The Jazz Session

The Jazz Session is a jazz-interview podcast created by Jason Crane in 2007.^[1][2][3]

In the podcast's first episode, Crane interviewed saxophonist Grant Stewart.^[1] One of its earliest episodes featured Crane's interview with guitarist John Abercrombie.^[3]

In 2009, Crane and Michael Ricci developed a promotional partnership between the podcast and Ricci's website All About Jazz to which Crane had been contributing as a writer.^[4][5] From 2009 to 2012, Patrick Jarenwattananon made frequent mention of episodes of the show on National Public Radio's jazz blog, A Blog Supreme.^[6][7]

In 2012, the podcast featured a series of episodes called Jazz or Bust which included Crane's interviews with musicians and others in places he visited during a tour of the United States and Canada. Among those he interviewed was John D'Earth in Virginia.^[8] One of the stops on the Jazz or Bust tour was Auburn, Alabama where Crane ended up moving later that year, stopping production.^[9]

In 2013, after a crowdfunding effort promising to re-launch the podcast, Crane relocated to State College, Pennsylvania to be closer to family and started producing new episodes. By 2015, it could boast over 2.5 million downloads.^[10]

In 2021, Crane turned over control of the podcast to Nicky Schrire, who turned control back to Crane in 2022.^[11][12]

By 2023, The Jazz Session featured interviews with over 600 musicians including artists such as Sonny Rollins, Marian MacPartland, and Vijay Iyer.^[12][9]

The show's theme music is excerpted from a recording by The Respect Sextet.^[2][3]