“The Jazz Session is the best independent jazz podcast out there.” — Darcy James Argue

“Jason Crane is a hipster of the highest order. A super sonic solid sender cat daddy perched upon the monumental peak of groovy. Dig?” — Matt Wilson

The Jazz Session is a member-supported online interview show focusing on in-depth conversations with jazz musicians. The show is hosted by Jason Crane.

Since its inception in 2007, there have been more than 1.4 million downloads of The Jazz Session‘s 300+ episodes. The Jazz Session focuses on in-depth interviews with jazz musicians, along with occasional interviews with producers, authors and others in the jazz world. The show’s mission is to chronicle the lives and opinions of musicians who make creative improvised music, without regard to artificial genres or labels.

Every episode of the show is available here at thejazzsession.com for free. You’ll find the guests listed alphabetically along the left side of the page. You can also search by instrument using the category menu immediately below the list of names. And you can subscribe for free via iTunes or an RSS reader.

To get started, choose a musician from the menu on the left or simply scroll down on this page to see the latest episodes.

The Jazz Session only survives because of the support of its members. Please become a member today.

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We made the goal just before 2 p.m. ET. What can I say? I’m humbled and amazed. These last 24 hours have seen such a huge outpouring of support for this program. Here they are: The Jazz Session 100.

Thank you.

Jason Crane

P.S. — I can always use more members, so please keep spreading the word. You can join here.

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Kyoko Kitamura, jazz musician: “I see the Jazz Session as something that might represent the future of music journalism: a versatile internet downloadable program which combines audio, the musician’s interview, great questions, great editing. I feel that it is very important to have an outlet where the music and the musicians can speak for themselves. Rather than bemoan the current state of the music industry and journalism, I find it more satisfying to support what I believe is a great format that truly works.”

Jonathan Matz, student: “I made a one-time donation of $30 in April, and here’s another $80 to make it to the $110 annual donation. As a full-time student, this is a stretch for me, but as a former WKCR DJ, I know the value of what you’re doing.”

Thanks, Jonathan and Kyoko. If you’d like to support the show, please become a member for as little as $10 a month.

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The 16th edition of the Vision Festival has begun here in New York. The following are all the Vision Festival artists who’ve appeared on The Jazz Session:

• Taylor Ho Bynum
• Gerald Cleaver
• Cooper-Moore
• Garrison Fewell
• Tomas Fujiwara
• Stephen Haynes
• Dom Minasi
• Joe Morris
• Miles Okazaki
• William Parker
• Matthew Shipp: 2010 & 2011 (with Darius Jones)
• Fay Victor: 2009 & 2011
• David S. Ware

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Wow. Just … wow. Within the last few minutes, The Jazz Session hit one million downloads.

I’m just blown away. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And if you’d like to keep the show going for another million downloads, please become a member.

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The Jazz Session just passed 900,000 downloads! Thank you all very much for listening to — and supporting — the show.

And oh, by the way, if you haven’t become a member yet, please consider giving your financial support to The Jazz Session to ensure that it will keep going for 900,000 more downloads!

Again, thank you all very much!

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For a long time now, I’ve included Amazon.com links to the albums I talk about on the show as part of the show notes for each episode. I did this because if you clicked on those links and bought the records that way, a little bit of your purchase price would come back to The Jazz Session. Many of you did that and helped fund the show, for which I’m grateful.

I’ve decided to stop including those links from now on, for two reasons:

1. I was disturbed by Amazon’s actions regarding Wikileaks in the wake of Joe Lieberman’s threat. I think this is a fairly complex issue, but I was disappointed by Amazon’s response.
2. I think the best way for you to support the artists who appear on The Jazz Session is to visit their sites and buy the music in whatever way they suggest. When you purchase an album through Amazon, the artist receives a very tiny cut of that purchase. That may be OK for people selling millions of records, but no jazz artist is selling millions of records. I’ve always provided a link to the artist’s Web site in my show notes, so just click those links and buy the record using whatever means the artist suggests.

One additional note: I could still use your financial support. The most direct way to keep The Jazz Session going is to become a member, which you can do via the Join page. Thank you.

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The Jazz Session just passed 800,000 downloads! Huzzah!

If you’d like the show to be around long enough for 800,000 more downloads, please become a member. And thanks to all of you for listening and for supporting the show.

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The Jazz Session's 100 By 300 campaign [ 1:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Jazz Session is launching a new membership campaign — “100 By 300″ — with the goal of reaching 100 members by the 300th show. For the cost of a couple cups of (admittedly expensive) coffee each month, you can keep The Jazz Session going for years to come. Visit the Join page and become a member for as little as $10 a month or $110 a year. Thank you for your support! And thanks especially to the people who have already joined.

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The Jazz Session just hit 600,000 downloads! Thanks for all your support. If you’d like to help keep the show going, please consider donating using the button on the left side of this site.

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Sometime in the past hour or so, The Jazz Session passed 500,000 downloads! Can you believe it? Half a million! Huzzah!

Thanks to all of you for your support. Tell a friend, OK?

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Today is the third anniversary of The Jazz Session, which started back on Feb. 24, 2007 with TJS #1: Grant Stewart. Here were are, 460,000+ downloads later and still going strong — thanks to YOU!

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I found out Tuesday night that FootHills Publishing, an independent poetry press celebrating its 25th year, is going to publish a collection of my work. I really can’t believe it. Huzzah!

Watch jasoncrane.org for more details…

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Here are the responses to the survey question, “If you could book one artist for The Jazz Session, who would it be?” These are in the order received, and there are certainly duplicates. If the person has already been a guest on the show, I’ve noted that in bold type with the show number after their name. And for everyone else: I’m workin’ on ‘em!

(Two notes: 1. This post has a “Continue Reading” link partway through. Click on that link for the full list. 2. If you’re reading this at thejazzsession.com, you’ll see an alphabetical list of all the past guests on the left side of the page. Click on any name to hear the interview.)

• Tom Harrell
• Kurt Rosenwinkel
• Pat Metheny
• Miles Davis! Hehe … seriously, though … I can’t think of anyone – and actually appreciate learning abuot new folks rather than just hearing from folks I already know!
• Julian Lage – TJS #94
• Jeremy Davenport
• I’m afraid I’ll say one who has already been done!
• Carla Bley
• John Scofield
• One? In a perfect world, Wayne Shorter. But you do such a great job with artists that deserve more recognition, such as Joe Fonda, Mario Pavone, Vinny Golia, John Hollenbeck, etc
  – Hollenbeck is booked!
  Continue Reading »

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My year-in-review article for All About Jazz is now available online. It’s a look at some of the interesting places at which I recorded episodes of the show in 2009. These spots include:

• Steve Kuhn’s kitchen
• The lobby of Vijay Iyer’s apartment building
• A trailer behind the stage at the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival
• James Shipp’s minivan
• …and many more!

Read: The Jazz Session: Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

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