The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt James Hurt

German-born Amsterdam-raised alto saxophonist and composer Susanne Alt  joins us remotely for the next Episode of the Sit-Down Podcast to share her origins story of becoming an artist beyond compromise. The segment takes us from the earliest beginnings of Susanne as a young child with two educator parents that also happen to be musicians. From early experiences with music in the most holistic way in her home environment, to learning demands and expectations, Susanne takes us through the challenges of being taught by one's parents while also revealing through experience how learning styles can be drastically differ between young girls and boys. The layers continue as we explore the way in which saxophone informed Susanne's interest beyond the canon of classical music and into areas of American music such as gospel and later funk, soul, and jazz. A new recording celebrating Roy Hargrove, Royalty for Real, reveals a heavy influence the trumpeter had on the world, the Netherlands, and Susanne directly. Susanne also shares insights as to how one may realize one's full potential as a person who wears many hats as bandleader, marketeer, booking agent, producer, musician, and indie record label executive.  Background music by James Hurt.

© 2024 James Hurt. All rights reserved.
The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt would like to thank you for listening. Please share links to episodes in the highlights section and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.

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Website:
https://musicjameshurt.com/

Keyboardist, composer, and educator Marc Cary joins the Sit-Down Podcast to discuss his origin story and how the 'district' shaped his musical trajectory. Although his birthplace was Harlem in New York City, Cary spent time in several areas on the Eastern Seaboard to include his parents home state of Rhode Island before relocating to the District of Columbia. Tune in as Marc weaves a thread of all of his earliest experiences from his family of talented musicians to frequent encounters with the progenitors of the Golden Era of Jazz often invited into his home while growing in Washington, D.C. such as Dizzie Gillespie, Tommy Flanagan, and Sarah Vaughan. Bassist, arranger, and composer Mickey bass, responsible for several luminaries in Jazz across several generations, is cited as the educator responsible for creating a path to learn the language of Jazz through his diminished-whole-tone concept. Special attention is also devoted to the original indigenous American beat which emerged from the D.C. area known as Go-Go as being instrumental in Cary's development as a young band leader under the direction of Chuck Brown also known as the 'Godfather' of Go-Go.  The pivotal moment for Mark was performing in the Dizzie Gillespie Jazz Youth Orchestra which created a path for the younger generation of musicians to cary the music forward. The influence of Cary's breadth of musicianship can be felt through his current  unit Focus Trio. Background music by James Hurt.

© 2024 James Hurt. All rights reserved.


The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt would like to thank you for listening. Please share links to episodes in the highlights section and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/james36963/?hl=en

Website:
https://musicjameshurt.com/

Multi-talented Candice Ivory, Queen of Avant Soul, wears many hats as a festival symposium curator for the long-standing King Biscuit Festival, educator of Applied Music, Voice, Jazz and Contemporary Music at Washington University at St Louis Missouri, a devoted visual artist & painter, and a lifelong student of the craft of songwriting. Candice stops by to discuss her whirlwind schedule coming off a new release of new music honoring the legacy of trailblazing songstress and cultural pioneer Memphis Minnie through reimaging her body of work with the premier conceptualist Charlie Hunter. The new release, When the Levee Breaks: The Music of Memphis Minnie,  is on her Little Village label and delivers stunning interpretations of Minnie's classics. The project includes Atiba Rorie & Brevan Hampden on percussion, George Sluppick on drums, and DeShawn Hickman on lap and pedal steel. We explore the possible landscape of the future of songs, the  potential impact of AI, and the way in which one can pay homage to influences without the need to stop at the 'sounds-like' phase of one's artistic developmental journey. This episode is dedicated to the region in the United States referred to as the Delta which spreads it's reach over state lines and into the hearts and minds of the people the deep south. Background  music composed and performed by James Hurt.

© 2023 James Hurt. All rights reserved.
The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt would like to thank you for listening. Please share links to episodes in the highlights section and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/james36963/?hl=en

Website:
https://musicjameshurt.com/

Multi-reed & woodwind specialist, instrument repair technical wizard, clinician, student of music, and consummate musician James Carter stops by the Sit-Down to discuss his early origins as the youngest sibling who had a burning desire to perform with his diverse musical family of both soulfully & classically-trained musicians. James' keen ear and expansive musical interests take him on a journey backwards and forwards through the decades of American music before circumstances place him in the cross-hairs of his first encounter with a family friend's saxophone, private lessons with his musical mentor Donald Washington, early symphonic music training and multi-instrumentalism, auditions which led to his musical experiences at both Blue Lake and Interlochen, performing with Ralph "Buzzy" Jones & Yusef Lateef, touring with Wynton Marsalis (while in high school) & Lester Bowie  (New York City), Kid Dynamite-Lodewijk Rudolf Arthur Parisius (and the Dixieland Manifesto), Detroit's Afro-futurists synthesists "The Electrifying Mojo",  William "The Wiz" Tandy, and house to Techno.  Shoutouts to all the all my drumline 'Whallas', aka The 'Rat Patrol', from the 'D' who came down to the "Hill" (TSU) in Nashville, to go forth and serve-change the world. This episode is dedicated to all the Michiganians on both branches of my family tree in  Detroit, Big Rapids, Grand Rapids, Greenwood, and to the legacy of Afro-Futurist, Educator (Ferris State University), Organic Chemist, youth leader, and devoted husband (Uncle) Dr. Charles Raymond Hurt (1932-2017) who pioneered research for arthritic & metabolic diseases in addition to his work with Goodard Space Flight Center and NASA.  Background music composed and performed by James Hurt.

© 2023 James Hurt. All rights reserved.


The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt would like to thank you for listening. Please share links to episodes in the highlights section and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/james36963/?hl=en

Website:
https://musicjameshurt.com/

Consummate bassist and educator Rodney Jordan stops by The Sit-Down Podcast to discuss art and culture in addition to his origin story. We touch on his early live in Memphis, early music exposure and influences, music educators that shaped his trajectory, university and moving to Mississippi, the deep Alvin Fielder influence, the Wynton Marsalis-Terance Blanchard effect on the last century, the Marcus Roberts experience, and advice for the new generation of performers and educators of the future. Background music composed and performed by James Hurt.

© 2023 James Hurt. All rights reserved.
The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt would like to thank you for listening. Please share links to episodes in the highlights section and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/james36963/?hl=en

Website:
https://musicjameshurt.com/

Singer-Songwriter Heidi Martin visits The Sit-Down to discuss her origin story, traveling abroad, discovering Jazz, and much more! This is the first episode that explores the 1990s 'Lost generation' of creative musicians (and artists of several disciplines) that came to New York City between the years of 1990 to 2000 by the thousands. This episode focuses on the early 90s, the proximity to the Golden Era Jazz Masters, and Heidi (and her becoming) as one of the songstresses that would shape music for the next twenty years or more along with the challenges facing them to include the peer-to-peer file-sharing movement that transformed the community into the monetization paywall of today. Heidi takes us on a deep dive into the White-American experience as a Washington D.C. native who came from lower-middle class beginnings, experienced socio-economic elitism, and found her voice through experimentation and adventure. Background music composed and performed by James Hurt.

© 2023 James Hurt. All rights reserved.
The Sit-Down Podcast with James Hurt would like to thank you for listening. Please share links to episodes in the highlights section and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/james36963/?hl=en

Website:
https://musicjameshurt.com/