The buzz on Elizabeth Mis started gathering momentum about a year ago when Jeff Lunt, the VP of promotion and A&R at Trippin'N'Rhythm records started raving on his Facebook feeds about a new sax player they had just signed who was barely out of her teens and already had one album and quite a big of experience under her belt. Producer and Keyboardist Nate Harasim added to the buzz sending out reports as the recording progressed. Part it had to do with her being young and female but the focus was her musicianship. She started playing clarinet when she was around nine years old then switched to soprano sax a few years later. By her mid-teens she was playing locally and brave enough to ask Paul Brown if she could sit in when he visited her hometown of Cleveland. He said yes. That led to her first album, released in 2007 and produced by Brown. Between then and now she has taken her share of knocks within the rapidly evolving music industry and that has increased her passion and commitment to her craft. She found her tribe when she signed with Trippin', which has been very supportive of emerging artists, often younger ones, who are changing and evolving the sound of smooth jazz.

We did it the new school way. I FaceBook messaged her “wanna do an interview.” She said “sure, when” and we set it up. None of this my people with call your people stuff for a very talented, articulate and down to earth musician. As the title of the first single states: “It's Uh Girl's World” and this girl is well on her way to owning it.

SmoothViews (SV): The thing that really knocked me out was your commitment to doing this at such an early age – being able to find a path and stick to it. It's pretty rare for someone to find something and feel like that is the thing they were meant to do, especially  while they are young, and then pursue it with so much focus. How did you start out?
Elizabeth Mis (EM): I started out playing clarinet and it wasn't hitting me. I wasn't enjoying it. Then I heard Kenny G and there was something about the sound of his horn that really connected with me and I really wanted to play a soprano sax. My dad went and got me one and the moment I started playing it there was something in it that really clicked with me, with who I am, and it felt like a part of me. I don't know how else to say it but once I knew this was something  I wanted to do I was on a mission.

SV: So practicing became something you wanted to do instead of that thing kids dread where mom sets the timer and you sit there with your music lesson books.
EM: Pretty much. (laughs)

SV: What was your process from there. You pick up an instrument and move into this mode where it is something you love. How did you develop your skills.
EM:  I started with the books and theory and all that but my big thing was playing along with some of my favorite artists. I would play along with Dave Koz, and Kirk Whalum. I started out with some Kenny G to get the whole gist of the feeling of the music and the soprano sax under my fingers. What really inspired me to practice, too, was hearing all my favorite artists. I listened, I did research on them and found out about everyone out there. I loved the music and it was a lot of fun to play.

SV: One thing I find interesting about the players that are in their late teens or early twenties right now is they are the first generation to grow up hearing the smoothed out radio version of contemporary jazz.  A lot of the “first generation” artists have moved back to what they were doing before the music became formatted and are bringing back a lot of excitement by adding on to that while a lot of “new generation” artists are focusing on bringing excitement and revitalizing the genre more within the framework they grew up hearing.
EM: I have a lot of the older music, I even have some of it on vinyl, and I always wanted to bring that kind of excitement back into smooth jazz. The cool thing about working with Nate is we really got to push the boundaries and go somewhere new but also stay somewhat within the box.

SV: You got really good at a really young age and did something that I don't think a lot of us would have the guts to do. You walked up to one of the most influential producers and guitarists in the genre, introduced yourself, and asked if you could sit in.
EM: I know. I think I may have gotten less gutsy now but when I was younger I was really driven to get there and I had nothing to lose or to stop me so I just did it.

SV: What was that like. Did you not have that fear in the back of your mind that he would give  you a cold stare and say “go away kid, you're bothering me?”
EM: Yeah, you never know what's going to happen and I have had people do that to me before. I don't think about the negatives of just going up to people and talking to them for the first time. I'm a big dreamer. I like to dream a lot of where I could be. I had my goal set on Paul Brown producing my CD so that gave me the passion and drive to go and meet him

SV: What was that like?
EM: It was on a Sunday in Cleveland. My mom went everywhere with me when I was that age and we went to a smooth jazz Sunday brunch. You had to go through the restaurant to get to the downstairs area where the show was so we went downstairs and I asked them where Paul Brown was. They said he was upstairs eating breakfast so we went back up there. I didn't even know what he looked like because I had never met him but there weren't too many people there yet so I go “Paul Brown” and he says “Yeah” and he's a really laid back guy and he invited us to sit down. We were talking to him and I asked him if I could play with him or something. Sometimes people say no or whatever but he says “Sure, you can come play with me.” I didn't have my horn with me and my mom ran home to get my horn and left me with Paul. I got to sit with him and talk about what I wanted to do someday and asked him if he would be willing to produce. After the show he said he would be do it. It's a cool story.

SV: It really is a cool story and it shows what can happen when you do take the risk and reach out. But you also mentioned experiencing the other side, walking up to people who kind of turned you away.
EM: I did go up to some artists I really liked and they didn't seem to care too much or see how passionate I was about getting there some day. I think a lot of people just look at you when you're 13 or 14 years old and kinda write you off as going through a phase that you will outgrow. They don't think you are really focused on it. As I told them back them, I was focused and this is my dream and I'm still doing it.

SV: Now you are sharing air time and chart space and even the stage with a lot of them. I think it's important to bring that up not to focus on the turn downs or make any established artist look bad, but so people won't think that you walked up to Paul Brown, he accepted you, and the road was easy from that point on. Anyone who is new on the scene will go through that and you just have to stick with it and keep seeking people out because you will find the ones who support you.
EM: Yeah, and I think one reason some people were not responsive is they were thinking that I needed to pay my dues and have a journey to get there first. I got that response from a lot of people so it really meant a lot to me when somebody was willing to be there and take me under their wing and help me.

SV: I remember your first album being on iTunes for a while and I went back to check it out before we talked and it wasn't there anymore.
EM: I never actually put it on there because it was never released on a label. There have been some smaller record companies saying they own the copyrights which they don't. My parents and I paid the costs for the production and everything upfront so we still need to straighten that out. I'm not sure how it got on there. I would like for it to be available but under the right circumstances

SV: Ouch! There is part of the dues paying process – bad stuff  happens in the music biz 101. Did Paul bring in any other musicians to work with you on that one?
EM: Not on that one, just Paul and me.

SV: After you went in and went through funding the album and going through the process of creating it did you feel like it got left on the backburner and didn't get a chance? Like it was underpromoted or wrong place-wrong time, or possibly you need to represent more what  you are doing now and your thing was in the future.
EM: I do kind of regret not having it officially released but it's five or six years old now and it is kind of irrelevant to where I want to go.

SV: It's kind of like looking at an old yearbook picture (laughs.) What I heard was very nice but I like this one a lot better. That was more of a traditional smooth jazz album, and also you have grown so much as an artist since then.
EM: This one is totally different and it is definitely going in the direction I want to go forward with as far as smooth jazz. Nicholas Cole is on there, so is Cindy Bradley, Julian Vaughn, a lot of really cool people from the label helped me out. But if I hadn't done that first record I wouldn't have gotten the deal I got with Trippin' so it wasn't a bad thing. It cost a lot of money and it was was one of those dues-paying type of things. I did learn a lot in the process.

SV: So there ya go, you don't have to have a long journey to have a real journey, you have done quite a bit of dues paying to get to where you are now. How did the deal with Trippin' come about?
EM: They had actually been following me. Les Cutmore, who owns the company, had been watching me for a year or two. I found out that the other guy from the label, Jeff Lunt, had been following my career too. Les contacted me out of the blue. I hadn't heard of the label yet and I got an e-mail from him. I had been sending my full CD to several record companies and didn't get any response, then I got this response from a company I hadn't heard of. We tried to work out a time to get together and talk. About six  months later he told me he was working with this new producer he had signed, Nate Harasim, and he felt like we might work well together so Nate and I started talking and we actually started working on one of the songs, “Breakaway,” that is on the new CD. He wanted to see how I did with that song and then if he wanted to sign me. After he heard the song he signed me and that's how it all worked out.

SV: How did working with Nate and Darren (Rahn) compare with working with Paul?
EM: They are totally different producers and all three guys are really great. Paul is more old school and laid back, working with Nate is totally different. He's really into tweaking and coming up with a lot of synth sounds. He just comes up with all this amazing stuff and it is so cool to watch him work. If you listen really closely to his album or mine you can hear all these sounds that are totally his creation and it's amazing.

SV: I did an interview with Nate last year and he was great to talk to, he had to be fun to work with.
EM: He really is. He's a hyper guy and he tells the truth. That's what I love about him. If he heard something that he didn't feel was right he would tell me and we would work on it and figure out a different way to approach it. It was a really cool experience. I'm glad I got to work with both Paul and Nate because I learned so much and got to be around two people who are so good at what they do and go about it so differently.

SV: That is a really good crash course in how to make a good record from two different perspectives.
One thing I noticed about this album is that Darren and Nate wrote most of the songs.  I know you have done some original material and I've seen you on YouTube doing Grover and some other people's material. What is it like to take your interpretative voice and put your own identity into a group of songs written by someone else?
EM: When I listen to the songs I think of how I would play them. How I could approach them as far as the style that I play and the voice of my sax. I didn't think about it a whole lot. I just play it and it comes out the way it does, which is me.

SV: Did you feel restricted or anything when you first approached the material?
EM: No, I definitely didn't feel restricted because I was part of the process. We weren't really sure what the final versions of the songs were going to sound like and the way I interpreted them was part of the process. They encouraged me to put my own spin on everything I played, and the songs actually changed a lot over the year that we worked on them

SV: What did you want to come out of this? When you first signed with Trippin' and you were thinking about making the album what kind of statement did you want to make with your national debut as a recording artist?
EM: I could say so much about that one question. First of all, it has been five or six years since I did that first CD and it was out there enough to be noticed so some people may have thought I dropped off the face of the earth. Here I was with the Paul Brown project and time goes by without people hearing anything more from me. Now I am coming out with this new album and I wanted it to be so much more than that one. I am older  now and I have grown as a musician and been through a lot in the process.I wanted it to show a little more of who I am. I wanted to come up with something new and fresh and something that was more out of the box in terms of smooth jazz. I wanted to create a new sound, something that wasn't just for people who already listen but for a whole new audience that hasn't discovered it yet.

SV: The thing about smooth jazz is that in the live setting it never lost its fire but the studio version, the version that showed up on CD and radio, got backed into this corner of being easy listening music. It took a real image hit because even boomers who grew up with rock see it as “old people's music.” We didn't just lose the younger audience, we lost the middle and we lost the top.
EM: Hopefully what I am doing, what Nate and Darren are doing, will influence other artists and open up a new direction for smooth jazz. I enjoyed the way it sounded when I first started listening but now it really needs a pick-me-up. It needs something new and fresh that listeners can really grab on to.

SV: The thing that I feel is that it needs to move from “smooth and relaxing” to “uplifting and entertaining.” The thing I love about your album is it has a lot of forward momentum. It's got energy and it's kind of danceable. You bring a spirit of fun to the music and that's something that has been missing. It comes down to musicians finding their own voice and having success. Then others who are a little bit fearful will be encouraged and the audience wins.
EM: Yeah, and a lot of the people on Trippin' are doing that too. Nate, Darren, Cindy Bradley, Julian Vaughn and Nicholas Cole, who I am going to be touring with.

SV: I was going to mention Nicholas. He's got that smooth jazz sound but you can tell it is because that is the way he plays and writes. It's not forced. It's his thing, and by doing it the way he feels it he really contributes to the evolution of the music.
EM: He does, and that's what I want to do in my own way too.

SV: Do people throw age at you? You've kind of got a double whammy, you're 21 and you're female?
EM: That's a thing I got from record companies because I approached some of the big smooth jazz labels and they would tell me I was too young, that they had all these other artists who were older and they deserved a spot more than me. That was tough. It made me kind of wish I had been born before smooth jazz started, then maybe things would have been different but now I'm glad about the way things turned out. I'm young and hopefully it will inspire other young people to dream for this too.

SV: This is not a type of music that your peer group is really into, that had to be the case especially when you were younger. Did they give you any grief about loving this music?
EM: I was home schooled for a while so I actually didn't have much of a peer group. I was really involved with practicing and learning. Music was everything that I had. I wasn't hanging out with kids my age, I was out playing at clubs when I was in high school. My social life was about being out and playing. I went to some church classes with other kids and stuff and they would say that smooth jazz was for old people, that their dads or grandparents listened to it! I would say that it wasn't for old people, I liked it. I didn't have much luck finding other kids who listened to it, they didn't think it was for them.

SV: It's probably not something that is ever going to have a lot of credibility with teenagers.  But it is a shame that the things that are exciting about it got filtered out.  It was good that you were born when you were born because that set you up to do what you do now. It is still a boy's world to a certain extent but not as much as it used to be. I think we would all like to see a time when people don't preface with “female” and just say sax player or guitarist or drummer or whatever. We are still a way from that but it is getting better.
EM:  Exactly, and there's the thing where people say someone is popular because the are female or because they look good and don't respect the work you do as a musician.

SV: (with jaded voice): Oh bla bla bla...that sounds like high school! (laughs) The other thing that trips me up that if you're female and you are stylin', if you  have an incredible sense of fashion and get to work some cool outfits on stage and in photo shoots, people think it makes you shallow.
EM: Yeah, I've heard that. I don't quite get it.

SV: I think it goes back to when women were first breaking barriers and thought you had to look and act really serious so you could be taken “seriously.”  That whole period was seriously no fun and besides, showmanship is part of the game. Speaking of which, are you planning to do any touring now that the album is out.
EM: Jeff has actually set up a tour called “Generation Next” that is going to be Nicholas and me. He put together the tour because we are both new artists, we both have new albums, we are both younger, and what better way to showcase all of that than put us in a show together. He is working on some dates for the end of this year and the beginning of next year. It's still mostly in the works but we will be out there soon.

SV: How is the album doing so far?
EM: It's been doing really well. I don't know about sales because it's still so new but I was really surprised - well not surprised but glad - that everyone that sent me feedback has said they loved it, which is great to hear. You never know how other people are going to react. I like it but it is a part of me. You don't know how other people are going to respond. The label has been getting a lot of good feedback too so I'm really excited about the reaction so far.

SV: You're a trailblazer, girl!
EM: I always dreamed of being one.

SV: Well, here you are. And you're going to have a lot of fans that come along for the ride. Thank you so much for talking to us and for stepping out and making it happen.