Press & Interviews

“Needle in the Groove,” the New Yorker’s Richard Brody commenting on my piece in Sonny Clark in the new issue of Tin House.  New Yorker. November 28, 2011.

“Managed Mayhem,” Dawn Chan on Chaos Manor. Paris Review Daily.  September 15, 2011.

Conversation b/w Sam Stephenson and Roland Kelts, Following Eugene Smith to Japan, in A Public Space. September 13, 2011.

“Sam has, with his work on the Jazz Loft, pioneered a new kind of historical research—His work would make Studs Terkel snap his suspenders with glee and John Dos Passos light up a victory cigar.” – Aaron Greenwald.  Independent Weekly 2011 Indy Arts Award article on Sam.  (July 20, 2011).

“Sam Stephenson…is doing remarkable research on the life of short-lived pianist and composer Sonny clark.” - Richard Brody, New Yorker, July 21, 2011.

“Pittsburgh Forges Ahead” – Washington Post.  March 26, 2011.  It’s heartening to know that Dream Street is still noticed.

New Yorker’s Richard Brody: “a terribly sad, powerfully evocative biographical portrait” of jazz pianist Sonny Clark by S.S. (New Yorker. January 13, 2011)

JLP book “a work of social archaeology” – Sean O’Hagan.  (London Guardian. December 10, 2010).

JLP wins 2010 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.  November 8, 2010.

Radio interview, KRML 94.7 FM.  (KRML. Carmel, CA.  September 6, 2010)

Interview, “A Loft-y’ Vision of Jazz” (All About Jazz, April 7, 2010)

Radio interview, KOWS 107.3 FM. (KOWS. Occidental, CA. April 5, 2010)

“Every obsessive deserves his own obsessive Boswell, and W. Eugene Smith has his in Sam Stephenson,” by Fred Kaplan.  (New York magazine.  December 27, 2009)

Powells.com interview with Sam (Powells Books, December 10, 2009)

Sam on the Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC: New York Public Radio, December 8, 2009)

Interview, “A Hidden Jazz Realm” (Independent Weekly, December 2, 2009)

Radio interview, “The Jazz Loft Project,” a joint interview with jazz loft legend Ronnie Free on Frank Stasio’s program, The State of Things, (WUNC: North Carolina Public Radio.  December 2, 2009)

Dwight Garner on JLP book:  ”Chaotic and soulful…The book is an elegiac stew of sight and sound, and a singularly weird, vital and thrumming American document.” (New York Times.  November 15, 2009).

Sam interviewed by Ann Curry on NBC’s Today Show (November 13, 2009).  It’s “Stephen-son” not “Steffen-son.”

Radio interview, “Remembering Joseph Mitchell,” a joint interview with Sam and writer Allan Gurganus on Frank Stasio’s program, The State of Things (WUNC: North Carolina Public Radio.  July 17, 2008).

BBC-TV’s 2007 series, Genius of Photography, Sam featured in Episode 3 talking about Smith’s Pittsburgh work, on youtube here, go to around the 7:15 mark of this clip.  The still photo above, by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographer Bill Wade, comes from this BBC shoot.

For up-to-date Jazz Loft Project press, click here .