Ethan Gruska

Master drummer Eric McPherson sits down with Pablo Held to discuss his idea of flow on the drums, lessons learned from jazz legends Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill & Pharoah Sanders, his relationship to bassists Ben Street & John Hebert and memorable moments in the studio / on the road. ___ • Support ‘Pablo Held Investigates’ … Continue reading Eric McPherson

Sharing memories from the recording session of my album “Elders”, which is dedicated to my parents. “Elders” came out on Pirouet Records in 2013 and features my trio mates Robert Landfermann – bass, Jonas Burgwinkel – drums and three guests: Jason Seizer – tenor saxophone, Domenic Landolf – alto flute & Ronny Graupe – acoustic … Continue reading Elders (audio commentary)

Talking to writer/jazz historian Ashley Kahn was an honor. We first met in 2024 when Ashley interviewed me as part of the Bologna Jazz Festival. We had such a good time on and off stage together, that we decided to continue our conversation on my podcast. In the weeks leading up to this I revisited … Continue reading Ashley Kahn

It was a great pleasure to talk to the amazing guitarist, orchestrator & educator Ella Feingold on the podcast. She contacted me a couple of years ago after I released the Blake Mills/Chris Weisman episodes and said she’d love to talk. I started checking out her amazing work and became an instant fan. I’ve learned … Continue reading Ella Feingold

I’m very thankful to be on the the road with Tineke Postma quite often. She is an amazing saxophonist & composer, I’m learning a lot from her and she’s so much fun to be around. We talk all the time when we’re on tour with the band Re:Calamari and this conversation actually happened between gigs. … Continue reading Tineke Postma

Talking to the legendary Eddie Henderson was a dream come true for me. As I tell Eddie in the beginning of this episode, I’ve been listening to him for all my life: My father played Herbie Hancock’s “Mwandishi” albums for me as a kid and when I was 13 I saw Eddie with Herbie’s “Gershwin’s … Continue reading Eddie Henderson

The day before our interview I had the big pleasure of playing with Kanoa Mendenhall for the first time. After a long time of admiring her from afar, I finally got to know her through making music and hanging out together, which was really special for me. We zoomed in on Kanoa’s creative process, we … Continue reading Kanoa Mendenhall

A few years ago I took inspiring composition lessons with pianist/composer/arranger Guillermo Klein, which still resonate with me to this day. Guillermo helped me to break free from habits and find new pathways to starting the compositional process. Now I finally got to interview on the podcast, which, in a way, turned out to be … Continue reading Guillermo Klein

Anders Jormin is one of my favorite bassists and composers. I got the chance to play with him in 2016, where we celebrated the music of my late teacher, the great John Taylor. Now, we continue where we left off and talk in-depth about his life in music. It was so great to pick Anders’ … Continue reading Anders Jormin

Talking to singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and interdisciplinary artist Jen Shyu was immensely inspiring and invigorating! After admiring Jen’s work for a long time from afar, getting to pick her brain for almost 3 hours was a big deal for me. As you know, I always love it when the artists bring there instruments and perform … Continue reading Jen Shyu