It's hard to develop an original voice in a music genre that has become defined by format and formula.  Cindy Bradley has done just that, bringing trumpet and flugelhorn into the smooth jazz arena without sounding like Braun or Botti.  Her sound is big, full, and warm – the product of years of practice, education, jam sessions, club gigs and backup gigs, and studio time, all the while knocking on doors and keeping faith while trying to launch her solo recording career.  Her new release, Bloom, is filled with memorable songs, infectious grooves, impressive improvisation, and strong songwriting.  Her label started “leaking” the album months before the release date and the media people who heard it took it from there, creating the kind of word of mouth buzz that can't be forced by hype.  The title track is already top 10 on the Internet radio chart and with an album full of potential hits and upcoming dates at Catalina her growing fan base it's just a matter of time before the corporate stations take notice.  I spent a fabulous hour chatting with her while our respective dogs sat close by and managed to go for that length of time without barking loudly and drowning out the conversation. 


SmoothViews (SV): Your album had one of the strongest word of mouth "buzzes" I've seen since way back when Boney's first one came out.  It went out to media a while before it was released and it seems like everyone who heard it got really excited about it.  Tell me a little about it.
Cindy Bradley (CB): The album is called Bloom.  It was released on June 23.  It's basically my first album put together through a record label.  I was lucky enough to be signed by Trippin'n'rhythm records and they hooked me up with Michael Broening, who is a Grammy award winning producer and put an amazing team of musicians together.  We wrote together and it was an awesome experience.  That's why we named the album  Bloom because the whole way it was put together gave me the opportunity to stretch out as an artist and see what I could do in that type of situation.

SV: You did release an album independently a few years before that got some people excited about you but didn't get a lot of exposure. 
CB: I did, it was about four or five years ago.  That album was called Just A Little Bit.  It was one that I did by myself.  When I would get a little extra money, I'd get my friends together and pay for studio time and gradually write.  It was when I was in college so I would just do it when I could.  It took a long time to finish.  It was a labor of love.  It was obviously a lot harder to put together than this one.

SV: Did you use live musicians or mostly do the tracks yourself on that one?
CB: It was a combination of both.  I used many people I knew.  There was a lot more programming on that one, which is pretty common in this genre.  What is really nice about Bloom is that it's almost all live musicians. 

SV: I get a lot of CDs, especially from artists who are trying to break through and have a limited budget so they try to do all the instrumentation themselves and the sound of the programming is more noticeable than the artist's performance.  You need that interaction and collaboration with other people to keep it from sounding really flat or like it's just spinning out the formula.
CB: I wish more people felt that way because there would be more musicians in the studios.  A lot of the technology is putting a lot of us out of work.  It gives us a lot less stuff to record on.

SV: You wrote the material for your first album and you are a strong songwriter but Michael Broening wrote all the songs on Bloom, with you as a co-writer on a few.  How did you feel about doing an album of material that was written by someone else?
CB: I think any musician has a moment of wanting to record their own compositions.  A feeling that they want their writing to be a part of the project too.  But once he sent me the first couple of ideas and the first tracks I just felt completely lucky to be working with him because he is so good at what he does.  I write and I work at it all the time.  There are people who work on their playing all the time and there are people that work on writing all the time and it's really hard to do both.  It didn't take me long to get to the feeling that I was blessed to have him writing for me because he is so good and I felt so good about the material he was sending. 

SV: Did he have all the material done coming into the project or did it come together while you were working together?
CB: It kind of evolved.  He might send me an idea like a melody or a set of chord changes and I might write something to go with it and we would send ideas back and forth, so we did do some writing together.  Then I flew out to Phoenix and we did some studio sessions together.  That's really where it really came together.  He would do a lot of the work at first then we would expand on those ideas.  That was the most fun part of the process

SV: Had you met him before?
CB: No.  The first time I met him was when we did those sessions. 

SV: Was it one of those things where you meet someone and you just click and feel like the collaboration is going to be strong, like there's this creative chemistry there?
CB: We really did connect.  We did talk a lot before we started recording so we had connected over the phone before we met.  I would say we had a chemistry, but he's kind of the type of person that it's hard not to gel with because he's extremely down to earth and just really supportive and positive.  For somebody new at doing this, which I was, that's what got the best out of me.  It could have been intimidating to work with someone who had worked with all these great people and won awards but he was great to work with. 

SV: The collaboration definitely worked because this is one of those rare CDs that don't have any weak songs or songs that sound like filler, and the songs don't all sound alike. 
CB: I think that's what I'm the most proud of when I listen to it.  You can just put the CD on and let it run.  I've heard a lot of people say they don't want to skip any of the tracks and they don't all sound the same.  As a player it let me show off all the different things I can do.  It had a couple of really pretty flugelhorn tracks, then the really funky stuff.  I didn't feel like parts of me were not showing in the end product. 

SV: You don't have any covers or vocals on the album either.  It seems like when a label is trying to break a new artist in smooth jazz the first thing they want to do is send out a cover of a really familiar song.  You didn't get pressure to do that?
CB: We didn't.  The Vice President of the label is Jeff Lundt.  He oversaw the entire project.  He put the whole thing together.  He really wanted to do it right.  He had a lot of belief in me as an artist and in Michael as an artist and producer and he stood by that.  He didn't say we had to have some filler tracks or covers or vocals.  He let us come up with the best material we could and go with that.

SV: There's a really impressive group of musicians on this album.  The liner notes read like a who's who of up and coming contemporary jazz artists.  Tim Bowman is on the title track, You've got Jay Soto, Jaared, Freddie Fox, Dominic Amato.  Broening, obviously.  Big name session guys like Michael White and Mel Brown.  And Marion Meadows is even on a track.
CB: Michael put it all together.  Jaared and Time are on the same label and the rest of them work with Michael.  I got so lucky with the people that are on it.  Marion was at Michael's studio.  They've done a lot of CDs together.

SV: Did you work face to face with any of them.
CB: Most of it was done electronically.  They have their own studios and they recorded parts and sent them to Michael.  Some of the guys were in the studio with him, but not at the same time as me. 

SV: You use a lot of flugelhorn on the album.  That's a pretty rare instrument to hear on a contemporary jazz recording.  It's usually trumpet or sax.  How did you end up with the flugelhorn lead on so many of the songs?
CB: When I was learning the songs and it was coming together I wasn't really sure which ones I would do with trumpet and which ones I would do with flugelhorn.  I just brought them both and after we did one or two with flugelhorn we were really liking the sound of it.  It's a much more round, full, pretty sound.  I work a lot on getting a round mellow tone on the trumpet but the flugelhorn seems to enhance that.  I ended up using more flugel than trumpet but sometimes you can't tell when you listen, You just think it's a pretty trumpet sound.  I love that instrument and I don't get to play it a lot here in New York City because when you do gigs here it's mostly funky stuff that is more suited for the trumpet. 

SV: The New York City live jazz scene has got to be really tough to break into, but you did get your foot in the door and then make a name for yourself.  That had to be hard.
CB: It was tough, to be honest.  I went to graduate school in Boston and I did a lot of playing there so when I finished I wanted to come to New York and see what I could do.  I didn't know anybody or have any friends here.  I just tried to work as much as possible and play with the best players and seek them out.  That part was really fun but it was hard too.  Sometimes the really good players can be cynical so I had my share of walking into a club and wanting to sit in and people telling me I couldn't or that the list was full  or saying "sit down sweetheart, we'll call you up later" and never call me (laughs) cause they'd take one look at me and think there's no way I could play.  It took me a while to get past that stuff but once you prove yourself and start meeting the right people it gets easier. 

SV: You've mentioned in some other interviews that you weren't taken seriously at first because you were female.  It's hard for guys to get a foot in the door and even though it's tougher for women it seems like women don't want to talk about any resistance they get.  I'm glad you did because other women may see those comments when they are going through the same thing and be encouraged to stick with it and work to get past that barrier. 
CB: I did get that a lot, especially in the beginning.  I even had a couple of tours that were offered to me cancel out at the last minute.  The bandleader would find out that whoever was hiring the horn section had hired a woman and they would say women just don't play hard enough and take me off the tour.  There are lots of stories like that but luckily it can also work for you.  There aren't that many women who are out there doing this so it can be a novelty or an interesting thing and that gets your foot in the door.  Then when they do hear you they will actually start to call you more.  It's just breaking that initial barrier to get through the door that's the hard part. 

There's always the thing that, if you do talk about it, it can be looked at like you're whining or focusing on the negative.  It's always nice to know that somebody else went through what you are going through.  I remember reading Mary Lou William's biography and this was so long ago when she was the only woman doing that.  It was incredible to see what she went through and how she was strong and overcame it.  Things are obviously much better now and there are more and more women doing it.  It doesn't hurt to talk about those things and it's also nice to realize that there are women who do become accepted.  That's to their credit.

SV:  I was watching a video on YouTube and you definitely couldn't be pigeonholed as playing soft and pretty (laughs).
CB: I try to play hard definitely.  I teach a lot too, and I love seeing young girls that want to play trumpet or sax or drums.  They seem to feel like they aren't going to be held back by anything, which is great.

SV: When they see someone like you on stage or, even better, as one of their teachers day to day, it encourages them to go for it.
CB: That's a beautiful thing.  That's my favorite part of the whole thing because I'm just doing what I love and when it results in something like that you can't ask for more than that. 

SV: When you're a kid and you're getting into music there are so many choices and it seems like most kids go for rock band instruments like guitar and drums, or sax if they are going for a brass instrument.  How did you end up playing trumpet and flugelhorn.
CB:  It's a funny story.  I actually started playing piano when I was five or six years old.  I never really took to it though.  Then when I was in fourth grade school band program you were allowed to pick an instrument.  They gave all the students in the class a permission slip to take home to their parents.  You were supposed to talk to your parents and decide what instrument you were going to play, and they would sign the slip.  I was completely irresponsible and I forgot to bring the slip home so on the day they were due the teacher actually sought me out and said, "Hey, you play piano.  Why don't you want to play a band instrument?"  I told her I forgot to take the permission slip home so she told me that if I decided right then she would order it for me.  So I had one second to decide and I didn't know what anything was.  I didn't know what a trombone or even a clarinet was.  I picked the trumpet because my brother's friends played the trumpet.  I knew what it was so that's what I picked.  It's fate, right?  That's a better way to put it than I just forgot.

SV: Well, it was an instrument you had already noticed and you got put in this weird situation where you had the chance to pick it and you did and ran with it so I'd say it was fate.  Or a cosmic nudge in the right direction.  So then you got into jazz while you were at the age that most kids get into rock or pop or R&B.  How did that happen?
CB: Basically from taking lessons in school.  Then when I was 12 my father got me involved in a local big band that played the swing stuff from the 1940s like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey.  It was all kids, it was a community organization, and we would do little tours.  We would play the original big band charts.  That's when I really fell in love with it.  That's the music I started listening to.  Then I started wanting to learn more about how to improvise, and got more into bebop and straight-ahead jazz.

SV: Did you feel like a musical outsider, liking this when most teenagers were into some type of pop music? 
CB: No.  I was a complete band geek.  All my friends played instruments.  We did marching band in high school and all the jazz band competitions.  And they are my friends to this day. 

SV: A lot of artists are not signing with labels now; they're doing it independently.  You did your first album as an indie then signed with a label.  Why did you decide to go that route?
CB: They believed in me.  The guys at Trippin' are great people and I knew they would be really cool to work with.  But besides that I really needed more exposure.  I'm in New York
City and I'm playing locally.  I had music on iTunes and CDBaby but still nobody knew who I was.  When you have a label behind you they can get exposure for you.  They can get interviews, airplay, and things like that.  My main goal was to get more exposure.  They have a really professional situation and the resources to help me make the CD.  I tried to do everything on my own already and I was only getting so far. 

SV: There are so many artists trying to break through and so many new CDs coming out that having some support that can help you cut through the clutter and get heard is a definite asset. 
CB: I spent about ten years trying to get a record label to notice me.  I had a couple of deals that came real close then didn't go through.  I think one of the main keys is having a good manager.  I had a really good manager who would contact the labels for me and we just didn't give up.  We had even contacted Trippin' a couple of years ago and they did take notice but it didn't amount to anything that time.  It was hard to get any label to commit to a new artist who has no fan base, that nobody knows yet.  There's no guarantee they are going to make money off someone like me.  We just kept contacting the labels and never gave up.  There was one manager named Jack Forchette who made an extra phone call for me just to help me out and got them interested.  I had sent my demos too but that didn't work (laughs). 

SV: And see, this is your first high profile album and it's so good that people are going to think you just kind of burst onto the scene with your first shot when you really had to hang in there for a decade.  Didn't you get discouraged?
CB:  Oh, all the time.  When nobody knows who you are you get told no so much.  In the beginning I used to get discouraged all the time but eventually you realize that's just part of the business.  You're going to have to hear thousands of "no's" before somebody takes notice and it gets easier.  When I was a lot younger I got very frustrated.

SV; So what made you stick with it.
CB: I just love it.  (note: when she said that you could hear in her voice how strongly she felt about it.)  People who play music will tell anyone that you just have to do it.  It's all you want to do so if I didn't love to do it I wouldn't have been able to because it was hard.  I just can't imagine doing anything else.

SV: So now that the album is out are you going to do some touring behind it. 
CB: Yeah, we're putting together a band on the west coast and the east coast.  And I'm doing three shows during the JazzTrax Catalina Island festival.  We're putting a band together for that right now and rehearsing in September so that will be our first couple of shows together.  I've been doing some festivals here and there and I'm going to North Carolina this week, then go back there for their Wine and Jazz Festival.  I opened for Warren Hill back in May and that was awesome. 

SV: That's quite an honor to get to do three shows at Catalina.  You're going to blow them away then you'll be the one that they talk about the way they talked about Eric Darius and Mindi when they did their first Catalina shows.  With that and Bloom, which has so many strong songs that it's going to really build as word gets around, those years you spent sitting in and knocking on doors are starting to pay off big time and we wish you the best and look forward to seeing you live sometime soon!