A Life in the Music

This book chronicles Sidran's love affair with music and all its functions: music as a prayer, music as community, music as legacy, and music as nothing but a party.

Ben Sidran: A Life in the Music is much more than a musician's memoir; it's a picaresque story about a personal quest, the search for meaning at the beginning of a new millennium. Sidran delves into the complex relationships between African-Americans and Jews, fathers and sons, history and hope, money and technology, ecstasy and transformation. His animated, well-crafted prose deftly expresses his life-long affair with music in all its functions: as prayer, as community, as legacy, and as nothing but a party. It is a Pilgrim's Process for another generation.

Although best known in some circles for writing Steve Miller’s hit song “Space Cowboy”, Ben Sidran is more 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 has recorded twenty five solo albums, including the Grammy nominated “Concert for Garcia Lorca,” and has produced recordings for such noted artists as Van Morrison, Diana Ross, Mose Allison and Jon Hendricks. He composed the soundtrack for the acclaimed film “Hoop Dreams”, and scored the documentary “Vietnam: Long Time Coming”, which won both the Aspen Film Festival audience award and an Emmy. He is the author of two books on the subject of jazz, “Black Talk,” a cultural history of the music, and “Talking Jazz,” a series of conversations with well known musicians. Although he holds a PhD. in American Studies from Sussex University, he has generally avoided the academic life, preferring instead to spend his time performing—most recently in Europe and Asia—producing radio and records, and completing his memoir, “A Life in the Music” (Taylor Trade Press, February, 2003). His most recent records include “Walk Pretty”, the songs of Alec Wilder, “Nick's Bump”. and “Cien Noches” recorded live in Madrid. Sidran is currently completing an album of Bob Dylan songs (“Dylan Different”) and working on a text, “Jews, Music and the American Dream”.