Jazz conversation with room to breathe.
Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired pairs unhurried conversation with chosen recordings, letting musicians, actors, writers, and film voices talk through the work that shaped them. The mood is intimate and informed, with jazz treated less as a category than as a living language of memory, craft, and taste.
PRESS PLAY
Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired has the feel of a room where the conversation is allowed to take its own best shape. It begins with jazz, but it rarely stays only on genre. The show follows the music into work habits, old records, friendships, stage nerves, family collaborations, favorite arrangements, and the private meanings a song can gather over time. Judy Carmichael steers with context rather than pressure. She introduces a guest’s recent project, names the recording that matters, and then leaves enough space for the answer to become a story. That patience gives the show its character. Julie Benko’s episode connects Broadway visibility, an eight-show-a-week run, and a New Orleans-inspired CD made with Jason Yeager. Kristen Korb’s conversation turns a festival assignment into a tribute to the Eurythmics, with attention to swing feel, challenge, and joy. Betty Bryant’s return visit has the glow of a musician who treats age as incidental beside appetite, humor, and purpose. Leonard Maltin brings movies into the room, along with teaching, writing, Entertainment Tonight memories, and his Maltin on Movies work with Jessie. The Ken Poplowski episodes carry a different weight. They honor a joyful, virtuosic musician while still making time for jokes, first gigs, Benny Goodman, ballads, and the welcoming customs of jazz life. Other episodes move into Brazilian repertoire, B-side song choices, duo recording, and the emotional space between two players who know when not to fill every bar. The result is less a celebrity interview machine than a listening practice. Technical talk appears, but it stays connected to feeling. A song can lead to language, weather, fear, craft, lineage, or a story from the bandstand. The show suits listeners who want jazz culture from the inside, spoken through relationships rather than lecture notes. Its best moments come when admiration opens into memory, and memory circles back to sound.
Made for: For listeners drawn to jazz, cabaret, Broadway, film culture, and reflective artist interviews. It especially suits people who enjoy long answers, recording stories, and craft talk that stays warm rather than academic.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart through Judy Carmichael’s personal musical memory and her willingness to let guests explain what a song, collaboration, or performance actually feels like from the inside. Its interviews often become small oral histories of jazz-adjacent creative lives.
What inspires the people who inspire you? How do creative people create? Each week on Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired, Grammy-Nominated jazz pianist Judy Carmichael explores these questions with celebrated creative artists who love jazz. A wide range of talents — everyone from Billy Joel to Seth MacFarlane — discuss their creative process and how jazz inspires them. They share their favorite recordings as well as insight into their life and art.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Close listening and musician-to-musician curiosity turn jazz interviews into precise accounts of how interpretation, collaboration, and musical judgment take shape.
Judy Carmichael builds conversations around the decisions musicians make once a song is in their hands. Recordings lead naturally into close discussion: Matthew Sheens considers standards and personal songwriting, while Otmaro Ruiz explains how lyrics and harmony shaped his…
A Brazilian standard gets dressed for rain; Judy Carmichael lets you hear why the outfit fits.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm 2016 conversation on Ken Poplowski's range, clarinet swing, Benny Goodman, and the generosity inside jazz circles.
Ken Poplowski's musical life is presented as a study in range, from childhood television and radio work with Cleveland polka bands to time alongside Mary Ann Faithfull, Leon Redbone, Peggy Lee, Charlie Bird, and Benny Goodman after Goodman's return from retirement.
A focused jazz conversation about Brazilian songs, fresh arrangements, and details that repay closer listening.
Lado B, Brazilian Project 2 is framed as a conversation about hearing lesser-known Brazilian songs and familiar classics through fresh arrangements.
A warm, loose conversation about trust, space, and the quiet force of vocal-piano restraint.
Sina E and pianist Jacob Christofferson make the duo format feel generous on Jazz Inspired, linking the close setting of Shikiori to the freedom that opens up when two players leave real space for each other.
A trumpeter tests personal invention against the great American songbook in a live orchestral frame.
Antoine Dry on Jazz Inspired considers Retreat to Beauty through the idea of musical belonging: how new writing can stand beside the great American songbook without treating tradition as a museum piece.
Kurt Elling traces Passion World through the singers, sounds, and encounters that continue to inspire him.
Kurt Elling's account of Passion World gives this Jazz Inspired revisit its shape, as he talks through collaborations with songwriters and musicians from different countries and the idea of a CD built around love around the world.
Matthew Sheens connects jazz lineage, New York, and the pull of songs shaped by a musician's own story.
Matthew Sheens comes through as an Australian pianist-composer with a careful ear, and Judy Carmichael shapes the episode around that attentiveness.
WHPC chaos with trivia reflexes.
Musicians, memory, and the living bandstand.
Jazz first, lounge after dark.
Portland music, remembered in real time.
Soulful selections with club-scene memory.
Judy Carmichael interviews Australian pianist-composer Matthew Sheens, who recently became an American citizen.
This episode features the second half of Judy Carmichael's 2015 conversation with vocalist Kurt Elling, recorded during the release of his album 'Passion World.' Elling discusses collaborations with artists like Arturo Sandoval and explores underappreciated jazz singers such as Andy Bey and Betty Carter.
James Gavin recalls Anita O'Day saying, "You got to have desire, man," after surviving repeated near-death experiences.
Actor and singer Julie Benko discusses her Broadway career and her new CD Bufonic Gumbo, celebrating New Orleans music with her husband.
Jazz pianist Judy Carmichael interviews vocalist Kristin Korb about her new album 'Sweet Dreams', a tribute to the Eurythmics, and their friendship.
Pianist Betty Bryant discusses her life, music, and new CD 'Nothin' Better to Do' with host Judy Carmichael.
Judy Carmichael interviews film critic Leonard Maltin about his career, love of jazz, and current projects on the podcast Jazz Inspired.
Judy Carmichael celebrates the life and music of saxophonist-clarinetist Ken Peplowski in a two-part conversation, discussing his influences and favorite recordings.
Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired revisits a 2016 conversation with Ken Poplowski, who describes himself as an "interpreter of songs" rather than a composer.
Otmaro Ruiz calls himself "a service business" arranger who dresses songs in a new way.
Sina E says she loves standards like "But Not for Me" because they are "survived so many years for a reason."
Judy Carmichael talks with Antoine Drye about Retreat to Beauty, a strings record orchestrated by Isaac Raz and built around the Great American Songbook.
Jools Holland discusses his love for classic jazz and blues, his BBC show, and a recent collaboration with Jose Feliciano.
Judy Carmichael revisits her 2017 interview with Jools Holland, discussing his career and musical philosophy.
Judy Carmichael revisits her 2017 interview with jazz pianist-composer Alan Broadbent, discussing his career, collaborations, and orchestral work.
Judy Carmichael revisits her 2017 interview with two-time Grammy winner Alan Broadbent, discussing his early inspirations and orchestral jazz composition 'Developing Story'.
Judy Carmichael revisits her 2015 conversation with Kurt Elling about his album Passion World and the underrated singer Andy Bay.