He also inspirationally shares about his early sense of imposter syndrome, subsequent mental health crisis, and being the “chaos agent" of his own career “self sabotage". And the subsequent rebirth of recording the wonderful trio record Find the Way (2017) with Ben Street and Billy Hart, for Manfred Escher’s ECM Records, before forming the longtime working fusion band Little Big which ultimately saw him return to Blue Note – 15 years after he was dropped.

Fun fact: that all happened because he cold-call sent head honcho Don Was a recording of the two-day session that became the spellbinding new album By All Means – despite the fact a third Little Big record, also recorded in 2023, got the major-label treatment first. Parks has just two LPs left on his contract – and tells us he is hoping/planning to bag an acoustic trio live record at the Village Vanguard, as well as a fourth LIttle Big record. 

A genuine, warm and inspiring encounter with a genuine, warm and inspiring human – caught mid-tour in Europe, days after surviving Super Typhoon Ragasa in Hong Kong.

These are just a few of the names that came up in the 45 minutes I spent with Q, one magical afternoon. To celebrate a life lived to its fullest, one year after Jones’ death, I’m sharing the audio with the world for the first time.

Most fascinating however are Bartz's insights into the American art form he's devoted his life to, and why he finds use of the word "improvisation" deeply offensive.

I’ve made minor cuts for flow and focus, but otherwise this is just a fly-on-the-wall recording of an encounter I never intended to share with the world. In 30 short minutes we traced Mendes’ musical journey, from discovering jazz through Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and making his US debut with Cannonball Adderley, to touring with Frank Sinatra and playing the White House, to finding his music back in the limelight after collaborating with Will.i.am on the hip-hop-flavoured comeback LP Timeless.

The cover picture of this podcast is Sérgio Mendes backstage in Abu Dhabi, holding the cover story of the profile feature this interview resulted in.

For the six-string nerds, we enticed Halvorson to talk through how she conjures that trademark whiiinng effect only she knows how to make on guitar, and discussed learning her instrument as an ambidextrous human, and how much she really practises.

*In 2023 Downbeat reported Halvorson had won guitarist of the year for seven consecutive polls. She definitely won again in 2024 and 2025 -- yet this year's write-up only acknowledges Halvorson winning "several times since 2017". Was the 2023 writer wrong, or the 2025 writer just lazy?

A decade later she hit the mainstream with the commercial breakthrough Logozo, released in 1991 after the intervention of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell; and we just had to discuss the ambitious trio of conceptual root-tracing records begun with 1998’s Oremi. 

And of course, we couldn't avoid asking Kidjo how she recruited legends including Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel and Ziggy Marley for 2007’s Grammy-winning Djin Djin; before finally moving onto late-career orchestral masterpiece Sings (2015), and the subsequent collaboration with Philip Glass it sparked.

An incredible life, incredibly told, from the back of a taxi, by the singular human who lived it all.

It’s a story of serendipity. Sánchez discovered jazz when Alejandro González Iñárritu played a Pat Metheny tune on his Mexican radio show; when the film director saw the drummer onstage with Metheney a few years later, he got the idea for the a radical score of nothing but drums for 2014 offbeat cinema smash Birdman – which went on to win four Oscars. 

He may be a humble guy, but even Sanchez admits after playing with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Gary Burton and Ron Carter – and spending 20 years on the road with Metheney – his bucket list is complete.

In this podcast, Sanchez also talks about how he got Trent Reznor and Dave Matthews to guest on his last solo album, Shift (Bad Hombre Vol. II) – and reveals that John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Chris Potter, Joel Ross and Fleck have already recorded parts for its sequel. Before that, he has another supergroup trio album coming out: Ellipsis, alongside Snarky Puppy founder Michael League, and Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martínez. Seriously, this guy doesn't stop. 

He also opens up about sharing the stage with his wife, vocalist Thana Alexa, and talks about why Damien Chazelle’s controversial jazz drumming movie Whiplash just isn’t the real deal. All in barely half an hour!

This self-described “beat scientist” was subsequently employed by Richard Russell to “reimagine” (not remix) Gil Scott-Heron’s final album I’m New Here, before Don Was granted him access to the entire Blue Note Records vaults to concoct Deciphering the Message. 

I had the chance to talk through McCraven’s entire discography, a sonic journey culminating in his most recent album In These Times – an ambitious, composition-driven project with quasi-classical leanings, entirely different in concept to all that he has played before.

Hancock also opens up about the long-gestating new album – reported to feature collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Flying Lotus and Snoop Dogg – and admits no such album exists!

Looking back, Herbie praises fellow travellers Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana and his late best friend Wayne Shorter. The poignant part is this interview took place a few days after what would have been Wayne’s 91st birthday, in late August 2024 – the saddest truth is that was of course before the recent US election, and listening back to Herbie’s heartfelt belief in a better tomorrow is as bittersweet as it is inspiring.

Talking to drummer and leader Femi Koleoso, we trace the history of band, from its inception as competition-winning teens in 2012, to coming up in the fabled “UK jazz explosion” of 2016-18 alongside contemporaries and friends Moses Boyd, Kokoroko and Nubya Garcia

We also talked at length about how helpful or unhelpful that media buzz was, as well as the role of famous Steam Down club night the seminal We Out Here compilation.

Koleoso also revealed his dream collabs – from Little Simz and Erykah Badu to Herbie Hancock, Mos Def, and even Tame Impala.

And talked about that time he refused to stage a gig for the New York Times, and why he might break up the band and keep all the money …

Parts of this interview were quoted in a profile feature I wrote for Issue 10 of We Jazz magazine, kindly posted online by Ralph himself here.