musical development.
Alan Pasqua feels that his CD, a passion project called Soliloquy, reflects his multiple influences and most captures who he is musically today.