The Podcast
Music Life and Times
An ongoing discussion between internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Kevin Bales and singer-pianist Mike Shaw, plus interviews with iconic musicians and other music industry professionals, on the life lessons that learning to play and perform music teaches.
Through stories about musicians past and present as well as our own experiences as career musicians, each episode delivers insights on the benefits of learning music that extend well beyond the bandstand.
A top-ranked music podcast since 2023
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The commitments required to learn to play and perform music are also the life lessons that learning to play teaches, such as determination, collaboration, self-discipline, humility. Music Life and Times makes the case that while learning to play music well is hard work, it also delivers benefits that will serve the learner well throughout their life and in everything they do.
THE PODCASTERS
Kevin Bales
At age 16, Kevin Bales was already an accomplished pianist, invited by Conductor Robert Shaw to audition for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. But his preference was for jazz. His initial career move was to the University of North Florida where he met, performed with, and went on to record and tour with a number of monumental artists: Louie Bellson, Eddie Daniels, James Moody, Ben Tucker, Ira Sullivan, Sam Rivers, Nat Adderley. Meeting Bunky Green there led to five years of tours, and his encounter with guitarist Nathen Page blossomed into 15 years of spot tours and four albums. His work with trumpeter extraordinaire Marcus Printup has become a lifetime association that includes recordings on Blue Note/Capital Records. Ten years of tours and recording with vocal iconoclast René Marie culminated in a Grammy nomination. His recording of music composed by Fred Rogers, Beyond the Neighborhood, was named one of the top 10 albums of 2018 by Cadence Magazine and AllAboutJazz.com.
In 1994, less than a decade into jazz, Kevin won the American Pianist Association’s Jazz Piano Competition. In addition to nearly every important jazz venue in the South, he has performed in some of the most acclaimed clubs and festivals in America and around the world: the JVC Jazz Festival in New York, The Bakery in Los Angeles, The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center jazz series, the Toronto and Edinburgh jazz festivals, and the Moscow Center for the Performing Arts.
While still a senior at North Florida, Kevin was drafted into a full teaching load, and continued to be an integral part of the school’s jazz program for upwards of a decade. Today, Kevin manages his own schedule of jazz students as well as the Improvisation and Small Group programs at Atlanta’s Georgia State University.
Mike Shaw
Mike Shaw is a writer and musician. A singer-pianist, he headed up a seven-piece New Orleans jazz funk band for two decades and currently leads an Atlanta-based jazz quartet. As a writer, he counts more than 15,000 published works, from investigative pieces adapted for 60 Minutes and ABC 20/20 features, to marketing blogs and thought leadership articles for corporate clients. He is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association and writes for the online regional music publication EarRelevant. He does a bi-weekly podcast, Music Life and Times, with internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Kevin Bales. Mike’s first novel, The Musician, was published in June 2021 by Atlanta-based Blue Room Books. The same month, Understanding Economic Equilibrium, co-authored with Federal Reserve Chief Economist Dr. Thomas Cunningham, was released by Business Expert Press. The Leadership Edge, co-authored with corporate consultant Michael B. Ross was released by Business Expert Press in October 2024, and his latest effort, a collaboration with Bales titled What You Learn Learning Music, is scheduled for release by Histria Books on November 3, 2026, for distribution by Simon & Schuster. The audiobook version of The Musician, narrated by David de Vries, was released in February 2025.