It is Monday, June 8th 2009 and I am at home drinking a very good cup of coffee, while on the phone with Ezra Weiss. We have finally connected after playing an intense game of phone tag for a week or two. It feels amazing to finally have the opportunity to interview one of the true originals in jazz music and jazz education. One rarely gets the opportunity to talk with someone so passionate, yet so humble, about teaching young people and his deep appreciation for jazz music. Ezra Weiss i …

It’s Monday June 1, 2009 at approximately 6:14 pm and Derrick Gardner, the proverbial titan of hard-bop, is on a journey. After visiting his mother Dr. Effie Gardner (classically trained pianist) and a week long stint (gigging) in New York City, he is traveling across country to do what he does best playing JAZZ! Gardner, at full speed, has hit the road literally traveling almost nonstop for the past couple of weeks to promote his latest work, Echoes of Ethnicity. Gardner rec …