Ben Sidran

Born in Chicago in 1943 and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, Ben Sidran has built a career since the late 1960s at the intersection of jazz, rhythm and blues, American songcraft and rock. A pianist, singer, composer and producer, he first appeared with the Steve Miller Band while quickly launching a solo discography beginning with Feel Your Groove in 1971. His style rests on piano informed by bop and blues, a flexible sense of groove, and a vocal delivery often half‑spoken, which gives his songs a distinctive color midway between vocal jazz, soul and singer‑songwriter writing. Over the decades Sidran has alternated trio formats, more electric projects and reinterpretations of the American repertoire, with albums such as Free in America (1976), Dylan Different (2009) and Blue Camus (2014). Active both in jazz clubs and in more cross‑disciplinary settings, Sidran has also pursued work as an author and interviewer, extending a trajectory focused on the history and popular forms of American music.