324: Heather Aimee O'Neill

Legendary Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander reflects on his extraordinary journey from the early days of ska in Kingston to the New York jazz scene, where he befriended Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and countless other musical icons. He discusses his new album A Jamarican in Paris, his self-taught approach to music, and the positivity that has sustained him through more than seven decades at the piano. As Monty puts it, "I'm a student of joy." www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com/ www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Richard Marx was one of the defining voices of late-'80s pop, with hits like "Right Here Waiting," "Endless Summer Nights" and "Hold On to the Nights." But his career as a songwriter began long before his rise to stardom. In this conversation, Marx reflects on growing up in a musical family, the influence of his father, jazz pianist Dick Marx, his early mentorship by Lionel Richie, and a lifetime of writing and producing music. He also discusses his new album, After Hours, a collection of jazz standards and original songs inspired by the Great American Songbook, and why it represents one of the most satisfying songwriting experiences of his career. The Third Story is nominated for several Signal Awards this year, including the Listener's Choice Award. You can support the podcast by voting here, or simply by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Harry Connick, Jr. has spent four decades as one of the most recognizable and versatile figures in American music — a pianist, singer, composer, arranger, actor and entertainer whose career has moved freely between jazz, pop, Broadway, film and television. His new project, Babe: Elaboratio — A Tribute to My Mother, may also be his most personal and ambitious: an orchestral work and accompanying book devoted to his mother, Anita Livingston, who died when Harry was 13. Here Harry talks about constructing Babe from the fragments and misrememberings of childhood memory; growing up as a musical prodigy in New Orleans under the guidance of Ellis Marsalis and James Booker; recording with Ron Carter, Dr. John and Carmen McRae while still barely out of his teens; and experiencing his early success in what he now describes as a kind of "dream state." He also talks about composition and improvisation, his father Harry Connick Sr., the unusual confidence his mother gave him, and the challenge of spending a lifetime balancing serious musicianship with a desire to entertain. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Nicole Zuraitis has spent much of her career being asked (and asking herself) variations of the same question: where do you fit? Is the music jazz? Is it pop? Is it cabaret? Her new album, The Devil I Knew, doesn't exactly settle the question. Instead, it makes the question seem increasingly beside the point. It's a sprawling, 20-song project produced by Larry Klein, with string arrangements by Vince Mendoza, horn charts by Jerry Hey, and musicians including Larry Goldings, John Cowherd, Gilad Hekselman and Christian McBride, alongside her working quartet, which includes her husband, Dan Pugach, on drums. The conceit of the project, which is broken into five parts — The Mirror, The Martyr, The Malediction, The Reckoning and The Requiem — came when a friend described a moment in her own life when she realized that, after years of seeing herself as the victim, she had become the villain in someone else's story. Nicole was fascinated by the idea that the hero and the villain could be the same person. That became part of the world of The Devil I Knew. It's a record about reckoning with your own choices, told by an artist fascinated by narrative, drama and what she calls "jazz lore": the stories and mythology that surround the music. That same instinct led Zuraitis to found the Modern Songbook Society, a project devoted to the idea that the Great American Songbook doesn't necessarily have to be a closed book. Nicole says she was a late bloomer. As she tells it, "I wasn't a fully baked cake until I was 37 years old. Like, I didn't burst into the scene when I moved to New York at 25. [...] I was so nervous. And just constantly learning. And so my cake was not even fully baked. But then once it's baked, I'm like, 'For crying out loud, nobody wants this cake? Like, this is good cake. Somebody wants this cake? No? Fine. I'll eat the cake. It's fine.'" By any conventional measure, the cake is baked. Her album How Love Begins won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2024. And yet, even after that recognition, she says she still feels like something of an outsider in the jazz business. She plays nearly 150 shows a year, mostly on the road, but remains fiercely independent and largely self-managed — still baking her own cake. We talked recently about all of this: about her early years as a rising soccer player and the injury that led her from one kind of pitch to another, her brief stint as a trombone player, her years of hustling in New York, what it means to live a jazz life in today's music business, and how she went about creating the world of The Devil I Knew. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

Duncan Sheik's career did not follow a straight line. After studying semiotics at Brown University, he emerged in the mid 1990s as a pop singer songwriter with his hit "Barely Breathing", and quickly revealed himself to bend toward more literate adult oriented rock. He continued to make records and land himself on the charts but also began exploring composition for film and theater.