For many years, among the Other Places on the Rifftides blogroll has been Jason Crane’s The Jazz Session. Crane uses his radio experience, knowledge of music and focused curiosity to help readers and listeners understand jazz and jazz musicians. That is, he did until a few months ago when 
circumstances ended five years of The Jazz Session. The program had guests—hundreds of them—as varied as Maria Schneider, Sonny Rollins, Marian McPartland, Wadada Leo Smith, Terry Gibbs, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Darcy James Argue. Now, Crane is planning a comeback and asking for help by way of a Kickstarter campaign. I asked him what brought about the hiatus and why he’s going public to get the show back on the road. Here is some of his reply:
I took some time off from the show and moved from New York to Alabama for financial reasons. I loved asking questions that got beyond the mechanics and uncovered the passion, the thought, the inspiration behind the music. Why do musicians do what they do? Answering that question was at the heart of the 417 episodes that aired from 2007-2012.
In looking back at the show, I’m still convinced that finding out what inspires jazz musicians is a valuable mission, and I’d like to get back to doing that work. The show had listeners in three-dozen countries and members in two-dozen. It was downloaded more than 2.5 million times. I think that means that people find this work valuable. And that’s why I’m asking folks to support it.
When I was on Crane’s show a few years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed Jason’s company and the experience. Each time I’ve heard The Jazz Session, I have learned from him and his guests. Crane’s page at the Kickstarter website (that’s a link) has a video of his pitch and details about the campaign.