Tales is coming to you with guest artist drummer/bassist/guitarist/ composer Lionel Cordew.

My guest this month is another accomplished player that I have had the honor to work with while out on the Michael Franks tour. One of the first impressions you may get when first meeting Lionel Cordew is his open and easy going manner, his willingness to cooperate and to go beyond what is required in order to do the best job that he can. And man, can he do the best job. In fact not only is it the best job, but it is an exceptional job. And you don’t have to take my word for it. His resume speaks for itself. In his career so far he has toured, performed and/or recorded with Mike Stern, Kyle Eastwood, Michael Franks, Gino Vanelli, Angelique Kidjo, Lonnie Plaxico, Cassandra Wilson, Roberta Flack, Bill Evans, Gato Barbieri, Chico DeBarge, Kelly Price, Warren Hill, Jon Lucien, Nelson Rangell, Special EFX, The Fantasy Band, Leni Stern, Kirk Whalum, Mark Johnson, New York Voices, George Jinda, Chuck Loeb, Marion Meadows, Christoph Spendel, Chieli Minucci, Mike Stern Band, Wayne Krantz, Regina Carter, and others. His tours have taken him from throughout the United States, to Southeast Asia, Europe, Japan and South America.

Mr. Cordew grew up in Queens, NY and until recently I wasn’t aware just how many prolific musicians were born, grew up and or lived in this unassuming borough of New York. Joining Lionel we have James Brown, Illinois Jacquet, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgearld, Lenny White, Marcus Miller, Omar Hakim, Najee, Lena Horne, Billy Holiday, Clarence Williams and his wife Eva Taylor, Count Basie, Clark Terry, Tony Bennett, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, …..

So its safe to assume that Lionel’s musical influences were not only interior experiences, growing up in a gifted musical family with his brothers as inspiration, motivation sprinkled with a little competitive spirit, but also exterior ones, his neighborhood/community surrounded by prodigious musicians that provided him with a daily diet of musical sustenance. This symphonic immersion from inside and outside is conspicuous when you hear him play because not only did he cut his teeth on drums, but he also learned how to play all types of percussive instruments, as well as guitar and bass.

This interview is a little different than the ones I’ve recorded in the past in that I ventured into the technical, the mechanics of the instrument, such as drum configurations. I also realize that you can spend years around someone and always discover something amazing and new about them. What better way to come out of a hiatus than to interview Lionel Cordew, a true professional, talented, perceptive musician who has spent his life constantly learning, growing, not only as a drummer but as consummate musician.

You can connect and find out more about Lionel Cordew via his Facebook page

Lionel Cordew, a righty who plays drums left-handed, has been playing since the age of five, professionally for the past eighteen years. The youngest of five boys, he first became interested in performing at the age of three by watching his older brothers’ band rehearsals from atop the basement stairway. It inspired him to rai...

Guest drummer, percussionist, bassist, guitarist, composer, Lionel Cordew, rich musical heritage as been a key component in his multifaceted musical career.

My guest this month is another accomplished player that I have had the honor to work with while out on the Michael Franks tour. One of the first impressions you may get when first meeting Lionel Cordew is his open and easy going manner, his willingness to cooperate and to go beyond what is required in order to do the best job that he can. And man, can he do the best job. In fact not only is it the best job, but it is an exceptional job. And you don't have to take my word for it. His resume speaks for itself.

Visit Tales From the Jazz Side website to listen and read more about guest Lionel Cordew.

Tales is coming to you with guest electric bassist/composer/arranger/producer, Jimmy Haslip.

Back in August while playing with Michael and the band in Los Angeles, I had an excellent opportunity to invite this extraordinarily talented and humble gentleman to do an episode of Tales. We conducted the interview backstage after the show. Amidst the noise of the guys packing up and chilling out at the same time, I was able to find out even more information on this fascinating and hardworking musician.

I first met Jimmy back in 1993 when he was still performing with the Yellow Jackets and I had begun touring with the Michael Franks band. As a longstanding member and co-founder of the Jackets, Jimmy took an amicable hiatus from the group in 2013 to use the time to pursue other artistic challenges and most importantly, to focus on his family. From my own personal experience, when you are a successful touring musician you can spend 10 months on the road, so it made sense after touring and playing with the Jackets for 30 years, the time had come for Mr. Haslip to take a break. But Jimmy didn’t take “a break” per se, instead, he only decided to take his brilliance and imagination and apply it to the new musical avenues that opened before him.

“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”

I clearly remember when I first launched Tales from the Jazz Side, in June 2013, with Michael Franks being my very first guest, and how grateful I was and still am, to him for sharing his time, life and brilliant mind. Each month I would work on getting guests for the show, recording them, a lot of times while I was on the road with the band. Periodically, Michael would ask me how the show was going and if I needed any help. On one of our backstage chats, he mentioned Jimmy Haslip as a possible guest and offered to connect me to him. The rest, as they say, is history.

In looking back over the past two and half years of episodes and all of the great stories shared by the guests on those past shows, it seems that what has been a reoccurring point, centers around the necessity for focused discipline coupled with hard work. If anyone represents that ideal it is certainly Jimmy Haslip. Next to Buddy Williams and the late James Brown, he has to be the hardest-working man in show business. Besides his willingness to work smart and diligently, Mr. Haslip is a living and brilliant example of someone, whose love for music, for creating value in life and art, is the guiding force that motivates and inspires him to constantly embrace new challenges. As you listen to this interview you will wonder, where does he find the time? Well, he does find time for his craft as well as for his beautiful wife and family.

What an honor and a privilege to close out and open the year with this month’s guest. Jimmy Haslip, is a musician steeped in the old tradition, while simultaneously breaking ground for new tradition. A true innovator. And that is a very rare thing these days.

Happy Holidays and thank you all for reading and listening!!!!!

Tales is coming to you with guest vocalist/songwriter Sheila Jordan.

“Sheila Jordan is one of the Jazz world’s best kept secrets.”
– Blue Note –

With 51+ albums to her credit, how could she be the best kept secret? People “in the know”, and what I mean by that, people who are true jazz lovers and listeners definitely know who Sheila Jordan is and what is so uncommon about her. She is one of the first vocalist to perform exclusively using just a bassist. When they speak about song stylist, story tellers, makers of history, Ms. Jordan is smack dab in the middle. Starting from her humble beginnings in the coal mining town of Pennsylvania to Chicago, where there, she dared to cross the lines of ignorance, willingly standing up to irrational racism. Her days in New York City. Her unique relationship with Charlie Parker, all the while living, performing , yes singing. That is where her heart was and still is to this day.

This legacy interview gives us all the opportunity to listen to the history of jazz and how it was perceived by one of the world’s rare and ingenious vocalist. Ms. Jordan’s career spanning over 80 years speaks directly as the voice of the original generation of jazz. You can’t know jazz or understand jazz unless you have heard this story. Sheila Jordan’s story.

“Gliding, soaring on the wind. You’re a sight of glory
Flying way up there so high. Wonder what’s your story?”
from Bird Alone by Abbey Lincoln

No longer to wonder, now is to know. I feel very honored to have Ms. Sheila Jordan on this episode of Tales. I’ve listened to her unique and original song styling for most of my musical life and have discovered that appositeness of subtly is definitely an obscure concept these days. Most singers today, sing using acrobatics, digital voice assistance, bells and whistles, anything and everything goes, all running after the latest sound that is most heard and familiar. And then there are the true innovators. The singers who find the illusive truth of the self that is all too often hidden between the notes and words. For Ms. Jordan that truth is her ever constant companion and together they move as one in the world offering to each listener an experience that is rare, profound and colored by love.

During the interview, we spoke on these things and I wanted to list them here so that you can check them out and discover all the wonderful things about this extraordinary woman.

A recording on Riverside (For out of work coal miners) – You Are My Sunshine, (written by ? no one knows for sure)

“The Outer View” George Russell (1962)
Don Ellis (tp); Garnett Brown (tb); Paul Plummer (ts); George Russell (p); Steve Swallow (b) Pete LaRoca (d); Sheila Jordan (voc)

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Guest vocalist, songwriter Sheila Jordan is the best kept secret no longer. The secret is out. No longer to wonder, now is to know. I feel very honored to have Ms. Sheila Jordan on this episode of Tales.

Guest legendary pianist, vocalist and composor, Les McCann on Tales from the Jazz Side. His unique, creative vision altered the landscape of jazz.

Guest Grammy nominated guitarist/composer Jay Azzolina on Tales from the Jazz Side. He has been part of the New York Jazz scene for the past three decades.

Guest drummer, composer Buddy Williams on Tales from the Jazz Side. He is one of the most 10 recorded drummers of all time.