Vocalist, pianist and composer, Ann Hampton Callaway has had success in the worlds of jazz, Broadway and cabaret. She’s also one of our favorite KPLU Studio Session guests. We invite her to perform every time she passes through Seattle because, from one visit to the next, we never know what kind of surprises she’ll treat [...]

Want a good recipe for soul music? Here’s what you do: Start with vocalist, Joan Osborne, who has had pop music hits, performed on The Grand Old Oprey, toured with members of The Grateful Dead and yet never strayed from her roots in rhythm ‘n blues music.   Now add a good, solid dose of [...]

In 2010, actress/singer, Molly Ringwald wrote her first book, Getting The Pretty Back. The “pretty” in the title is a reference to what is perhaps Molly’s most famous movie, “Pretty In Pink” (1986), directed by John Hughes. She also worked with Hughes in “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club.” But before Molly Ringwald became one [...]

Canadian vocalist, Holly Cole, is one of greatest song interpreters alive.  She can take a song you think you know and bring something out of it that you’ve never heard before. For example, her latest CD, Night, contains Holly’s inventive re-imagining of a James Bond theme (You Only Live Twice), as well as songs by [...]

In this studio session singer, Jackie Ryan, gives us three of her favorites:  a gospel-tinged version of Accentuate The Positive, a beautiful reading of I Loves You, Porgy and the Spanish-language song, La Puerta, dedicated to her mother. As you’ll hear Jackie  say in this interview, she grew up singing.  After years as a touring R&B singer, Jackie discovered jazz [...]

On a recent visit to Seattle, Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All Stars stopped by for a three-song studio session with Jazz24 and KPLU in the KCTS 9 studios. How good was it? Well, as host, Abe Beeson says, “If this music doesn’t move you, you’ve got no place to go.” Watch the full [...]

  Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist, Dee Dee Bridgewater almost always performs with a band accompanying her, while pianist Benny Green is generally heard in a trio configuration and seldom works with vocalists (with the notable exception of being Betty Carter’s pianist when he was in his 20’s).  So this session was a double treat:  hearing [...]

Graham Dechter is a 26-year-old jazz guitarist who is, indeed, currently living his dream. Graham was invited to join the world-famous Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at age 19. Now, 7 years later, he is leading his own group and just released his second CD, “Takin’ It There.” Here is a video of the quartet performing the [...]

It’s no wonder that pianist, Bill Charlap, loves the music that has come to be called The Great American Songbook—the songs of great Tin Pan Alley composers such as Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. He grew up with it. Born and raised in New York, Bill’s father, Moose Charlap, was a Broadway composer and his mother, Sandy [...]

  Vocalist, Catherine Russell was raised in a musical family. Her father, Luis, was Louis Armstrong’s band-leader and her mother, Carline Ray, was a member of the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm.