The Vince Denham Interview
Spiritual horn player talks about his gravitational pull towards tribal burning music that makes the masses uncomfortable.
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 4 min
The Jake Feinberg Show
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On The Jake Feinberg Show (radio) and in Facebook Lives, Jake Feinberg has now conducted over 2,000 interviews with “The Cats”—popular musicians across the spectrum from rock to jazz, R&B to folk, pop to country, bluegrass to fusion. Jake’s unique interviewing style puts musicians at their ease and inspires them to reflect candidly on topics familiar or unexpected.
The Cats tell little stories, muse about life, uncover aspects of the music business, dig deep into overcoming adversity, revel in camaraderie, and open their souls. You will never see musicians in the same light again....
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Episodes
The Scarlet Rivera Interview
Most people think of the violin as a classical instrument. Most classical cats are pretty uptight. It takes someone with unbridled passion and bravery to step outside and swing down a lazy river road, through the heart of Memphis, or play rock with jazz asthetics. Because when you play the blues you have to throw the book away. My guest came from an era when you could be an impoverished improviser. The tale end of the Beats were still around to expand consciousness and live their own way in a sl...
Sep 19, 2020•36 min
The Jock Ellis Interview Set II
Bad to the bone artist talks about his life on the bandstand.
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 15 min
The James Mtume Interview Set III
My first experience with "The Motherland" was playing with the Umoja (Unity) Ensemble. We were scheduled to play in "The Rumble In The Jungle." We were scheduled to be on that show. Miles booked some gigs in Europe so I couldn't do it. The next time I visit Africa we're going over there for the 50th Anniversary of their revolution in Ghana. I stayed a bit in Ghana, the next year I was made a Chief. I've been going back and forth for the last fifty years. I was enstooled as a chief, a friend of m...
Sep 19, 2020•59 min
The James Mtume Interview Set II
A continual discussion of rhythm and love
Sep 19, 2020•42 min
The James Mtume Interview
Sonically Lazy 7/7 by Mtume I always looked at sampling like somebody making a quilt. The quilt is made up of many other blankets. You have to learn how to make your own blanket. I don’t down hip hop. I think it was a very creative thing, because for the young black kids, music was taken out of the schools. When was the last time anybody’s seen a music store in a black neighborhood? Maybe thirty years ago. You go to Harlem, and there are no music stores. It was the genius of desperation that b...
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 1 min
The Chuck Leavell Interview
Back in the 50s and 60s you could find no more Racist state in America than Alabama. Swampland and urban squalor blacks getting hosed down and the overt fears of one race towards another was revealed. These overt acts of hostility provided character development from folks like my guest who grew up playing black clubs on the Chitlin circuit. Because of the communal/spiritual nature of music it pushed back against the epidemic of Rascism. It strove for love in this case trust with a fallen Allman ...
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 7 min
The John Batdorf Interview
The success of Batdorf and Rodney was a confluence of factors. They came of age during free form radio. You might here The Flying Burrito Brothers followed by Cannonball followed by Buck Owens. The jam circuit was alive and well for these seasoned woodsheders. They could go coast to coast have a week or more engagement building indigenous fan bases because you were in such close proximity to the band. Along the way they ran into other musicians that influenced their sound and maybe even joined t...
Sep 19, 2020•1 hr 2 min
The Leland Sklar Interview Set II
On Wolfgang (Bill Graham) When I was in college I was real tight with a few of the guys from Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) which was a band that emanated out of the area. The whole spirit of that area was beautiful. I remember being on the Chitlin Circuit and we'd go up Mandrakes to play a gig. We had a manager named Bruce Gladner who's company was Shady Management and my god if there ever was a name as prophetic this was it. He also had the band "Zephyr" which included Tommy Bolin. Bruce ...
Sep 19, 2020•53 min
The Jerry Cortez Interview
Go Ahead by Jerry Cortez What turned into Go Ahead had several different incarnations. The first was a band called Kokomo, which featured Billy, Brent Mydland, David Margen, and Kevin Russell. Billy was the only member of the Grateful Dead in Go Ahead. Apparently, Brent was kind of in the wings saying, “That sounds like fun; I want to be part of that.” So Brent got involved and eventually Bob Weir got involved. I love Brent. I miss him so much. He was such a good guy and a remarkable musician...
Sep 19, 2020•56 min
The Ralph Nader Interview
Seasoned pol talks about advocating for human rights and liberties.
Sep 18, 2020•43 min
The Steve Mitchell Interview
This journey has provided me with an education. The education has occurred because those who seek have always sought truth. In the case of my guest it was the stone truth of music and the musicians who made it. The swing of Dixie and the marching bands. The Ed Bogas Soundtrack Machine and the clave beat of Cal Tjader. Boys turn to men because they believe they can play with the titans - no barriers, colorblind with the less said the better. Say it with your sticks. More often as with my guest so...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 6 min
The Terry Gibbs Interview
My guest today has been a band leader for over 60 years. He made his name playing the vibes which is this hosts favorite instrument. It's a percussion instrument with a warm sound and can be played in a trio setting the way Red Norvo did with Tal Farlow and Mingus or in a Quintet setting like Cal Tjader did with Armando Peraza, Al mcKibbon and Dick Birk. It fits into all types of musical settings and it was popularized by my guest by his virtuosic approach and an ability to create an output with...
Sep 18, 2020•57 min
The Oliver Tompkins Ray Interview
Art is to be shared and not to be judged. Shared in a world of non conformity with others who bring their own gifts to a project. In the case of my guest he is saint maybe his hardest critic because he at a relatively early age got his feet wet under the tutelage of Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye and Allan Ginsberg: he experienced the power of music as transcendental and knows that this can only manifest through mystery, mysticism and authenticity. This is easy to say but hard to do as I watch my gu...
Sep 18, 2020•11 min
The Larry Vann Interview
Iconic Bay Area drummer talks about the funk roots of Oakland and playing every night as if his life depended on it.
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 34 min
The Jason Gallagher Interview
Too often in life we desire bigger things failing to see what we have in front of us. Unable to appreciate how far you and your bandmates have come. Can you see the growth and painstaking groans of a space bound child sent flying at a summer music festival or the Brooklyn Bowl. Blue Eyed Soul was Boz Scaggs gig but my guest is doing the Blue Eyed Blues.... sticktuitiveness that resembles the gritty industrial ragtime of Kingston, NY that brought about folk trios emulating Peter Paul and Mary and...
Sep 18, 2020•24 min
The Nick Salvatore Interview
Within the belly of the beast in this country lies the soul turnaround of African Preachers from the South. They need to be black because certain portions of blacks were enslaved and some say they still are. They have to be black because they need to have good rhythm. They need to be from the south where Montgomery and Birmingham are seared into the minds of every kid who watched the black and white videos of (Police Cheif) hosing down innocent people. The south had the most overt Rascism and im...
Sep 18, 2020•54 min
The Ron Johnson Interview
NOLA bass player talks about creating the foundations of funk!
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 8 min
The Gordon Lightfoot Interview
While this host has primarily looked state side for hotbeds of regional music there were cities north of the border that were just as impressive.North of the motor city lies Toronto in Canada which was a mix of immigrants and hillbillies. Farmers and Fishers and Indians all there to seek independence from the culture of conformity. Cats from cabbage town or the rural country where pussywillows and cat tails abound.This independence was a testament to knowing the land and inherently survival in t...
Sep 18, 2020•41 min
The Peter Yarrow Interview
In the live music experience the most important aspects that can be conveyed to the audience are authenticity and individuality. True nature and differentiation. Not being a good rock star helps. You wear any old clothes and grab a hot meal not leaving on a jet plane but taking a bus. The conundrum comes into play when a non-conformist becomes part of a mainstream sensation. Then the planes are waiting at SF International as my guest is ready to board to Japan because the trio is in high demand....
Sep 18, 2020•57 min
The Senator Eugene Wright Interview
Melodic invention- a word developed by another bass player named Putter Smith who defines this as European Swing coupled with African Rhythms. It doesn't really matter where it started because it was sprinkled with Dixieland in the south Harlem Soul in the north Blues in St Louis up the Mississippi Delta to Chicago. This fusing of music included a young farmer from the valleys of California who worked a farm by day and sock hops by night. He became a fixture of San Francisco melodic invention be...
Sep 18, 2020•53 min
The Darren Rademaker Interview
Further was originally a Quartet and then for awhile it was just the three of us. Towards the end we started moving away from low-fi records, trying to make our sound a little bit better. There was a time we didn’t even have a bass player, it was just three guitars and drums. We knew we needed a keyboard player and bass player. I saw this kid at the radio station one day, he was kind of like a punk rock/emu kid. I said, “can you play any instruments?” He said, “I can play guitar.” I said, “do yo...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr
The Frank Puzzullo Interview
Master pianist talks about his career from upstate New York to the Big Easy to Ball St.
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 43 min
The Anjali Cathy Connors Interview
Yogic practitioner who is leaning into her true nature and taking a spirit mind approach to learning.
Sep 18, 2020•51 min
The Larry McDonald Interview
Runaway Bay you say? Sounds like a gong with the ghost of Marcus Garvey and the chants of the sugar shakers...... The drum is a language all of its own. The rhythms on the 1/3 instead of 2 and 4 set reggae apart as a modern music be it ska, calypso, dub rock steady. My guest is from Jamaica and was part of the regional music of that island with The Bush Doctor Peter Tosh, Brother Bob Marley, Monty Alexander Sly and Robbie and Ernest Rangelin keeping the sounds of diaspora within the new bass dru...
Sep 18, 2020•59 min
The Zane Kesey Interview
Son of a Prankster Man. Furthur
Sep 17, 2020•59 min
The Sunshine Kesey Interview
Natural Expression by Sunshine Kesey (daughter of Ken Kesey and Mountain Girl) I saw Jerry Garcia on stage from my infancy. At the time their events were considered the safest and most loving place anywhere. I grew up at Grateful Dead shows and New Riders of the Purple Sage shows, which all felt like a safe place for kids. I had full run of the place, because I was one of the oldest kids. I was one of the first rock and roll babies in our group and I’d start bossing the kids around. That was a...
Sep 17, 2020•1 hr 7 min
The Austin McCutchen Interview
“Skinny Dennis” In my early teens I started to fiddle around with lyrics and thought that being a musician was something I could do or wanted to do. I got into that around the time I started playing guitar. I’ve always leaned on being a singer/song writer than being able to shred. I’m fascinated with the old world tradition (Europe) because those songs were traded by traveling musicians. They didn’t have recordings, records and the internet so they traded them in person and that’s how it spread....
Sep 16, 2020•56 min
The Brett Bush Interview
Decorated Scaticonian talks about leadership, love, life & lineage.
Sep 16, 2020•26 min
The Neil Diamente Interview Set II
Bass player and poet talks about the nuances of organic music.
Sep 16, 2020•52 min
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