In honor of the Cubs playing at American Family Field this week, I’m featuring the music video for “Swing State,” the title track from the new album by Wisconsin musical legend, pianist Ben Sidran. (Although one born in Chicago, I should add!) If you’re not familiar with Sidran’s career, he was in a band at the University of Wisconsin—Madison with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs when they were all students there in the early-to-mid sixties. But when Miller and Scaggs left Madison to earn their fame in the Bay Area scene, Sidran stayed behind and finished his degree. He’s since been a sideman and even a producer for both of those rock stars (and several others) on occasion in the years since, but mostly he’s released his own well-regarded jazz albums as a side pursuit to his career as a music scholar, writer and educator.
University Communications