November 22, 2004
Interview by Harvey Cline

SmoothViews (SV): Hi Rick, and welcome to SmoothViews.com. I'm glad you're with us this evening. I understand you've been practicing, and getting ready for some shows with Peter White and Mindi Abair.
Rick Braun (RB): Yep, we're getting ready to take off the day after Thanksgiving. We start our first concert in San Diego.

SV: Ahhh... one of my favorite cities. You'll be touring through December 18th, the week before Christmas?
RB: Yes, we'll be finishing up on the 18th.

SV: Any surprises in this year's show?
RB: I don't know. We're rehearsing, and we're going to be playing Christmas music... playing some of our own material, and it's been good. We've been rehearsing at Peter's house. He's been a very gracious host, and his wife Robin has been making us some very nice lunches, and it's looking like we're going to have some fun.

SV: Wow, it sounds like it's going to be a great tour! Are you going to be able to play anything from your '94 release, Christmas Present?
RB: Yep, we're going to open the show, I think, with the "Little Drummer Boy" version that I did.

SV: Oh, that's one of my favorites. I remember that being on Dave Koz's disc a couple of years ago .
RB: Yea, it's a good arrangement. That CD (Christmas Present)... at some point I'd like to redo a lot of the material... maybe add to it and all that kind of stuff.

SV: Bring in new musicians and that sort of thing?
RB: Yes. Oh, one thing I've done this year that's kind of fun that I'd like to make note of. I'm going to have a download available for everyone as a thank you to all the people who want to come out to my web site. I've done a version of "O Tannebaum" ("O Christmas Tree"). It's a brand new version. I just finished it two days ago, and Elizabeth Ware is going to be posting it on my website. So anyone who comes in that is gracious enough to give us their email information, we can keep in touch with them, and they will be entitled to a free Christmas song.

SV: That sounds great! The joy of giving this time of year. That's at CD101, I understand?
RB: Yes, actually I'm going to make this available to anyone who comes on to my website. It's the CD101 people who will be picking up the Sessions CD.

SV: I know a lot of fans will be anxious to hear that. I understand you're just getting back from a tour of duty in Germany?
RB: We went to Germany with Richard Elliot and Oleta Adams. We played a total of eight shows there all across Germany. And it went really well. We had a great time. Oleta Adams is just an absolute pleasure to work with.

SV: I understand you'll be working with her on Warren Hill's Smooth Jazz Cruise in January?
RB: That's right. And I'm hoping we can do some of the same things that we did for the tour in Germany.

SV: That cast for Warren's cruise sounds like an all-star cast. I think you're going to have fun.
RB: Absolutely, we're going to have fun. And I'm hoping we have smooth seas the whole time because I do tend to get motion sickness. So, I'm going to really hope it's a fairly stationary event.

SV: It sounds like a nice job when you can get it... out there cruising. It looks like you're going to be doing your own cruise next November?
RB: Next November. Yes. I'm very excited about that. I'm hoping as well that we're going to have good weather the whole time. That's going to be great. We're going to have Al Jarreau, Boney James, Brian Culbertson, Peter White... you know, lots of great artists are going to be involved in that show.

SV: This seems to be a growing thing with the jazz people. I know Dave Koz is doing one also, so how are you seeing this developing?
RB: Well, we're hoping it develops really well. We're hoping that there's enough of an audience for people to want to support all these cruises so that they can all do well, and no one has to close their doors on it. Because it's really a nice lifestyle event for the people to come out on a beautiful ship and hang out with all the artists, and hear the music they've been listening to on the radio, and get to meet everybody, and spend some time together.

SV: I think it's a great, great concept. I know a lot of people will be looking forward to that.
RB: I know I'll be looking forward to it.

SV: I understand you've been working in a new recording area called Artizen Records?
RB: Well, yes. The name of Artizen records is in a state of change right now. We're coming up with the best possible name. It looks like we're going to be changing the spelling. We're going to be going with ARTizen, and capitalizing the ART just to set us off from a couple of other things that are out there sharing the same name. It's kind of like being citizens of art. (laughter) So we're working on Richard Elliot's new CD right now, and that's going to be the initial release on ARTizen Records... I mean ARTizen Music. So we're hoping to have that ready for release in the early summer. And to follow that up, we're working on a summer tour, and are already booking dates with myself, Richard Elliot, Peter White, and Jonathan Butler. So that's going to be our little package going out this year.

SV: Will that be part of the Guitar and Saxes tour?
RB: No, it's not a Guitar and Saxes tour. It has nothing to do with Guitar and Saxes. We're thinking about calling it Jazz Attack. I'm not sure if that name is going to stick, but it's what we're working with right now.

SV: That leads me to another question. In 2000 you recorded Shake it Up with Boney. Then you did BWB in 2002. Is there a possibility of doing a collaboration with these guys next year?
RB: There's all kinds of possibilities. We're hoping to try to implement some innovative things out for smooth jazz. We're hoping that we can clear the way to offer live recordings of each show as they occur for the fans at the end of the show.

SV: That would be great.
RB: Yea, we're hoping, because right now it's a good situation. I mean Richard and I will be on, of course, ARTizen Music, so we'll be free and clear in the business department. So we just need to work the details out with Jonathan and Peter. And Jonathan is unsigned right now. So, it's possible to get all of that done, and make it something that the fans can place an order for a live CD of the evening's events at the end of the show.

SV: With that coming about now, where do see Smooth Jazz now and how that's playing out with the technologies changing and the viewpoints changing?
RB: Well, you know Smooth Jazz is a great place to kind of push the whole idea of the internet being an integral part of what's going on. The audience is pretty affluent, and the audience is not kids who are going to go out and free download everything. I think it's an audience that will respect the artists. So we can take advantage of the internet as a way to get the message out to market to people directly. It's not really necessary for people to go into a record store any more to get their music from their favorite artists. We're hoping that the internet's going to be a big part of what's going on in the future of smooth jazz.

SV: With the technologies changing so fast today, it almost seems like you've got to be on the cutting edge of technology as well as the music.
RB: Well, you know, I don't know about cutting edge. We just need to take advantage of what's available. Because being on the cutting edge is one thing, but what's happening is that the audience is slowly coming around to the internet being a way of buying stuff, a way of exchanging sound files. It's coming around. It was really interesting for me... with the Sessions CD which I only released on the internet... to see that although it is a useful thing, it's still a very small percentage of people that will go out and buy things over the internet, and will take advantage of the technologies. So, it's not really being on the cutting edge as much as bringing people into the mainstream of what's possible. I think that's starting to happen. We're starting to see some results.

SV: I understand you've worked with some of the young kids and high school students and that sort of thing over the years. Any advice for today's young musicians? I know I have a daughter growing up in band today and that was a big influence in my life as well.
RB: What does she play?

SV: She's on clarinet for about the third year now.
RB: Oh wow. When that instrument is played well, it's an incredibly beautiful sound. My advice is (laughing) if you can do anything else, do it.

SV: (laughing) That's what my band director told me!
RB: If you can do anything else, and be happy with it, do it. Because to be a musician, you're pretty much devoting yourself to a life that has incredible rewards, but it takes incredible sacrifices to get to the place where the rewards will come. I think there are very few people in music who kind of have an easy path. I think even when you look at people like Brittany Spears, and agree with her level of talent or not, and people like Madonna... they have devoted their entire lives to the point where what everybody hears about them is music and their craft. It takes an incredible amount of devotion to get to the point where you can get out there in front of people and entertain them with your abilities, unless you are an incredibly gifted child prodigy like Mozart, who was writing symphonies at the age of five.

SV: And those are rare today. I know growing up in band, one of our early influences was Maynard Ferguson, and all the trumpet players tried to emulate Maynard and "peel the paint" like him. Who were some of your influences growing up, and as you come up through the ranks?
RB: Well, you couldn't be a trumpet player growing up when I was grew up and not be a Maynard Ferguson fan. If I'm not mistaken, he's still performing. He's absolutely been an inspiration to so many instrumentalists in the world. But mostly I was inspired by people like Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis... Clifford Brown was a big inspiration for me and Chet Baker. Herb Alpert was a big inspiration for me at the beginning of my music learning experience because his music was so popular when I was a kid and he was just such a big pop star playing the trumpet. His music was very playable. As a kid it was easy stuff to play along as opposed to the very complex nature of jazz. What Herb Alpert was doing was pop music, and I latched on to that. It was a very motivating thing for me to be able to play along with all of his music that everybody knew.

SV: Yea, that's a great feeling when you're able to play along with your favorite artist, and hear what they're doing. Is there anyone you haven't recorded with yet that you'd like to?
RB: Herbie Hancock would be a great one to get an opportunity to record with. George Benson, I haven't recorded with him. I had the opportunity to play several shows with Grover Washington. That was a great experience before he passed. I had the pleasure of playing with Stanley Turrentine on his last commercial recording, which was a live in-studio situation, and it was really inspiring for me.

SV: That's great. I know you're there with your family this evening. What do you do when you're not on the road; I know you lead such a busy lifestyle?
RB: Well, you know I like to play tennis. I like to build things. In my studio, there's a lot of wood work in here, there's a lot of stuff that I built myself. I like to get out a power tool now and then and have at it. You know I like to just goof around, garden and hang out with the kids.

SV: Just a little bit of chill time while you're off the road and that sort of thing?
RB: Yea, it seems there's never quite enough of that. I was just saying to somebody last night... I could use just a month retreat of just relaxing with the family.

SV: It's always good to come home and charge the batteries.
RB: That's for sure.

SV: And I'm sure "family" was a good way to do that. One last question for you, and I've always wanted to ask. On Kisses In the Rain you had "Emma's Song," on Esperanto you had "Mother's Day," and recently you had "Dance With My Father." All three are really great closers that are from the heart that really inspire. Is there any story behind these three closers?
RB: I think music is all about expressing emotion. Music is all about that. When I play "Emma's Song," every time I play it I get a chance to close my eyes and reconnect with her no matter where I am. And that's the nice thing about that. I think as I look out into the audience, people are connecting with similar experiences when music like that happens. You know "Dance With My Father," what a great tune. It's just an amazing set of lyrics. I felt almost handicapped that I wasn't able to express the words when I was playing it instrumentally. It was a very big challenge. That's one of the biggest parts of that song are the lyrics, if not the most important part of that song. "Mother's Day," Mitch Foreman and I both lost our moms within a very short period of time. And so it was just... all moms are a loss. We kind of wrote that song together as a tribute to them to say thank you.

SV: You may not have realized you were closing with those three songs on the last few discs, but all three are just great closers.
RB: Yea, I think it's nice to leave a CD on a retrospective, sensitive note.

SV: Many thanks, Rick. Have a great tour. It was great talking to you, and we wish you the best!
RB: Great talking with you too.

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