A Conversation with Rick Braun – HuffPost 7.11.14

Mike Ragogna: Rick, your new album Can You Feel It? certainly has a lot of energy.

Rick Braun: Exactly that. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve recorded a record like this. In fact, the last time I did a record like this one was Beat Street, and that was probably the first CD that put me on the map. I was a newcomer as a solo artist way back in the day. When I started recording that record, I treated it as a garage band, and coincidentally, I do record my records in my garage, which has been converted into a studio. For this record, I brought some of my old friends including Nate Phillips, who played in a jazz band, Randy Jacobs, who was with Was (Not Was) playing guitar and bass, and I brought them together with some new friends. I just wanted to include all of their energy on the record and make sure that I laid out a format where everybody could just express themselves. I wanted it to be a garage band approach, an organic, energy-filled, fun-packed record.

MR: The album doesn’t seem forced or fussy. Was that also your intent?

RB: Absolutely. I really wanted to again not go back and dwell on the perfect performance, I wanted to allow everybody who participated in the record to express themselves. I even encouraged people who came in — we didn’t record everything live together, not all of the tracks. Some of them were that way, with drums, bass, and me playing keyboards or trumpet all together, but as people came in I encouraged them to play more than what they normally would, to treat it as if it was their own record and not be afraid to take risks with what they were playing on the record. I think that was one of the things you’re hearing, it’s not just guys coming in and performing on a record, trying to get that perfect cut. There’s a lot more freedom involved in this record.

MR: For you the artist, what do you consider some of the more inspired performances of the album?

RB: There are a lot of them. The record took over a year in the making because of all the touring that I do. The thing that seemed to happen on this record is it evolved organically. One of the stories that I love to tell is Dave Koz came over to have me be a guest on his YouTube video channel, Dave TV. He came over and we did a little thing in the backyard where I talked about my landscaping and power tools and stuff unrelated to music, and then we had some dinner and then I said, “By the way, did you bring your horn?” and he said, “Well yeah, it’s in the car.” I said, “You want to come in and play on something?” I wasn’t really a hundred percent planning on him playing on it, but he brought his horn. He came in and I had the track, which became “Get Up & Dance,” which is now the first single. Dave came in and after we did the thing out back he got his horn out and all of fifteen minutes later his performance was done. I set up a microphone and it just happened that naturally. There were numerous things that happened that way on this record; put the music up and have someone play. It happened so organically. It seemed like there was some sort of an energy going where if I stayed out of the way and allowed it to happen it was pretty wonderful.

MR: How do you maintain your identity within performances when other musicians contribute heavily?

RB: I do have a lot of control over the spaces that I have allotted for people to play. I kind of keep a big picture in mind when I’m making the record, but having said that, you’ve touched on one of the most difficult things for me, being the artist, the producer, the engineer — which, by the way, I wear all of those hats when I’m making a record because I go out into my garage, and stumble down without my coffee in the morning and do that — the hardest thing to do is to maintain that focus. I actually had some difficulty during this record and I needed to bring in some help. For that reason, Bud Harner, who is a retired drummer and now is a manager who has worked at GRP as an A&R guy, and he’s a dear friend as well, came in and put his ears on the project about halfway through and helped me maintain that focus. It’s not something that’s easy to do, Mike. It’s difficult when you’re wearing all those hats, and I’m very grateful that Bud stepped in and helped me maintain direction.

MR: And I also imagine that since you’re trying to allow the artists to give their best performance possible, it’s tempting as a producer to just let them go wild.

RB: One of the things I’ve learned over the years of working with all of these people who are my friends — and by the way I’m so grateful to have friends like Jeff Lorber and Philippe Saisse and Brian Culbertson and Dave Koz and all of these great musicians — part of the trick of being able to produce people like that is again to create an environment where I can almost step aside and get out of the way and let them do what they do with minimal intrusion.

MR: This album took three years to develop. Was that in order for the material to experience a natural evolution?

RB: I kind of call it “demo-itis” when I get stuck on a performance that may have been from a sequenced part or something that I programmed in and then have somebody come in to add their personality. One of the mistakes that can be made is to fall too in love with the part that’s programmed, the sequence, and not allow people to express themselves. But on this CD I was really careful not to be married to anything I had done. I took a lot of liberty with that and just let people express themselves and let things go where they may, which was pretty much my primary focus: to let the players lead the record where it’s going to go and just put the people in a position to shape it. I’m really grateful because everybody who came in did a fantastic job.

MR: Not that I’d call you album “smooth jazz,” but it seems the genre has tried to rewrite itself by embracing much more R&B, soul, hip-hop and electronic, kind of going where you went with this project.

RB: It’s been five years since I did a “smooth jazz” record. I look at this record more as a funk instrumental record than smooth jazz, because it’s got a lot of funky horn parts and I’m playing valve trombone and horn section stuff and Elliott Yamin is doing wonderful vocal stuff, so it’s a very funk-oriented record. The last project I did was a vocal record with a fifty two piece orchestra. That was a real divergence from who I am. I discovered that the audience for that is an entirely different audience than mine. You do have to be careful. As much as that record opened doors for me and I now have shows that I can do at performing arts centers, I have a show called A Walk Down Broadway With Rick Braun and I explore stories behind all of those great standards and talk about the composers and the shows they were in, I did step away from my home turf. This record brings me right back into the center of where my fans and I started out, which is a funky good feeling, groove-oriented stuff. I don’t know if I answered your question, but as an artist, it’s fun to go different places but I think it’s also fun to come home, and this feels like coming home to me.

MR: I think this your sixteenth album. What would you say is the biggest evolution you’ve had over all sixteen?

RB: Well the biggest realization for me is when I go back and listen to my old records, when I listen to stuff I produced for other people, if I had that option to redo anything or to change anything it would be to get rid of just about every sequenced thing that I have on there and put in real people. I grew up listening to George Benson, CTI Records, Freddie Hubbard, Milt Jackson, Herbie Hancock, that’s just incredible musicians coming together and making great music. You can go back and listen to any one of those great records and you’re not going to say, “oh, that sounds dated, oh, that stinks, that loop I’ve heard a hundred and fifty time already,” you’re going to hear great performances by great musicians, and you can put those records on for like fifteen, sixteen year-old kids who have the ears to appreciate it and they will. They will. That’s the one realization I’ve had: I have so many great, talented friends and I’m going to include them on every record that I do from here on.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

RB: First of all, anyone who’s starting out in music has to realize they’re dealing with a time in the music business that is unprecedented. We’re almost back to the days of Mozart and Brahms when it took patrons of the art to develop new artists. What’s happening right now is that record companies don’t have the money to put into developing artists, not in any niche area. I would say to any up and coming new artists — especially instrumentalists — first of all you have to practice, practice, practice, it’s like the old saying, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.” You’ve got to be great. Second of all you have to be your own promoter. Not in an annoying way, but you have to be your own biggest fan. Nobody’s going to put the word out there for you. The responsibility of self-promotion is more than it ever was. It’s tough.

MR: Jazz has always been the redheaded stepchild of the music industry yet it’s also been the most flexible and surprising genre. It seems there’s a level of quality in jazz that you always can depend on.

RB: Yeah. It’s an integrity, and again it’s that freedom. People have always enjoyed jazz and with the exception of a few minor times in history, jazz has always been a fringe music. But I think people go to it because it does free up your soul. It really does. I think that for the people who take a moment and have the capacity to appreciate it for that it’s a wonderful thing. I know for me when I close my eyes on a flight or I put on my Blue Mitchell or Roy Hargrove or Freddie Hubbard or Chet Baker it takes me out of my world in a way I think that more structured pop music can’t do. It takes me to a place that’s much deeper and quieter. I think that’s why even though jazz is a niche form of music, it will continue. I think people need that place to go to.

MR: Nice. By the way, I think the Strings album took a really sweet approach.

RB: It’s interesting, I found that the audience that has embraced it has embraced it big time, and very passionately. I’m on rotation on the Sinatra channel on XM, it’s such a thrill for me to hear somebody like Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole and then here comes little old me doing my thing. It’s humbling. I did have some knee-jerk reaction from some of my hardcore fans, “Where does this come from? This is not the Rick Braun I know and love,” but on the other hand there are people who have embraced me who didn’t know who I was before.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne