''Sessions at West 54th'' is an American television program that featured music performances, and was in some ways a pop music variation on the theme set by the long-lived ''

Austin City Limits ''Austin City Limits'' is an American Concert, live music Television show, television program recorded and produced by KLRU, Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", an ...

'', though the featured musicians represented a number of

musical genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. Genre is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometim ...

s. It was called ''Sessions at West 54th'' because it was taped at

Sony Music Studios Sony Music Studios was an American music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The five-story building was a music and broadcasting complex located at 460 W. 54th Street, at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhat ...

on West 54th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Jeb Brien and Niki Vettel, APS senior v.p. for program development, developed the series after working on APS concert specials with Suzanne Vega and Ottmar Liebert. It was produced for

public television Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

syndicator American Program Service (APS) (now

American Public Television American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and indepen ...

, Boston) and was carried on many public television stations. It first aired in most places on July 5, 1997, when it was included in the Saturday late-night lineup of stations covering 85% of the country. After the program ended, an edited commercial television version also aired on the

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

Trio cable television network. It was first hosted by radio disc jockey Chris Douridas of

KCRW KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, while former

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

frontman

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

took over hosting duties during the second season and

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New wave music, new wave, blues, and country music, country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Gramm ...

was the host during the third, and final, season.

Episode list

Season 1 (1997)

Season 2 (1998)

Season 3 (1999–2000)

Releases

CD releases

DVD releases

VHS Releases

References

*Steve Behrens (June 23, 1997)
With public TV's new Saturday night concerts, younger viewers can 'eavesdrop' on diverse musicians at work.
'' Current''.

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0118459, title=Sessions at West 54th
KET: ''Sessions at West 54th'' Episode ListTV.Com: Episode guide: ''Sessions at West 54th''
1990s American music television series 2000s American music television series 1997 American television series debuts 2001 American television series endings Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios David Byrne