Palm Springs International Jazz Festival presents Ben Sidran

Ben Sidran: Jazz and Modernism

Architecture as Frozen Music.
A Concert with Conversation.
The Ben Sidran Trio

Pianist, vocalist, and storyteller Ben Sidran and his trio will not only perform but also reflect on the natural kinship between jazz improvisation and modernist architecture, two art forms that define Palm Springs’ spirit.  

The harmonic structures used by American jazz musicians are remarkably similar to those used by 20th-century American architects. Both helped create a new sense of the future that was born in the 1920s and flourished in the 1960s, sending an aesthetic message to the world and ushering in a new era of style, cool, and transformation. From Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis, Frank Lloyd Wright to William Krisel, how these two parallel 20th-century modernist movements, jazz and architecture, reshaped cultural landscapes by rethinking form, function, and the relationship between tradition and innovation.

About Ben Sidran

Ben Sidran is widely recognized as the host of National Public Radio’s landmark jazz series Jazz Alive, which received a Peabody Award, and as the host of VH-1 television’s New Visions series, which received the Ace Award for best music series.

A pianist, producer, singer and composer, he holds a PhD. in American Studies from Sussex University, Brighton, England, has recorded thirty-five solo albums, including the Grammy nominated Concert for Garcia Lorca, and has produced recordings and television shows for Van Morrison, Diana Ross, Michael Franks, Rickie Lee Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Mose Allison and Steve Miller (with whom he co-wrote the hit song “Space Cowboy”).

He is the composer of the soundtrack for the acclaimed film Hoop Dreams, listed by the Smithsonian as the top film of the 20th century, and has authored several books on the subject of jazz: Black Talk, a cultural history of the music, and Talking Jazz, a series of conversations with inspirational musicians.

His latest written works include the memoir, A Life in the Music, the groundbreaking text There Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream and the award winning Ballad of Tommy LiPuma. His latest recordings include Dylan Different, Don’t Cry For No Hipster, Picture Him Happy, Ben There Done That, and Rainmaker.