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George Cables is one of those musicians that serious jazz fans love, but who’s not that well known to the broader public. He’s never crossed over in any way, because he’s never really tried to. He’s jazz to the core of his bones, and he’s had an incredible career both as a leader and as a sideman. He started out at the very end of the Sixties and really made his mark in the Seventies, when he played with Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, Art Pepper, and a million other people. He’s recorded dozens of albums as a leader, and played on over 200 albums as a sideman. These days, he’s a member of the Cookers, the all-star band led by trumpeter David Weiss that also includes Eddie Henderson, Billy Harper, Cecil McBee and Billy Hart, among others. He also leads his own trio with bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Victor Lewis.

He recently suffered a serious health issue, which resulted in him having his left leg amputated above the knee. We talk about that in this interview, as well as some of the people he’s played with over the years, how he chooses material — he writes a lot, but he plays a lot of standards as well — and much more. I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation, and come away with an interest in a guy whose name isn’t nearly as well known as it should be.

If you enjoy this podcast, please consider visiting patreon.com/burningambulance and becoming a subscriber. For just $5 a month, you can help keep this show and Burning Ambulance as a whole active and thriving. Thanks!

Music heard in this episode:

George Cables, "Young at Heart" (I'm All Smiles)

Dexter Gordon, "As Time Goes By" (Manhattan Symphonie)

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Singer Bernard Fowler has been around for close to 40 years. In addition to fronting his own bands Sirrius and Nicklebag, he's been the frontman for Tackhead and performed on an unbelievable number of records, many of them as a member of Bill Laswell's company of musicians. Since 1989, he's also been a backup singer for the Rolling Stones, which is where his new album comes from. Inside Out is a collection of Stones songs, radically re-interpreted in a Gil Scott-Heron/Last Poets spoken-word style; it's one of the most fascinating projects I've heard all year, and really proves that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are kind of underrated as lyricists.

In this interview, we talk about his work with Bill Laswell and Adrian Sherwood, his solo career, his time with the Rolling Stones, and much, much more. Very few people have had a career as far-ranging as Bernard Fowler, or worked with as many people as he has, so I hope you'll enjoy this episode. I very much enjoyed talking to him.

This episode has no sponsors of any kind, so please consider visiting patreon.com/burningambulance and becoming a subscriber. For just $5 a month, you can help keep this show and Burning Ambulance as a whole active and thriving. Thanks!

Music heard in this episode:

Bernard Fowler, "Undercover of the Night" (Inside Out)

Bernard Fowler, "Sister Morphine" (Inside Out)

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Bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma is a legend. He was barely out of high school when guitarist Reggie Lucas recommended him to Ornette Coleman, who hired him for what would become Prime Time. He stayed with Coleman for a dozen years, working with James "Blood" Ulmer and recording albums on his own at the same time. He's been part of some really amazing records that I love, including Derek Bailey's Mirakle, James Carter's Layin' in the Cut, James Brandon Lewis's Days of FreeMan, and the Young Philadelphians' Live in Tokyo. He also produced the new Last Poets album, Transcending Toxic Times.

In this interview, we talk about a bunch of different aspects of his career, his sound, his style, his upbringing in Philadelphia, and his interest in fashion. In addition to being a musician, Tacuma runs a consignment boutique in Philadelphia called the Redd Carpet Room, where he sells designer clothes he picks up while traveling around the world. This guy is sharp in every possible way, so I really think you're going to enjoy this conversation a lot. I know I did.

This episode has no sponsors of any kind, so please consider visiting patreon.com/burningambulance and becoming a subscriber. For just $5 a month, you can help keep this show and Burning Ambulance as a whole active and thriving.

Also, Osiris is conducting a listener survey. Everyone who enters will have the chance to win a limited edition Osiris poster, so take the survey today. Thanks!

Music heard in this episode:

Ornette Coleman, "Sleep Talk" (Of Human Feelings)

Jamaaladeen Tacuma, "Tacuma Song" (Show Stopper)

The Last Poets, "Black Rage" (Transcending Toxic Times)

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Drummer Allison Miller is a well-known figure on the New York jazz scene, but she's also had a second career backing big-name folk and rock artists like Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, and Brandi Carlile. She released an album with her band Boom Tic Boom early this year, and has a new album, Parlour Game, with violinist Jenny Scheinman (who's also in Boom Tic Boom), pianist Carmen Staaf — with whom she made the album Science Fair last year — and bassist Tony Scherr. Parlour Game will be out August 2.

In this interview, we talk about her drum sound and her approach to playing and recording, the various artists she's backed, and her own bands. It's a really fun, somewhat nerdy conversation, especially when we start in on talking about microphones and studio work, but I think it's also really interesting, especially when she talks about working with bigger-name pop and rock artists and how that's different from jazz gigs. I really enjoyed having this conversation, so I hope you'll enjoy listening to it.

This episode has no sponsors of any kind, so please consider visiting patreon.com/burningambulance and becoming a subscriber. For just $5 a month, you can help keep this show and Burning Ambulance as a whole active and thriving.

Also, Osiris is conducting a listener survey. Everyone who enters will have the chance to win a limited edition Osiris poster, so take the survey today. Thanks!

Music heard in this episode:

Allison Miller/Jenny Scheinman, "116th & Congress" (Parlour Game)

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom, "Daughter and Sun" (Glitter Wolf)

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Drummer Whit Dickey is a well-known figure on the New York free jazz scene; he came to prominence as a member of the Matthew Shipp Trio and the David S. Ware Quartet in the 1990s, but has made multiple albums as a leader and collaborated with a lot of other musicians, including Joe Morris, Ivo Perelman, and Mat Maneri. His latest releases are a double CD, Tao Quartets, on AUM Fidelity — each CD features a different band — and a duo CD with cornet player Kirk Knuffke, Drone Dream, on NoBusiness.

In this interview, we talk about the evolution of his style, the musicians he studied with — including Bill Dixon, Milford Graves, and Andrew Cyrille — and his various bands and projects. We also talk about aspects of his personal life that some listeners and fans may not know about. It's one of the longest episodes I've done, but it's really interesting, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to it.

This episode is sponsored by nugs.net - visit nugs.net/burningambulance to get 35% off a year's subscription.

Music heard in this episode:

Whit Dickey, "Suite for DSW" (Tao Quartets)

Whit Dickey/Kirk Knuffke, "Soaring" (Drone Dream)

Whit Dickey, "Ethereality" (Tao Quartets)

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Cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdóttir (pronounced "Sigh-oon") was born in Iceland, and came to the US as a child; she received a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master of Music from the Juilliard School and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. She's currently a cello and chamber music teacher at the University of Washington, cellist for the Seattle-based chamber music group Frequency, and cellist and founding member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Her latest album is Vernacular, a solo disc featuring four compositions by Icelandic composers: Þuríður Jónsdóttir, Halldór Smárason, Páll Ragnar Pálsson, and Hafliði Hallgrímsson.

This interview was really fascinating for me, because I got to ask her all sorts of questions about the cello, about recording, about performing classical music, about Iceland, and about basically every aspect of her album and her career. It’s one of the most in-depth conversations I’ve had on this show, and I really learned a lot. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

This episode is sponsored by nugs.net - visit nugs.net/burningambulance to get 35% off a year's subscription.

Music heard in this episode:

Saeunn Thorsteinsdóttir, "Solitaire: Oration" (Vernacular)

Saeunn Thorsteinsdóttir, "Portrait" (Jane Antonia Cornish, Continuum)

Saeunn Thorsteinsdóttir, "Afterquake" (Vernacular)

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Saxophonist Melissa Aldana was born in Santiago, Chile, and came to the US to study at Berklee; in 2013, after having already made two albums for Greg Osby's Inner Circle label, she was the first South American musician and the first female musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, which earned her a contract with Concord Records. Her latest release, her fifth album overall, is Visions, which got its start as a suite commissioned by the Jazz Gallery, and is partly inspired by the life and art of Frida Kahlo. The band on the album includes pianist Sam Harris, vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Pablo Menares, and drummer Tommy Crane.

In this interview, we talk about a lot of different subjects, including her various albums, her particular approach to the saxophone and to music in general, being married to another saxophonist (Jure Pukl), and much more. I hope you'll enjoy it.

This episode is sponsored by nugs.net - visit nugs.net/burningambulance to get 35% off a year's subscription.

Music heard in this episode:

Melissa Aldana, "Visions" (Visions)

Melissa Aldana, "La Madrina" (Visions)

Melissa Aldana, "Elsewhere" (Visions)

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Drummer Herlin Riley is from New Orleans, and is a major keeper of the flame when it comes to that city's jazz tradition. He played with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's band and with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for close to 20 years, and was with pianist Ahmad Jamal before and after that - in fact, he's currently a member of Jamal's group. He's recently released his fourth album as a leader, Perpetual Optimism, which features a band of young musicians including up-and-coming trumpet player Bruce Harris.

In this interview, we talk about a lot of different subjects, including everything I mentioned above, as well as his early career in New Orleans, where he sees the city's jazz tradition going in the future, and even some discussion of the difference between New Orleans and New York jazz rhythms. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Music heard in this episode:

Herlin Riley, "Twelve's It" (Perpetual Optimism)

Herlin Riley, "Connection to Congo Square" (New Direction)

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Writer John Corbett is from Chicago, and has been spreading the word about obscure and underground music for decades. He's a writer, a critic, a record collector, a presenter of live music, and a producer of both reissues and new albums in the areas of free and avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, noise, modern composition, and things that are simply impossible to pigeonhole or classify in any meaningful way. He's got a new book out, Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music, which is absolutely worth a read, but I wanted to talk to him about a lot of his other work, including the legendary Unheard Music Series of CDs which he curated for the Atavistic label in the early 2000s, and his current project, Corbett vs. Dempsey, which is an art gallery/publishing house/record label that's putting out incredible music, new and old, right now.

In this interview, we talk about a lot of different subjects, including everything I mentioned above, as well as his thoughts on Seventies jazz, punk rock vs. postpunk vs. hardcore, and much, much more. It’s a very interesting conversation, and one of our longer episodes. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Music heard in this episode:

Joe McPhee, "Nation Time" (Nation Time)

Milford Graves, "Ba" (Bäbi)

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Vocalist Dwight Trible is originally from Cincinnati, but he's lived in Los Angeles since the early 1970s. He's recorded several albums on his own, but is probably best known right now for contributing to Kamasi Washington's The Epic and Heaven and Earth. Still, he's a hugely important figure on the L.A. scene, because he was a member of Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra, and still works with that group now that Tapscott himself is deceased; he's also the executive director of the World Stage, a performance space and community center where Washington and the whole West Coast Get Down all got their start. He's not just a musician; he's an organizer, and a leader, helping preserve the artistic community there.

In this interview, we talk about a lot of different subjects, including his work with Tapscott, with Washington, with Pharoah Sanders, and much more. It’s a very interesting conversation, and one I hope you’ll enjoy.

Music heard in this episode:

Dwight Trible, "Mothership" (Mothership)

Dwight Trible, "Tomorrow Never Knows" (Mothership)