Ben Sidran and his son Leo Sidran stopped by the JazzPHX studios on Feb 26, 2026 before their sold out show at the MIM Music Theatre to talk with Blaise Lantana about their relationship, music, careers, the world today and Ben's new album "Are We There Yet?"
BEN SIDRAN
Ben Sidran has been a major force in the modern day history of jazz and popular music, having played keyboards with or produced such artists as Van Morrison, Diana Ross, Michael Franks, Rickie Lee Jones, Mose Allison and Steve Miller.
It's been a long and varied journey for Sidran—from playing boogie-woogie piano as a six-year old in Racine, Wisconsin, leaning into his jazz records, “literally like an Eskimo huddled around a fire,” to growing up to play boogie-woogie piano around the world. Despite the reality that he may be better known in Europe and Japan than in America—a fact of life for most jazz musicians—Ben Sidran is an American success story.
A jazz pianist of international renown, lyricist of a rock classic, award-winning national broadcaster, record and video producer, scholar, author, journalist, and father to a second-generation musical prodigy, Sidran makes your average Renaissance man look like a slacker.
Born in Chicago in 1943—his father was a friend of Saul Bellow's—Sidran was raised in the industrial lakeshore city of Racine, Wisconsin, going up to Madison to play keyboards at frat-house parties while still a teenager in 1960. The next year he was enrolled at the university, playing dates on campus and around town. He soon joined the Ardells, a Southern comfort party band led by frat boy singer Steve Miller and his friend Boz Scaggs. But when Miller and Scaggs went west to become stars, Sidran stayed to complete his degree in English lit.
After graduating from the UW, Sidran moved to England to pursue a degree in American Studies at the University of Sussex, in Brighton. But when the Steve Miller Band came to England the following year to record with the legendary British engineer Glyn Johns, Sidran found himself back on the two-track life of academia and music.
It started with his haunting harpsichord break on Scaggs’ “Baby's Calling Me Home” for the Miller band's debut album, “Children of the Future.” A little later on, Ben would pen the lyrics for Miller's “Space Cowboy,” earning a place in rock history (and enough royalties to pay for his graduate degrees).
While still pursuing his studies, Sidran also developed a relationship with Johns, often doing session work at Olympic Studios with musicians like Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. In 1969, Johns produced Sidran's demo tape, featuring Charlie Watts, Peter Frampton and others.
Upon receiving his doctorate in American Studies at the height of the war-induced grad school glut, Sidran faced bleak prospects in academia. Then he realized his time for studying the information was over; it was time to become the information. So in the fall of 1970, after dropping his dissertation with some publishers in New York, he moved to Los Angeles to go into the record business.
Things started to break in a hurry. First came competing bids to publish his thesis; Ben bypassed the low-key offer from Oxford University Press to take a lucrative (to him, at the time) offer from Holt, Rinehart & Winston to publish the dissertation as Black Talk, or How the Music of Black America Created a Radical Alternative to the Values of Western Literary Tradition.
Then, thanks to an introduction from Johns, Sidran soon had his own record deal on Capitol Records. Feel Your Groove, a jazz/rock hybrid, featured Blue Mitchell on trumpet (the first of five such engagements), guitarists Scaggs and Ed Davis and Jim Keltner on drums.
Recognizing Ben's skills on both sides of the studio, Capitol offered him a job as staff producer. But because his wife Judy was unhappy in the isolated haze of the Hollywood hills, Sidran did the unthinkable and walked away from LA in the summer of ‘71, returning to Madison just as “Feel Your Groove” was released and Black Talk was published (a set of circumstances which did not provoke the label into excessive promotional activity). Taking up the Hammond B3 residency at a local club, Sidran soon found another life-long musical partner when James Brown played in town and his drummer, Clyde Stubblefield, stayed behind.
It wasn't long before another national label came calling - Blue Thumb Records, which released Ben's I Lead a Life in 1972, quickly followed by Puttin' In Time on Planet Earth (1973) and Don't Let Go, (1974).
Sidran showcased his many talents in varied fields the year he turned 30 - leading a national tour, producing Tony Williams and Paul Pena, creating and hosting a weekly television series, even returning to academia to teach “the social aesthetics of record production” at the UW.
After the demise of Blue Thumb, Sidran joined the Arista Records roster, releasing Free in America (1976), The Doctor is In (1977), A Little Kiss in the Night (1978), Live at Montreux, (1979) and, for A&M, The Cat in the Hat, (1980).
Although he developed a significant career in radio and television work during the eighties (see sidebar), he kept his hands on the keyboard, recording Get to the Point (PolyStar, 1981), Old Songs for the New Depression, (Antilles, 1982), Bop City, (Antilles, 1983), On the Cool Side, (Windham Hill, 1984), Have You Met … Barcelona (Orange Blue Productions, 1986), On the Live Side, (Windham Hill, 1986) and Too Hot to Touch, (Windham Hill 1987). His production credits that decade included Ever Since the World Ended and My Backyard for Mose Allison and Born 2B Blue for Steve Miller, with whom he also toured.
Sidran continued to click on many levels throughout the 1990s, even expanded his efforts to include starting his own label, Go Jazz Records, with partners in Japan. Early Sidran-produced Go Jazz releases included Georgie Fame's Cool Cat Blues, and Phil Upchurch's Whatever Happened to the Blues, featuring Mavis Staples and Chaka Kahn.
In 1993, Sidran combined his art with his soul on Life's a Lesson, a jazz-infused collection of Jewish liturgical and folk songs, featuring singer Carole King and a host of jazz luminaries. In a five-decade career, this Go Jazz release is one of the crowning personal and artistic achievements.
The end of the century brought another emotional highlight - the release of Concert for Garcia Lorca, a tribute to the martyred Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. Recorded in the courtyard of Garcia Lorca's home, the album earned Ben another Grammy nomination (he lost to Madonna).
Ben maintained his steady output of high-quality work, both on his own (Mr. P's Shuffle, and Live at the Celebrity Lounge,) and with such artists as Van Morrison and Diana Ross. In 2001 he produced two more Grammy-nominated albums, Mose Chronicles (Mose Allison) and It's Like This (Rickie Lee Jones).
Building on the Spanish influence that infused the Garcia Lorca release, in 2002 Ben wrote and produced (along with son Leo) the bi-lingual children's CD, El Elefante, winner of the Parents’ Choice Award. That year, Ben somehow found time to return to the UW as artist-in-residence, and release his critically acclaimed memoir, Ben Sidran: A Life in the Music (Taylor).
In 2003, Ben and Leo created Nardis Music, a boutique label featuring enhanced CD's of all original releases. Among its first releases was Ben’s own Nick's Bump (2004). This was followed by Bumpin’ at the Sunside, recorded live in Paris (2006) and Cien Noches, recorded live in Madrid (2008). In 2010, Sidran completed Dylan Different, a tribute to the music of Bob Dylan; in 2012, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin and published his long awaited text on the Jewish influence on American popular music, There Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream. His most recent recordings are Don’t Cry For No Hipster (April, 2013) Blue Camus (April 2015), Picture Him Happy (January, 2017), Ben There, Done That (January, 2019) Who’s The Old Guy Now (2020), Swing State (2022) and Are We There Yet? (2025).
His most recent book The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma was released on Nardis Books in 2020 and won the Independent Book Publishers award for arts biography.
Ben and his wife Judy still reside in Madison, Wisconsin.
LEO SIDRAN
I'm a multi instrumentalist musician, producer, arranger, composer, recording artist, and podcast host.
I was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, which is sometimes referred to as 70 square miles surrounded by reality. My father, Ben Sidran, another multifaceted music man, provided my early musical sustenance. My mother, a weaver and travel agent, provided texture and safe passage.
I got my start writing songs professionally as a teenager when the Steve Miller Band recorded four of my songs for their 1993 Wide River album. My father was working with Miller at the time, which is how I made the connection, but even then, at the ripe old age of 15, I was interested in production. So, Steve invited me to play keyboards, guitars and drums on the record.
Subsequently, I attended the University of Wisconsin to study History and Spanish. During a year abroad living in Spain, I fell in love with Spanish music, and after college I spent quite a bit of time back and forth between Madison and Madrid. During that time, I developed a strong relationship with several Madrid- based "Latin alternative" artists like Jorge Drexler and Ana Laan. I co-produced the Academy Award Winning song, "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from the film The Motorcycle Diaries with Jorge Drexler in 2005.
After the Oscar win, I made a move to Brooklyn and not only started producing records for other artists, but also composing music for film and television commercials amassing a catalog of 100s of major TV ads for clients like Coca-Cola, Visa, Lincoln, McDonalds, Stella Artois, Ford, IBM, Google, Garnier and over a dozen film scores for outlets such as ESPN 30 for 30, Discovery, IFC, Sundance, and PBS.
In addition, around this time, I started a small label called Nardis Music with my dad releasing our solo projects, as well as some projects that we produced for other artists, like Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown's original funky drummer). I have produced all of Ben Sidran's records for the last fifteen years.
I’ve also continued to work with Latin artists, including Alex Cuba (I co-produced the Latin Grammy winning Healer album with him), Kevin Johansen (I co-produced the Latin Grammy nominated Mis Americas Vol. ½), and Marlango.
As a drummer, I’ve played and recorded with jazz luminaries including Phil Woods, Howard Levy, David Fathead Newman, Clark Terry and Dave Grusin, and as an engineer I’ve worked with artists ranging from Snarky Puppy to Massive Attack.
To round out my penchant for curating the music I love, I launched a podcast called The Third Story featuring interviews with musicians and other members of the creative class about their personal stories and professional journeys.
Finally, I’ve released eight solo records. My most recent full length project What’s Trending was released in Spring, 2023.
I live in Brooklyn with my wife, our daughter, and a 12 pound poodle.