KSQD Talks Music

The Gipsy Kings have sold 20 million records worldwide, won a Grammy for best World Music Record, and four other grammy nominations. They have played the great concert halls of the world, appeared in movies (Big Lebowski, Toy Story III) and wowed audiences with their combination of rumba, salsa, flamenco and pop music. In this […]

Musical Soulmates Performer’s Collabortive is a group of local musicians who lift up black musical voices and talents. Victoria Theodore, Anthony Jones, and Kate Saphir Alm visited KSQD and shared some soulful songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Bach, and Bill Withers in anticipation of their upcoming concert series. They sing, play keyboards, and […]

Steve Volk, Dick Brundle and Tom Miller have made a major impact shaping the Santa Cruz music scene by booking and hosting local and touring musicians. Andy Fuhrman, host of KSQD’s Brooklynbilly Music Mashup show as well as a performing singer-songwriter invited these three to be his noontime guest on his December 5th, 2023 show. […]

“I never felt like I was ‘enough’,” Mimi Fox explains. “And now, for the most part, on my better days, I do. And that is a real gift of my aging and my healing, the changes I’ve gone through in my life. I’m really grateful for that ‘enoughness.’ That sense of being enough is great […]

Carolyn Sills and Gerard Egan join Andy Fuhrman to talk about their upcoming shows, 4th album release and new guitar shop ‘House of Twang’ new technology – The Pleck Machine

Ken Kraft and Bonny June stop into the Brooklynbilly Music Mashup show October 24, 2023

David Bean, host of New Squid in Town regularly interviews local artists and artists coming through town. On this show, he hosts singer/songwriter Rachel Anne Goodman who shares selections from her new album, California Morning. David’s show can be heard each Thursday fron 1-3 PM Pacific time on 90.7 FM, 89.7FM or 89.5FM or streaming […]

Nancy Zhou is one of the nation’s foremost solo violinists. She has collaborated with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and many more. She had her debut at 13 in the San Antonio Symphony. She joins the Santa Cruz Symphony as concertmaster and artist in residence and shares her music and passion […]

KSQD Community Concert Hall’s Christopher Smith interviews longtime Santa Cruz and Monterey County’s powerhouse classical music director Cheryl Anderson. Along with her husband, John Anderson, Cheryl has led classical music education and performance in the community for decades. Tune in to hear this wide-ranging interview on the anniversary of Ensemble Monterey’s 30th year. Interview date: […]

Interview by John Malkin Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, educator and author who grounds her projects in feminism, spiritual liberation and the movement to abolish prisons and police. Her latest album New Standards – Volume 1 received the 2023 Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album and is a companion to Carrington’s book New […]

Tim Jackson and Bobby Bishop join David Bean on-air to talk about Tim’s retirement as Artistic Director of the Monterey Jazz Festival and his final event this year.

Roger McNamee is an American businessman, investor, venture capitalist and musician. He is interviewed by David Bean discussing the roots of San Francisco music and how that has influenced his band, Moonalice.

On KSQD’s Jazz Tracks, drummer Joe La Barbera speaks about his upbringing in music, career highlights including time spent with pianist Bill Evans, closing with thoughts on musical expression. Joe La Barbera is the co-author with Charles Levin of Times Remembered: The Final Years of the Bill Evans Trio (University of North Texas Press, 2021). […]

Starting with an in-depth interview with conductor Cristi Măcelaru, host Suki Wessling does a second dive into this year’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Executive Director Ellen Primack also joins to talk with two of this year’s composers, Gabriela Ortiz and Anna Clyne, about their work and taking part in the festival. For more information: […]

Festival Executive Director Ellen Primack, poet-in-residence Farnaz Fatemi, and composer Kevin Puts join host Suki Wessling for a discussion of the return of the annual Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, a local gem with an international luster. This long-running festival puts Santa Cruz on the contemporary music map, with composers who range from young unknowns […]

Marjan Vahdat is an Iranian award-winning singer and musician. Her career has given a deeper knowledge of Iranian poetry and music to large audiences in Europe, America, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Marjan has developed her personal style based on the Persian vocal tradition of classical and regional folk music, with a contemporary expression. She […]

Songs for Earth Day, with Dr. Peter Weiss, the Singing Scientist, and His Guitar Sustainability Now! Sunday, April 2nd, 5-6 PM, on KSQD 90.7 FM and KSQD.org Join SN! host Ronnie Lipschutz and Dr. Peter Weiss, the Singing Scientist, in honor of Earth Day. Weiss is well-known in Santa Cruz as “The Singing Scientist” and […]

Johnsmith, a renowned and accomplished songwriter from the Midwest, was a guest on KSQD recently. His songs and stories will delight you.

On Talk of the Bay, Monday, December 26, 2022 Christine Barrington hosts Kathryn Veditz and Kathleen Loveless, members of the Santa Cruz-based female vocal ensemble Zambra. Zambra highlights the glory of the human voice through its global expressions. They have just released their latest album this month, and it seemed the perfect moment to uplift […]

To some, it might look like a musician’s paradise; Hours and hours of 30-minute performances by artists from multiple countries and multiple music genres, all jamming with, well, themselves and a bunch of looping equipment. What you might NOT know, is that Santa Cruz is the place that spawned much of the international craze called […]