Ben Sidran at 83: “Entropy Is Inevitable, But the Antidote Is Available”

Listen to the Episode

These annual conversations have become a tradition, a way of tracking our relationship, and an artist, over time.

Ben is a jazz musician, producer, writer and broadcaster. He was once described by the Chicago Sun-Times as “a Renaissance man cast adrift in the modern world.”

This year, I came across a 1974 DownBeat cover story about Ben, written when he was 30 years old. So I read it back to him to see what resonated, what held up, and what had changed.

As always, the conversation moved easily from the personal to the universal.

I also tracked down the author of the original DownBeat article, Joan Gannij (who happens to be my friend!) and talked to her about what she remembers about writing the piece and meeting with Ben over half a century ago.

I’m experimenting with doing some of the podcasts as video as well, and today’s episode is among the first attempts. So feel free to listen in the audio player above or wherever you listen to podcasts, or if you feel like watching, that’s an option too!

August 17 — Dakota, Minneapolis
August 26–27 — North Street Cabaret, Madison (with Ben Sidran)
August 28–29 — Green Mill, Chicago
October 24 — Taliesin, Spring Green

I’ll be there for all of them. Hope to see you there.