Kilian Sladek Interview | Colorblind, Neo-Soul, R&B & the Future of Jazz Vocals

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Munich, Germany-based Vocalist & Composer Kilian Sladek.

We get into his upcoming 2026 album Colorblind, set for release on October 9, 2026, along with his career and evolution as a creative force in contemporary jazz.

With Colorblind, Kilian marks a clear shift toward a more song-driven approach. While his music remains rooted in jazz harmony, this new project moves into a vibrant space influenced by neo-soul, R&B, contemporary songwriting, and modern jazz, placing voice, melody, and lyrics firmly at the center.

Kilian's music is distinguished by the emotional intensity of his artistic expression and his willingness to explore unconventional musical techniques. Extended vocal techniques, scatting, improvisation, and jazz-based vocal experimentation become tools for creating music that is both sophisticated and accessible.

The result is a sound that bridges jazz tradition and contemporary popular music, opening the door to a wider audience while maintaining a strong improvisational identity.

In this conversation, we explore Colorblind, Kilian's musical journey, contemporary jazz vocals, neo-soul, R&B, songwriting, improvisation, scatting, vocal experimentation, emotional expression, and the changing landscape of jazz in 2026.

We get into the whole story. Enjoy this interview.

More Kilian Sladek
Kilian Sladek — Official Website

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Jessica Hennessey Interview | B2B Growth, SEO, AI Visibility & Website Strategy

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Digital Growth Strategist Jessica Hennessey about the rapidly changing world of B2B technology, digital marketing, SEO, AI visibility, websites, conversion, and online growth.

With more than 25 years of experience spanning web strategy, SEO, UX, analytics, and agency leadership, Jessica helps B2B technology companies identify the hidden problems that can prevent their websites and marketing efforts from performing at their full potential.

Her work focuses on answering some critical questions: Is your website actually converting? Can customers find you? Is your brand visible in AI-powered search? And do you know what needs to be fixed first?

Jessica helps marketing teams cut through digital complexity, uncover website and conversion gaps, understand their SEO performance, improve user experience, and develop practical strategies for increasing visibility and growth.

As AI continues to reshape how people search for information, products, and services, AI visibility and discoverability are becoming increasingly important for B2B companies. Jessica brings decades of digital experience to this evolving landscape.

From her base outside Boston, we get into her career, the evolution of digital strategy, B2B marketing, SEO, UX, analytics, website optimization, conversion strategy, AI search, and what companies need to understand about growing in today's digital environment.

We get into quite a story. Enjoy this interview.

More Jessica Hennessey
Resonate Online AI — Official Website 

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Georgine Hodgkinson Interview | Crypto Island, Puerto Rico, Midlife & Personal Transformation

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with College Professor, Former Program Director & Debut Memoirist Georgine Hodgkinson about her fascinating new book, Crypto Island: A Memoir of Midlife Relocation to Puerto Rico.

What happens when a risk-averse academic leaves California during the pandemic and relocates to Puerto Rico, only to find herself immersed in one of the world's most controversial cryptocurrency communities?

What begins as a front-row seat to Puerto Rico's crypto boom becomes something much more personal.

In Crypto Island, Georgine explores how experiences with childhood poverty, addiction, fear, insecurity, money, privilege, identity, and belonging can continue shaping us long after we've achieved stability and success.

Her unexpected journey places her inside a culture built around cryptocurrency, speculation, disruption, entrepreneurship, and radical risk-taking — a fascinating contrast to her own cautious academic background.

Along the way, Georgine is forced to reconsider what it means to start over, what we carry with us from childhood, and how relocation can challenge our assumptions about success, identity, community, wealth, and personal transformation.

In this conversation, we get into Crypto Island, Puerto Rico, cryptocurrency culture, midlife relocation, memoir writing, childhood poverty, addiction, privilege, identity, belonging, risk-taking, personal reinvention, and the unexpected ways life can change when we step outside our comfort zone.

It's a great story about moving somewhere completely unexpected — and discovering that the biggest journey may actually be the one happening inside you.

More Georgine Hodgkinson
Georgine Hodgkinson — Official Website 

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Norman Wolfe Interview | The Living Organization, Leadership & Transforming Business

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Author, Founder & CEO of Quantum Leaders, Inc. and Creator of The Living Organization Norman Wolfe.

Norman Wolfe has spent more than 40 years working with Fortune 500 companies, high-growth startups, CEOs, and executive teams, helping leaders understand the deeper forces that determine whether organizations actually perform.

At the heart of his philosophy is a powerful paradigm shift: organizations are not machines to be engineered — they are living entities to be understood, nurtured, and developed.

Through his work with The Living Organization®, Norman explores what happens beneath traditional strategy and management. He helps leaders uncover the invisible forces influencing performance, including stories, assumptions, beliefs, meaning structures, human behavior, leadership culture, and organizational dynamics.

A former senior executive at Hewlett-Packard, Norman led the successful turnaround of a $1.2 billion global operation, giving him firsthand experience with the complexities of organizational transformation and executive leadership.

He is also the author of The Living Organization® Trilogy, a body of work focused on helping leaders rethink how businesses function and how people create meaningful, sustainable results together.

In this conversation, we get into organizational leadership, business transformation, strategy and execution, company culture, human behavior, executive coaching, living systems, organizational performance, and Norman's remarkable four-decade career.

It's a fascinating exploration of what happens when we stop treating organizations like machines and start understanding them as living systems.

We cover the whole story. Enjoy this interview.

More Norman Wolfe
The Living Organization — Official Website

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Kay Kostopoulos Interview | All This Is Possible, Black Olive Jazz & Theatrical Jazz

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Jazz Vocalist, Seasoned Actress & 25-year Stanford Lecturer in Business and Theatre Kay Kostopoulos.

As the creative force behind Black Olive Jazz, Kay brings together a remarkable mix of music, theatre, storytelling, and emotional expression. We get into her new 2026 album All This Is Possible and a decorated career dedicated to the arts.

Kay's musical style is impossible to put into just one box. She blends swing, jazz standards, blues, bebop, Latin rhythms, and original compositions, bringing a distinctive Mediterranean influence and theatrical sensibility to everything she performs.

Her background as both a professional actress and jazz vocalist gives her music a uniquely dramatic and emotional quality. Every song becomes an opportunity for storytelling, character, atmosphere, and connection.

Performing bicoastally in San Francisco and New York City, Kay has built a respected presence in the jazz world. She and legendary saxophonist Noel Jewkes have appeared at premier venues and jazz festivals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

In this conversation, we explore All This Is Possible, Black Olive Jazz, Kay's journey through jazz and theatre, her years teaching at Stanford, the art of interpreting standards, Mediterranean influences, improvisation, songwriting, acting, storytelling, and the creative life.

It's a fascinating look at an artist who refuses to separate music from theatre, emotion, culture, and human experience.

We get into her career, this new album and so much more. Dig this interview.

Get the Album & More
Black Olive Jazz — Official Website 

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Kahlil Kwame Bell Interview | Jazz Percussion, Slapaphone, Jazz Legends & Rhythm Wellness

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Grammy-affiliated Percussionist, Composer, Educator & Bandleader Kahlil Kwame Bell.

For more than 30 years, Kahlil has built an extraordinary career as one of today's most dynamic percussionists, performing at legendary venues including Blue Note, Birdland, and Smalls Jazz Club, along with stages throughout the United States.

His musical journey has placed him alongside some of the most influential artists in jazz, soul, R&B, and popular music, including Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, Roy Hargrove, Roberta Flack, and Erykah Badu.

But Kahlil's story goes far beyond performing.

He is the founder of the Kahlil Kwame Bell Foundation and its Where Rhythm Meets Purpose initiative, bringing live jazz and rhythm-based wellness programs into hospitals, libraries, museums, schools, senior communities, and cultural spaces.

He is also the author of Jazz Legends A–Z and is recognized for his innovative work with the Slapaphone, an inventive percussion instrument that reflects his lifelong passion for rhythm, education, and creative exploration.

In this conversation, we get into Kahlil's remarkable musical journey, his experiences performing with jazz legends, the evolution of percussion, the Slapaphone, jazz education, rhythm-based wellness, community engagement, and the powerful connection between music, rhythm, and human wellbeing.

From more than three decades in the music world to creating new ways for rhythm to serve communities, Kahlil Kwame Bell has built a career rooted in music, purpose, education, innovation, and connection.

We dig into this incredible story. Enjoy this interview.

More Kahlil Kwame Bell
Kahlil Kwame Bell — Official Website

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Vivienne Aerts Interview | Current, Floating Studios, Jazz, Electronics & Sound Art

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with NYC-based, Dutch-born Artist, Vocalist, Composer & Producer Vivienne Aerts.

We get into her latest 2026 album Current and the remarkable creative journey behind this innovative project.

In the summer of 2025, Vivienne set sail across the Dutch waterways aboard a 1951 mahogany sailboat, transforming the tiny vessel into a floating recording studio over the course of two weeks. Along the way, she recorded new songs and soundscapes that blur the boundaries between jazz, improvisation, electronic music, environmental art, and experimental sound.

It's an artistic process that perfectly reflects Vivienne's creative spirit—curious, adventurous, immersive, and deeply connected to place and experience.

Her work reaches far beyond traditional jazz. She explores electronics, multi-sensory experience design, chocolate, sound, improvisation, and creative technology, while also bringing her background as a clinical psychologist and her work as faculty at Berklee College of Music into her creative life.

In this conversation, we explore Current, the floating studio experience, Dutch waterways, jazz improvisation, electronic music, environmental sound, sensory experiences, psychology, creativity, and the many worlds Vivienne Aerts brings together through her art.

This is a fascinating story about breaking creative boundaries and finding music in unexpected places.

It's quite a story. Enjoy this interview.

More Vivienne Aerts & Current
Vivienne Aerts — *Current*

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