Pianist Michael Pelz-Sherman and multi-instrumentalist Hal Goodtree joined Six Count at Chatham Street Records , an indie record label in Cary, North Carolina. The label supports local artists through artist management, fair-share royalty collection, music production, and distribution. Michael and Hal’s next album, “Notes from the Suburbs,” released November 8. Follow the Lounge Doctors on Spotify . About Michael A jazz fusion enthusiast, Michael has been playing jazz, blues, and R&B in Rale...
Nov 09, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 20
North Carolina native Ellis Dyson (of the band Ellis Dyson & The Shambles ) joined Six Count just before a performance at The Cave in Chapel Hill. The show was the first gig on The Shambles’s short tour along the East Coast this October. The band is known for combining “old-time influences ranging from early New Orleans Jazz to Piedmont Murder Ballads.” Now based in New Orleans, Ellis shares about the group’s origin story from 2015 as a banjo and saxophone duo in “The Southern Slice of Heave...
Oct 19, 2022•16 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Thrio is, you guessed it, a trio (“. . . because there’s three of them!”) featuring Andrew Berinson on piano, Donovan Cheatham on drums, and Paul Creel on bass. They released the group’s first album, Volume 1, in fall 2022. This interview was recorded on September 23, 2022, before Thrio’s performance at the Sharp Nine Gallery in Durham through the Durham Jazz Workshop. You can catch Thrio next at the Bond Brothers Eastside in Cary, North Carolina, every Thursday this October. Stream Volume 1: Ba...
Oct 05, 2022•20 min•Season 2Ep. 18
For a special episode of Six Count, the women of Jazz Voices reunite. Peg Delaney , a pianist, composer and arranger, is responsible for the vocal group with Jody Shayne , Colleen Pratt and Teresa Broadwell . Thank you for listening to Six Count. This show, hosted and produced by Xara Wilde, seeks to promote and preserve the jazz and swing scene in the Capital Region of New York. Six Count is a listener-supported, independent project. Contribute to the series. Have a comment, question or suggest...
Jan 17, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Rod Ferrone is a tap dancer and vaudevillian based in Upstate NY. After dropping out of college, Ferrone went on to lead a long-standing dance career in NYC. He eventually partnered up with Joe Orrach, a boxer-turned-tap-dancer. On a park bench outside of McGeary’s Irish Pub in downtown Albany, Ferrone shares some of their most memorable performances, including a two-hour act where Gregory Hines made a surprise appearance. Ferrone has danced with Jimmy Slyde, also known as the “King of Slides” a...
Jan 17, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 15
William Kennedy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and journalist based in Averill Park, N.Y. As a reporter for Albany's Times Union, Kennedy interviewed Louis Armstrong at the Kenmore Hotel. He shares about this conversation with Satchmo as well as his other run-ins with jazz greats including Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall and Duke Ellington at a prom in Upstate N.Y. The author also details these experiences in "Riding the Yellow Trolley Car," a collection of essays and interviews published i...
Jan 17, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Six Count caught up with pianist Wayne Hawkins at the Halfmoon Diner in Clifton Park, N.Y. Originally from Kansas City, Hawkins now plays in a variety of jazz styles around the Capital Region as well as composes and arranges music for films, commercials and recording artists. In showbiz, he’s collaborated with the movie stars Bruce Lee and Kristin Chenoweth, among others. Learn more about Hawkins’ work. Music: “My Man’s Gone Now” and “Everything I Love,” by Wayne Hawkins. Thank you for listening...
Jan 14, 2020•12 min•Season 1Ep. 14
A Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. A public concert by opera singer Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. The World’s Fair in New York. All three events took place in 1939 and are at the center of crime novelist Frankie Bailey’s next novel. The historical thriller, “A Penny Struck by Lightning,” takes the reader into the world of jazz in New York City at the height of the Great Depression and on the cusp of World War II. The protagonist, a Pullman porter, is an undercover FBI...
Jan 03, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Hudson Valley-based musician Rich Syracuse spoke with host Xara Wilde following a gig with the Chuck Lamb Trio at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Syracuse, who plays the string and electric bass, has been a mainstay in the area’s jazz scene for more than three decades. He began his jazz career at the age of 13 in New York City and received his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. After moving to Upstate New York in the 1980s, Syracuse played regularly with Nick Brignola, a ...
Dec 20, 2019•15 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Drummer Jeff "Siege" Siegel and pianist Andre Peterson sat down with host Xara Wilde to chat briefly before a gig with bassist Ira Coleman at Grappa '72 in Albany, N.Y. Peterson, based in Johannesburg, shares what it was like to grow up around South Africa's jazz greats, how music was used as a political force during apartheid and where the scene is headed now. Siegel is a veteran of the jazz world in New York. He's performed with Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Jack DeJohnette, Benny Golson, Frank F...
Dec 18, 2019•13 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Graeme Francis is a percussionist who began playing jazz around the Capital Region four years ago after moving from San Antonio, Texas. Originally from Prince Edward Island, Canada, Francis has played with numerous chamber orchestras and ensembles, jazz bands and other musical groups across the country. Francis shares about his years working with Texas-based pianist Doc Watkins, including a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City, how he balances teaching responsibilities with a busy gig s...
Dec 06, 2019•20 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Vocalist Colleen Pratt performs in her four-piece band, “Colleen Pratt & Friends,” as well as a host of other jazz groups around the Capital Region. She is the daughter of musicians Helen and Norman Pratt and the niece of renowned jazz pianist and trombonist Bobby Pratt. Her uncle played with some of the biggest swing bands of the 1940s, regularly performing with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Sid Catlett and Roy Eldridge. Pratt shares about spending summers going to jazz clubs in Manhattan, ...
Nov 19, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Drummer Tim Coakley performs with Skip Parsons’ Riverboat Jazz Band, a dixieland band (featured in our pilot episode!), as well as his own trio. He has played with jazz greats including Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson and Buddy Tate. Coakley is also the president of A Place for Jazz, a fall concert series in the Capital Region, and host of the Tim Coakley Jazz Show (Saturdays from 11 p.m. to midnight) on WAMC Northeast Public Radio . The radio personality has also had a long-standing career as a cop...
Nov 05, 2019•14 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Joe Finn is a jazz guitarist playing in the post-bop style around Upstate New York. On this episode, Finn shares about teaching music lessons during the "Beatlemania" era of the 1960s, growing up with his father's vast record collection, and what it was like to start his professional jazz career by traveling across the United States and Canada during his twenties. Finn, who received his bachelor's in music from SUNY Plattsburgh, has played and studied with Roy Burns, James Spaulding, Jim Miller,...
Oct 28, 2019•17 min•Season 1Ep. 7
While visiting Galway, Ireland earlier this week, host Xara Wilde spoke with Alan Bramwell of Giants of Jazz Radio to share about the pilot season of Six Count. The station, based in Lancashire, England, will begin airing the show starting next Wednesday, Oct. 23. Episodes will broadcast on Wednesdays and Sundays at 12:30 p.m. EST (4:30 p.m. UK time). GOJR has an international audience and brings you the best in classic jazz, playing tracks from the 1940s through the 1970s. Support the station ....
Oct 17, 2019•8 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Tyler Giroux is a valve trombone and piano player based in Troy, N.Y. He performs around the Capital Region with the Giroux Brothers (featuring his brother, Nate Giroux, on sax and clarinet), Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra, the Dylan Perrillo Orchestra, Phil Allen's Concert Jazz Band, Bryan Brundige and the Piggly Wigglies, and Mike Jenkins and the Fat Ties, among others. You can find Giroux's upcoming gigs on his website. Giroux comes from a long line of musicians. His grandfather, George ...
Oct 08, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Peter Fisher is the owner and founder of Collar City Guitars , a guitar shop that specializes in repairs, sales and service on 199 4th Street in Troy, N.Y. The luthier and rhythm guitarist is also the founder of the Gypsy Jazz Jam, a free and open event that takes place on the third Tuesday of every month at the Ale House in Troy. Jam nights are from 7-9 p.m. (or until everyone is kicked out). All are welcome to participate or to simply enjoy the music. Fisher is a band member of the C.C. Vagabo...
Sep 25, 2019•17 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Jeanine Ouderkirk is a vocalist based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. On this episode, Ouderkirk shares how she came to pursue life as a professional jazz singer while in college, how she battles nerves before performing and what working as a vocalist is like near the home of the Saratoga Race Course. Ouderkirk received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. Ouderkirk has also been a private music instructor for over 15 years, and teaches woodwinds (flute, ...
Sep 02, 2019•27 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Zach Cohen is the guitarist for Le Bēt, an electro-swing band with roots in gypsy jazz, and swing and electronic music. On this episode, Cohen shares how he and clarinetist Jonathan Greene got the band started, what it was like to play with internationally-renowned guitarist Stephane Wrembel at WAMC’s The Linda, and about life as a professional musician in Upstate New York. Follow Le Bēt on Facebook. Gigs: Thursday evenings with Mike Jenkins (bassist) and The Fat Ties for Swing Night at the Spea...
Sep 02, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Skip Parsons is a clarinetist and bandleader for the Riverboat Jazz Band. Parsons and drummer Tom Brown formed the dixieland band in 1955. The group has been playing around the Capital Region ever since. On this episode, Parsons shares stories from being the main band for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., his decades-long stint at The Fountain (an Albany-based eatery and longtime haunt for area jazz lovers), gigging with legendary trumpeter Doc Cheatham, and what it was like to have...
Sep 02, 2019•33 min•Season 1Ep. 1
