Freddie Benedict Interview | Colours (2026) | Rising UK Jazz Vocalist, Composer & Arranger

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz Interview Series with rising UK jazz vocalist, composer, and arranger Freddie Benedict.

On this episode, we dive into Freddie's 2026 debut single, Colours, and the remarkable musical journey that has taken him from the lockdown-era writing of an original song about first love to performances on some of the UK's most prestigious stages.

Freddie began his professional career as the lead male singer with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, launching a path that has seen him perform throughout the UK at celebrated venues including Ronnie Scott's, The Ritz, The Savoy, and The Maine.

At the heart of this conversation is Colours, an original composition that uses the spectrum of colors and emotions to explore the highs and lows of first love through jazz and scat. Written during lockdown, the song captures both youthful emotion and Freddie's developing voice as a composer and performer.

His growing musical résumé includes coaching from jazz luminary Emma Smith and sharing the stage with legendary vocalist Jacqui Dankworth. Those experiences have helped shape an artist equally comfortable honoring the jazz tradition while developing his own contemporary sound.

This is a conversation about young jazz talent, songwriting, improvisation, first love, musical education, and finding your own voice within a great musical tradition.

Freddie Benedict is an artist with plenty of road ahead—and Colours offers an intriguing first glimpse at where that road may lead.

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Camille Dunhill Interview | Romance Author, Love, Self-Discovery & Chasing Romance

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Romance Author Camille Dunhill about her books, her day job, her passions, her creative journey, and the complicated, fascinating search for love.

Camille's first book, Musings of a Romance Addict, began as a wild adventure that simply had to be written down. What may have started as a cautionary tale eventually evolved into something deeper—a story about romance, relationships, identity, desire, and the journey toward understanding oneself.

Her second book, Chasing Romance: A Journey of Heart and Discovery, follows Stacey, a woman shaped by emotional deprivation, strict family dynamics, romantic longing, and repeated attempts to define herself through love and desire.

Stacey is a true believer in romance—and she has spent much of her life searching for it.

Through Camille's writing, that search becomes an exploration of the ways our relationships, experiences, expectations, and emotional histories shape who we become.

In this conversation, we get into Camille's journey as an author, the inspiration behind her books, the realities of writing romance, the relationship between fiction and real life, and why the search for connection remains such a powerful human story.

Camille Dunhill's work explores an enduring question: What happens when our search for love becomes part of our search for ourselves?

It's a conversation about romance, relationships, identity, desire, storytelling, and the human need to connect.

More Camille Dunhill
Camille Dunhill Official Website

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Tom Cladis Interview | Fantasy Author, Adventurer, Alligator Wrestler & Living Without Limits

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Tom Cladis, Award-Winning Fantasy Author, Financial Planner, Adventurer, and former Flight Attendant—and a man who appears to have made a personal mission out of refusing to live an ordinary life.

What do handstands atop mountains, alligator wrestling, epic fantasy, financial planning, and international adventure have in common?

Tom Cladis.

Tom believes life is meant to be experienced—not merely managed.

Whether he's doing handstands at the Eiffel Tower, summiting mountain peaks, wrestling alligators, traveling the world, or creating epic fantasy adventures, Tom approaches life with curiosity, courage, imagination, and a willingness to push beyond conventional boundaries.

His story is as colorful as his personality. He describes himself as a free-thinker, writer, provocateur, Christian, thrill seeker, adventurer, warrior, and certified alligator wrestler who keeps his sail pointed toward the far horizon and thrives on the adventure ahead.

As an author, Tom has published the nonfiction book How To Lift Cars Off Your Face And Other Tips For Living Forever and the fiction title The Age Of Serpents And Scorpions.

In this conversation, we explore the intersection of adventure, storytelling, risk, curiosity, faith, fantasy, personal freedom, and living with intention.

Tom's philosophy is simple but powerful: don't just manage your life—go out and live it.

This is a fascinating conversation with a man whose adventures could easily sound like fiction—and whose fiction is fueled by a life that refuses to stay inside the lines.

From mountaintops to alligator wrestling to the worlds of epic fantasy, we cover it all.

More Tom Cladis
Tom Cladis Official Website

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Yoko Miwa & Mikayla Shirley Interview | The Midnight Hour (2026) | Boston Jazz Duo

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz Interview Series with Boston-based pianist Yoko Miwa and vocalist Mikayla Shirley.

On this episode, we dive into their beautiful new 2026 debut album, The Midnight Hour—a recording born from late-night performances, intimate musical chemistry, and a shared love for great songs.

Last year, Yoko and Mikayla began performing together during The Mad Monkfish's Midnight Sessions in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What started as intimate duo performances gradually developed into a remarkable musical collaboration, creating what has become one of the Boston jazz scene's hidden treasures.

Their debut recording captures the atmosphere and spirit of those late-night sessions, showcasing two musicians who move effortlessly across musical boundaries.

The repertoire travels from jazz standards and Broadway songs to Brazilian music, classic pop, and contemporary songwriting. But rather than being defined by genre, the project is united by something much simpler—and much more powerful:

A great song.

Yoko Miwa and Mikayla Shirley bring their individual voices together in a setting that leaves plenty of room for intimacy, spontaneity, conversation, and musical discovery.

The Midnight Hour is a celebration of songs, atmosphere, musical chemistry, and the magic that can happen when two artists simply sit down together and listen to each other.

This is a wonderful conversation about the art of the duo, the Boston jazz community, and why sometimes the most powerful music happens long after the sun goes down.

Yoko Miwa & Mikayla Shirley — The Midnight Hour
https://store.spinneymedia.com/products/yoko-miwa-mikayla-shirley-the-midnight-hour-cd 

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Danura Miriyagalla Interview | The Navigator's Pivot | Navigating Change, Purpose & Leadership

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Danura Miriyagalla, Author and International Development & Management Specialist whose remarkable career has taken him across Asia, Africa, Australia, the Pacific, and the United States.

His work sits at the intersection of research, creative practice, cross-cultural leadership, global experience, and personal transformation.

Those years of moving between countries, cultures, careers, and communities profoundly shaped the way Danura thinks about belonging, direction, identity, and change.

His book, The Navigator's Pivot, is a reflective guide for anyone navigating a major work-life transition.

Drawing on ancient seafaring wisdom, philosophy, lived global experience, and modern leadership practice, Danura explores how we can move through periods of uncertainty with greater clarity, calm, awareness, and purpose.

At the heart of the book is a powerful idea: every transition involves two movements—the Pivot and the Inflection.

The Pivot is about changing direction.

The Inflection is about understanding how that change reshapes the journey.

Together, they offer a different way of thinking about career transitions, personal reinvention, leadership, uncertainty, and the moments when the path ahead suddenly looks very different.

Danura's philosophy isn't about escaping life's storms.

It's about learning how to steer through them with grace—and discovering that somewhere within us, the compass may already be pointing home.

More Danura Miriyagalla & The Navigator's Pivot
Get *The Navigator's Pivot*
Danura Miriyagalla on LinkedIn

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Janette Burke Interview | Women's Leadership, Caregiving, Reinvention & Finding Your Voice

Welcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series. On this episode, we talk with Janette Burke, Women's Leadership Speaker, Media Personality, and TV Podcast Host who has reached an incredible 15.2 million women across 15 seasons of her own television podcast.

But behind the success is a deeply personal story about caregiving, capacity, identity, resilience, leadership, and reinvention.

When Janette's mother's health changed, everything changed.

She found herself rebuilding her entire business around a 20-hour maximum work week while quietly carrying the responsibilities and emotional weight of caregiving. She didn't walk away from her career or give up on her ambitions—but she had to become brutally honest about what she could actually carry.

That experience transformed the way she thinks about success.

Janette now speaks directly to women—particularly women over 40—who are holding families, careers, relationships, and other people together while simultaneously trying to figure out who they are becoming themselves. 

Her message is about recognizing limits without surrendering ambition, embracing change without losing identity, and finding the courage to tell the truth about what life actually requires.

From her base in Toronto, Janette shares a story filled with truth, grit, vulnerability, resilience, and hope.

More Janette Burke:
Janette Burke Official Website

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Amber Weekes Interview | To Oscar with Love (2026) | Celebrating Oscar Brown Jr.

Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz Interview Series with acclaimed Los Angeles-based jazz singer Amber Weekes.

On this episode, we reconnect with Amber to explore her powerful new 2026 album, To Oscar with Love—a deeply personal tribute to the late, great Oscar Brown Jr., the legendary singer-songwriter, poet, storyteller, and Civil Rights activist.

For Amber, this project is much more than a tribute album. It represents the fulfillment of a musical destiny that began when she was a young girl and first heard Oscar Brown Jr.'s iconic song “The Snake” playing on the car radio during a family trip.

That moment sparked her imagination.

Oscar's music, personality, storytelling, wit, and unique ability to illuminate the lived experience of Black Americans stayed with Amber throughout her life. Nearly five decades later, she has turned that lifelong fascination into To Oscar with Love—a collection of Oscar Brown Jr.'s songs that demonstrates just how relevant his music and message remain today.

The album also arrives as part of the celebration surrounding Oscar Brown Jr.'s centennial, with October 10, 2026 marking what would have been his 100th birthday.

Amber and Joe also reconnect after previously speaking before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, making this a particularly meaningful return to the Neon Jazz program. 

This is a conversation about jazz, history, storytelling, Black American culture, musical legacy, social consciousness, and the remarkable power of one artist's work to inspire another generation decades later. 

Amber Weekes brings her own voice and perspective to Oscar Brown Jr.'s remarkable catalog, creating a tribute that is both deeply respectful and completely alive in the present.

Amber Weekes — To Oscar with Love
https://amberweekes.com/to-oscar-with-love/

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