Caroline Davis

The album Portals, Vol 1: Mourning was my entry point into the wonderful music by saxophonist & composer Caroline Davis. It was exactly what the title entails: I felt transported right away! It led me to check out so many other beautiful albums, videos and articles, which impressively show Caroline’s exceptional talent and vision. My personal favorites are Portals, Alula, her live videos from Smalls on YouTube and her fascinating lecture on Jazz & Gender.

I had a great time talking to Caroline about some of my favorite tunes from her, gender equity, lessons learned working with personal heroes like Geri Allen or Lee Konitz, leading a band, Mary Lou Williams, self doubt, Connie Crothers and much more.

Charles McPherson

Saxophonist Charles McPherson is a living legend, a musician of the highest order. I’ve learned a lot by listening to him play (and speak!) over the years. When I got the chance to interview him as part of the Mingus100 Festival at the Stadtgarten in Köln, I was delighted! Since this happened in between sets, time was limited. Still, we managed to talk about lots of different topics like his time with Charles Mingus, the secret behind great art, the influence of Charlie Parker and his “linear sense of logic” and what he expects from his fellow musicians.

I’m so happy that this happened and that we got to do this in front of a live audience as well. Thank you Charles and thank you to my friends Denis Gäbel & Robert Landfermann for this opportunity!

John Patitucci

It was a dream come true to talk with master bassist & composer John Patitucci. Easy going, inspiring and deep! Plus he played lots of bass, some piano and we went through several of his compositions- as you know, I always hope for these things to happen and John was totally open for it. I think we cover a lot of ground in this conversation, where John generously shares his experiences and insights from his exciting life in music and I’m in total fan-boy mode.

A little side note- of course it’s evident that John is an absolute pro in music, but he was also so well prepared for this interview: he had good mics set up for his voice AND his bass and he came in early (15 minutes before our scheduled time) two make sure everything worked. Can’t ask for more!