On The Cool Side
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Album Summary
Ben Sidran, the Wisconsin-born pianist, vocalist, and music intellectual, laid down something special in 1985 when he released 'On The Cool Side' on Antilles Records. Produced by Sidran himself — a man who always kept his hands firmly on the wheel of his own artistic vision — the album arrived during a fertile stretch of his career when he was synthesizing decades of jazz knowledge with the smoother, more accessible textures of pop and soul. Sidran brought to the sessions the same cool authority he carried as a music scholar and radio host, and the result is a record that feels both deeply informed and effortlessly relaxed. It stands as a pure expression of who Ben Sidran was as an artist in that mid-eighties moment — cerebral without being cold, groovy without being obvious.
Reception
- The album was received warmly by jazz and adult contemporary audiences who responded to Sidran's conversational vocal style and the sophisticated, unhurried musicianship that runs through every track.
- Critics recognized the record's intimate, low-key atmosphere as the calling card of a refined cult figure operating in the jazz-pop crossover lane of the 1980s, praising its intelligence and restraint.
- 'On The Cool Side' did not make noise on the mainstream charts, but it deepened Sidran's standing among devoted listeners who sought out music with substance, groove, and genuine artistic integrity.
Significance
- The album is a defining artifact of the 1980s cool jazz-pop movement, with Sidran operating as one of its most literate and thoughtful practitioners, honoring the bebop tradition while moving fluidly through contemporary pop and soul textures.
- Sidran's spoken-word-inflected vocal approach, heard across the album's eight tracks, helped carve out an aesthetic space that would resonate with later artists drawn to the cool jazz and lounge revival sensibilities of the 1990s and beyond.
- Released during a decade when jazz musicians faced real commercial pressure to compromise or conform, 'On The Cool Side' stands as evidence that creative integrity and accessibility were never mutually exclusive in the hands of the right artist.
Tracklist
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A1 Mitsubishi Boy —
5:13
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A2 Lover Man Part 1 —
2:57
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A3 Lover Man Part 2 —
5:02
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A4 Brown Eyes —
3:55
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B1 On The Cool Side —
5:50
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B2 Old Hoagy —
3:40
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B3 Heat Wave —
3:55
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B4 Up A Lazy River —
3:40
Artist Details
Ben Sidran is one of the coolest cats to ever blend jazz, soul, and rock into something that just feels like a late-night conversation with your smartest friend — a Madison, Wisconsin native who came up through the University of Wisconsin scene in the late 1960s and built a career as a pianist, vocalist, producer, and music scholar that stretched decades deep. His records, like Free in America and Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense, carried that laid-back, intellectual groove that sat somewhere between Mose Allison and the hippest corners of Blue Note jazz, earning him respect from heavyweights like Steve Miller and Van Morrison who recognized a genuine musical mind at work. Beyond the records, Sidran's writing and broadcasting work — including his deep dives into the cultural roots of Black music — made him a rare figure who could speak to the soul of American music with both scholarly weight and genuine love.
