The buzz on this new smooth jazz sax player was already in full force when the advance track from her debut album was released. “Tequila Moon” was a catchy, upbeat Latin groove that grabbed your attention with the opening notes. It climbed the radio chart quickly, something almost unheard of for a new artist with an original instrumental song. This woman may look like an overnight sensation but she started playing before she even started school. An award winning musician when she was a young classical pianist, she collected more honors in the prestigious jazz program at USC. How did she do it? Commitment, perseverance, practicing, more practicing, and loving what she's doing. She also has some important things to say about becoming successful as a musician and the work you have to do on the business side. A gifted musician and a practical businesswoman - that's how you thrive in the business  these days.  I caught up with her right after she returned from Miami, where she was doing some promotional things with Latin media and right before she took off for Mexico to play in Michael Bolton;s band. Then she heads off for a series of gigs with Guitars and Saxes and some solo concerts. She's having fun and she is workin' it!

SV: Congratulations on the success of  your new CD.
JJ: Thank You!

SV: How did it feel to go up the chart so fast when most songs take a lot longer to catch on, especially when its a new artist.
JJ: I feel really blessed about the whole process from beginning to the end, working with Paul Brown, Gregg Karukas and everyone else that played on the CD. From the beginning it felt like a home run. The songs came together so well. Steve Chapman, my manager has been incredible and Deborah Lewow from the label has been amazing. She's a real fan of the music. It's great that people who work with the music can be fans, and the musicians are fans of each other. We get to work with each other and it's like a big party.

SV: How did you hook up with Paul Brown?
JJ: We met at a jazz festival in 2004. I had heard of him and I really wanted to get together with him and work on a smooth jazz project. I passed along my straightahead jazz demo that I had recorded live at a jazz club in Catalina. He liked it but it wasn't what he was looking to do. He was mainly working with signed artists who already had smooth jazz albums out so it was harder to get him interested in doing it. He had to get to be more familiar with my music. At that point I just kept in contact with him and notified him whenever I was going to be performing in Los Angeles. I'd ask him to please come and be my guest at the show and I kept sending him updates on songs I was working on. About a year later he asked me to come to his studio and play some of his music because he wanted me to be in his band. I went in and played a few of  his songs and he wanted me to do a gig with him a few months later so I really started practicing the music. I did the show and I nailed it, I nailed all his stuff and that was when he said that he did want to produce me.

SV: So there was just this musical connection between the two of you that enabled you to nail it like that?
JJ: That and a lot of practice. I practice all the time and I was really well prepared for his show. I just played the music, I knew it really well. I think he felt like I was very determined also, in pursuing my career and pursuing him as my producer. Also the fact that I played tenor. Lots of little things. It's a real good match.

SV: That persistence really paid off. Did you ever feel self conscious or discouraged during that time when you were sending him stuff and at first the interest wasn't developed.
JJ: I never really got discouraged about things because I always knew that it would work out. I had the feeling that Paul Brown was the person I was supposed to be working with and that I was supposed to be performing this kind of music. I kind of always saw myself doing this so I was just trying to do what I knew I needed to do.

SV: You were so clear about what you wanted to do. Some people have such a hard time figuring that out and pursuing it.
JJ: Well, I believe in God, and I feel like people are created to do something that is very specific to them and I wanted to bring the talents that I have out into the world. I didn't want to just sit at home and play and practice but not take it further than that. That wouldn't be fulfilling.

SV: When you are blessed with a gift and you take it out into the world it becomes a blessing for everyone who hears your music or sees you play.  I saw a little interview clip that you did for a radio station where you were talking about how practicing and musical skills were only part of the game, that relationships - networking and knowing other musicians - was a big part of it too.
JJ: I really feel that way because I spent my entire life practicing, playing music, learning different instruments, perfecting performing. There's always something to practice when you're a musician. I figured out a few years ago that I really needed to start networking, getting in touch with people, showing them what I could do. For example, Paul Brown. I wouldn't have connected with him if I had been hiding at my house practicing. I kind of changed my perspective around 2005, I started to get out there more and make people more aware of who I was and what I could do. At this point I'm still networking. It's about 50/50. 50% investing in music and instruments and 50% getting on the phone, sending out e-mails, going to restaurants, meeting people. Especially when I am out of town. I was just in Arizona and while I was there every night I had engagements booked with people I didn't know, like program directors from the radio stations and lub managers. George Benson came to my show and we got to hang out with hom. I never turn opportunities down.

SV: George Benson came to your show and you hung out?
JJ: He came to both of my shows. We hung out after the last show. He took me and my band out to this beautiful place in Scottsdale and we got the complete VIP treatment.

SV: Did you know that was going to happen?
JJ: He came to my first show and then asked me for tickets for the Friday night show, it was pretty incredible..

SV: You're about to do your show and theres George Benson. That must have lit you up.
JJ: (laughs) Yeah,  I try not to think about that because it would make me nervous and I don't want to be nervous.

SV: So you just don't look at his table?
JJ: I just perform. I just play the music for everyone who came to see me.

SV: You've really got a strong sense of what you need to do for your career beyond playing and practicing. I think a lot of people get stuck there because they are either too shy, don't have the confidence, or learned somewhere that self promotion was tacky. If you don't do it these days you'll just fall through the cracks. Were you really pushing the comfort zone when you first started to do that?
JJ: Luckily for me I have some acting background so for me it's more a matter of becoming a character when I meet people for the first time. Sometimes you have to become a different persona because in this business you have to deal with so many different people and you have to deal with them in different ways. I try to approach it as what would get the best response from this person. What some people would see as really pushy, others would see as self confidence.

SV: You started playing music when you were really young, didn't you?
JJ: I did. I grew up hearing music. My parents had a big mix of everything - Sergio Mendez, Mariachi music, traditional Mexican music, Frank Sinatra, everybody. From that point on I always knew songs. I was singing songs and dancing to them. My mom thought it would be cool for my sister and I to play piano so I started taking piano lessons, then I had my first recital and realized that I loved music and I loved performing. It was about the connection with the audience and the way that I felt  while I was playing for them. Then in third grade my sister and I signed up for the elementary school band. She wanted to play the drums and I wanted to play the flute. We didn't get our first pick because there were too many kids already playing flute and drums. I got the saxophone and she got the clarinet. We both played and practiced and had a good time in the band but I wasn't really serious about sax because I loved the piano more.

SV: Were you doing classical piano mostly?
JJ: Yes. I was very serious about that too. I had a great teacher growing up so I had a lot of festivals and competitions and I was really involved in the piano community. Right around the time I was 15 everything started to change for me. A few things happened. The first was that I heard Cannonball Adderly and Sergio Mendez playing together in Brazil 66 and that opened my mind to the possibility of me doing what they were doing. I loved it so much because they were doing Latin Rhythms and Cannonball was playing straightahead jazz on top of it on the sax. I thought it was so beautiful and it really touched my heard, and at that moment I knew I wanted to do that.  Also I became the Bartok state piano champion, which is a big deal for classical pianists in California. I knew that was something I loved to do but until I won it I really didn't know that I was that good. It made me start to think I could really do this for a living. After those two things happened I decided that I was going to do music.

SV: That's quite a commitment to make at 15.
JJ: I just knew it was what I wanted to do. I started going to more jam sessions and studying with people in Los Angeles, and I became really serious about my instrument. I started to really put my priority in music. I was practicing three to five hours a day.

SV: What about your other classes.
JJ: (laughs)  I had to do that too but I was starting to get a lot of gigs in town. We had a jazz combo doing straightahead and playing a lot.

SV: So you're 15, in high school, and already playing straightahead jazz onstage?
JJ: My real love for music was starting to come out. I started listening to jazz almost nonstop and becoming very involved in the music. I applied to USC, which was my first choice. I had been in the Grammy Band and we rehearsed at USC so I got to see the campus and meet the faculty. Then the summer before my freshman year they called me to join the big band at a concert in Hawaii. So I got to perform with the USC jazz band before I was even in college.

SV: That had to kind of affirm to you that you were headed in the right direction.
JJ: It was so much fun. It was like a present. I wasn't expecting it, they didn't even have freshmen in the big band. I was with them for three years and I became the lead alto saxophone my sophomore year. My sophomore year was a big turning point for me musically too. I was already set on becoming  a musician and that was when I had one of those turning points where something clicks and you know you're on the right path. We had a performance at a big jazz convention. Wynton Marsalis was the guest clinician and he played with us. During the show I had a feature on "Sophisticated Lady" and he was very complimentary of what I was doing. That caught me off guard because he is very demanding.

SV: He can be very critical too, I've heard.
JJ: He was being very critical of everyone in the band and I was expecting him to say something but I was just going to play because as a musician you can't let yourself be paralyzed by that. I was just going to get up there and do my thing and not try to impress anybody and he really liked it. I felt like if he liked what I was doing I must be doing something OK. That was a big encouragement for me.

SV: You've got to have been special for him to compliment you because he's got such a commitment to jazz and such integrity he wouldn't say something to an aspiring musician just to be nice. He knows what kind of work is ahead for them if they want to succeed.
JJ: Ah yes, and after that I felt like just hitting it harder. All those events made me want to practice more and more. I graduated from USC and I got the award for most outstanding jazz student.

SV: That's a really prestigious program so you were standing out in a group of standout students. That's a real honor.
JJ: I think it also had to do with relationships, like we talked about before. I really believe in that. I was friends with my professors, I wanted to learn as much as I could from them. Not to get the best grades but to get the best outcome. How could I sound the best. I really respected them as well as the students I worked with. When I got out of school I took the same work ethic that I had in school and just applied it to everything that I did. I started working a lot at the musicians union, greeting people, having lunch with them, playing jam sessions and trying to get my network going. Then right out of school I went on tour with the off Broadway show called "Blast."  That was fun and it helped me develop a lot of other elements like performing, acting, singing and dancing. And all the while I was writing music and dreaming about having my own band. We toured the United States and I got to live in London, and we played in Japan. After I did that tour I felt like I was a lot more seasoned and more ready to get out on my own.

SV: And around that time you started to work with some big name artists.
JJ: I started doing sessions and touring. I worked with Michael Buble, Jessica Simpson, The Temptations. Work started coming in pretty quickly. I didn't have a "daytime job." If I wasn't playing or practicing I was out hustling and meeting people, recording songs. Then at the end of 2005 is when Paul Brown and I started working together, in 2006 we did our shows and started recording. Then I had my showcase at Catalina Island . It was like a home run. The audience loved it, the promoter loved it, my manager loved it. That was what started the buzz and Peak Records heard about me and they were interested in hearing my Latin songs recorded, so we went into the studio and recorded those, Around February we presented it to Concord. They liked it. Then around April we started negotiating for the record deal. It seems like it went fast but it felt like it took a really long time.

SV: Did the music you were writing before you hooked up with Paul Brown end up on the CD.
JJ: All those songs are on the CD.

SV: Then collaborating with Paul was a matter of polishing up the songs.
JJ: Yes. I had all the songs written. He's so familiar with the smooth jazz format and radio play. Basically he would take out sections or add sections, maybe change the chords here or there. He smoothed them out.

SV: How did you pick the covers that you did on the album?
JJ: Paul picked the covers, actually he picked "Poetry Man" and "Song For You." I picked "Mas Que Nada" and "Besame Mucho."

SV: But Kiki Ebsen arranged "Poetry Man," and the one she wrote, "Turquoise Street " is fabulous.
JJ: She's a wonderful musician and really talented performer.

SV: One thing I noticed about this CD is that you do more soloing and there is generally more improvisation than on most radio-friendly smooth jazz CDs. The songs are still tight but you and the musicians get to show their stuff a little more.
JJ: I'm a straightahead jazz player at heart and I grew up listening to Cannonball and other people who took 12 minute solos.

SV: You really don't get that option in recording these days though.
JJ: It's fun to do though, just not for this album. But we had a real good time in the studio. We recorded everything live and there was no set format of an eight bar solo here or a four bar solo here. We just did our thing and let it happen. We wanted it to be very natural and organic.

SV: How did Gregg Karukas get involved?
JJ: Through Paul. We ended up recording two songs at a time, that was kind of our method. First we would demo the songs at his studio, then Paul would get the musicians together that were going to play on that session. The one person who was on all the tracks was the percussionist, Richie Garcia. He's worked with Phil Collins and Diana Ross and we've worked together on a lot of Latin gigs too. I knew I wanted to work with him.

SV: How did you end up deciding to do smooth jazz for your first major release?
JJ: I don't really categorize it as smooth jazz. I'm just playing the music that I like to play hoping the listeners enjoy it.

SV: You just listed a really diverse group of people that you've done sessions with. Do you think that growing up with so many different types of music playing in your house has set you up to be so versatile with what you do?
JJ: Definitely. And it's why I play so many instruments. I play sax, flute, piano, guitar, a little percussion. I sing. I believe that it's all the same thing. Music is music and I love it. I don't care if it's polka music, soul music, jazz, loud music, I like it all  

SV: Are you still touring with Michael Bolton?
JJ: Yes. We  have a show in Mexico in a few days.

SV: Isn't it an all female horn section?
JJ: It is.

SV: And you're doing dates with Gloria Trevi still?
JJ: When I can.

SV: You're doing gigs with a Latin pop star, an American pop star, Guitars and Saxes and as a solo artist. That's got to take a lot of practicing to do so much material for so many different shows.
JJ: Each show requires a different character, I would say. I've been in Michael Bolton's band for two years so I have that show memorized down pat. We've done Guitars and Saxes a bunch, I have that memorized. Same with Gloria Trevi. All I need to do is do one show once and I have it memorized. Now I'm practicing for another concert that I have coming up

SV: That's such a gift to be able to get it that fast.
JJ: It takes a lot of practice and preparation before that first show. There is an incredible amount of time invested beforehand.

SV: How about your own shows?
JJ: The band I'm playing with right now is the house band at Spaghettini. I did my CD release party there in March and we had so much fun they ended up working with me on other shows I was doing. We did a show in Phoenix and we have a show in Catalina coming up this summer. I've got several shows coming up where I'm sharing a band with a other people. I'm doing a show with Paul Brown and we're using the same band and I'm doing a show with Jeff Golub and we're using the same band. There are so many wonderful musicians to play with.

SV: You've got a hit CD and you are building quite a following. What's in the future for you?
JJ: Well, in the near future I have the date with Michael Bolton, then I'm playing in Georgia and at Jazz on the Vine in Wisconsin. Then I've got a Latin pop gig and I'll be touring with Guitars and Saxes. And I'm going to Miami for a very special unveiling of Jazziz magazine. I'm going to be on the cover of the May issue.

SV: Congratulations!
JJ: We're having a special Jazziz party in May at Jazziz Bistro. I'm just staying busy and really working to try to get up the radio chart and the Billboard chart. I have so many things to do.

SV: I hear at least four more hits on this CD but are you thinking ahead to the next one yet.

JJ: I already have five songs written for the next project.

SV: So we've got more to look forward to. And we look forward to hearing more from you and seeing you live!