In this episode, Mike chats with former Chicago Tribune music critic, Howard Reich. Howard shares his journey from being a jazz critic to becoming an accidental filmmaker and opera writer. He emphasizes the role of music in storytelling and the importance of critics in promoting lesser-known artists. He also reflects on his transition to new artistic mediums like opera and ballet, celebrating the legacy of musicians and the power of music to shape identity and experience.

More Info for this episode:

Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (YouTube)

An American in Paris trailer (YouTube)

Makoto Ozone - pianist (YouTube)

Patricia Barber - pianist (YouTube)

Kurt Elling (YouTube)

Mike Jones - Duke Ellington Medley (YouTube)

Prisoner of Her Past - Book by Howard Reich

The Art of Inventing Hope - Book by Howard Reich

Kimikos Pearl - Ballet inspired by Howard Reich

For the Left Hand - Documentary by Howard Reich

From Howard’s website: Howard was born in Chicago and at age 10 moved with his family to Skokie, a northern suburb that was a nexus of Holocaust survivors, like his parents. At age 16, Howard happened on the film “An American in Paris” and instantly became obsessed with music. By 18 he was a piano performance major at Northwestern, and at 22 he began freelancing articles on music for the Chicago Daily News. The next year he started contributing arts coverage to the Chicago Tribune, where he was hired full time in 1983 and spent his entire newspaper career. Howard’s stories took him to London, Paris, Warsaw, Vienna, Moscow, Munich, Prague, Havana, Panama and other locales, as well as deep into one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the world: Chicago. Howard served for 32 years as the Tribune’s jazz critic, the last three years doubling as classical/opera critic. He retired from the newspaper in 2021, continues writing for the stage and page, and lives in a Chicago suburb with Pam Becker, his wife, a retired Tribune editor.

Mike Jones bio: Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Jones attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and after college he remained in the city, working with such eminent local players as Herb Pomeroy and Gray Sargent. After significant East Coast performances, appearances at the Floating Jazz Festival on the S.S. Norway and the Queen Elizabeth ll, and a series of recordings that established him as a world-class pianist steeped in the pre-bop jazz tradition, Jones relocated to Las Vegas. There he caught the ear of Penn Jillette who, in 2002, brought Jones onboard for the nightly Penn and Teller show at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.

Our latest guest is Ashley Kahn, author, educator, and deep thinker! He and Mike discuss how people discover and listen to music today and how it differs from the past.

More info for this episode:

Paul Simon's Graceland (YouTube)

Dr John - There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (YouTube)

International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers

John Beasley - pianist

Tuesday's Just As Bad Radio Show

Hot Tuna Blues (YouTube)

The Universal Tone By Ashley Kahn

Monty Alexander - pianist

Montreux Alexander (YouTube)

Kenny Banks Jr - Take 5 (YouTube)

Theo Croker

From Wikipedia: Ashley Kahn (b. 1960) is an American music historian, journalist, and producer. He was born in the Bronx, New York, and was raised in Cincinnati. Kahn graduated from Columbia University in 1983. While attending Columbia, he hosted a jazz and blues radio show on WKCR, and was known on the air as "The Cincinnati Kid."

In 2014, Kahn co-authored the autobiography of Carlos Santana, titled The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story To Light. To date, his most critically acclaimed books have been on two major jazz albums, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. He pens articles, interviews and other features on music, and is a prolific liner note writer for a variety of music labels, and for which he has earned three ASCAP/Deems Taylor awards, and three Grammy nominations. In 2015, he was awarded a Grammy for his album notes to the John Coltrane release Offering: Live at Temple University.

This week’s episode features Marc Myers. If you are a lover of all things music, Marc is the man for you. If you appreciate music's history and evolution, Marc is the man for you. If you have always wanted to get into jazz music but just didn’t know where to begin or what to listen for, Marc is the man for you! Marc is the creator of JazzWax which hosts a wealth of history, stories, opinions, and more about jazz and other forms of music.

We talk a little about the musicians Marc has known over the years and what it’s like to meet them. Marc and Mike share their opinions of rock and jazz and the musical process. Marc is fascinating to talk to.

Marc Myers is a frequent music and arts contributor to The Wall Street Journal. He writes two regular columns—“House Call,” in which he interviews Hollywood actors on their childhood years, and “Album@50,” on pop albums celebrating a 50th anniversary and how they changed music history. He is the author of “Why Jazz Happened,” two volumes of “Anatomy of a Song” and “Rock Concert: An Oral History.” He posts five days a week at his award-winning JazzWax.com blog, launched in 2007.