by Melanie Maxwell
To his smooth jazz fans, Rick Braun is the energetic trumpeter who turns every concert into a party filled with funk-flavored jazz and frisky dance moves. With a touring and recording resume that boasts gigs with Rod Stewart, Sade, Tina Turner, War and Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, among others, Braun garnered a wealth of experience to pour into his first solo album, 1993’s Intimate Secrets. That release, of course, was the catalyst for his wildly successful smooth jazz career that has thrilled fans for nearly two decades. Lesser known, however, is the fact that in addition to being a prolific songwriter (he penned REO Speedwagon’s 1988 Top 20 hit “Here with Me”) he’s a singer, backing all of those artists as well as Glenn Frey, Natalie Cole, Tom Petty and Crowded House, along with his trumpet playing during his pop sideman days. So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that his 17th CD, Rick Braun Sings with Strings, released this past summer, features his vocal skills.
“This CD has been a dream of mine for years and feels like coming back home in so many ways,” said Braun from his home in Woodland Hills, California. “I grew up listening to artists like Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Tony Bennett. My mom was a great singer and self-taught piano player and was constantly listening to these great artists around the house. She knew the lyrics to every pop song of her day.”
Braun hopes that his fans will enjoy the new direction he’s taken with this project as much as he enjoyed making it.
“Philippe and I wanted to make a very elegant record with an orchestra featuring great songs that have not been overly done,” said Braun, referring to Philippe Saisse, who produced the new record. “The process of making this record was unlike anything I have done before. Philippe did a fantastic job of orchestrating, producing and playing on the record. I couldn't have done it without him!” Braun emphasized. “We recorded with a great band of musicians, and that is the key. The drummer, Joe LaBarbera, worked with Tony Bennett and the Bill Evans Trio. The bassist, David Finck, worked with Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé and Rosemary Clooney. The guitar player, Dean Parks, has recorded with everybody, and Philippe has orchestrations on Rod Stewart’s Great American Songbook CD. The cast of musicians was key to making a great record.”
Braun said that all of the songs they selected for the album had great lyrics with a positive romantic message and great melodies. They were songs that grabbed him emotionally and artistically. Recording those songs was a great experience for Braun, but performing them live is even better. He particularly enjoys a gig such as the one he did last month at Upstairs at Vitello’s Jazz and Supper Club in Studio City, California, where he was accompanied by John Chiodini on guitar, Joe LaBarbera on drums, Saisse on keyboards, Reggie Hamilton on bass, and a string quartet led by Kathleen Robinson.
He’s even more excited to return to the Berks Jazz Fest in Reading, Pennsylvania, to perform with the Reading Pops Orchestra on March 25, 2012. In fact, Braun, who was raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, will be demonstrating his musical diversity and vocal capabilities at a variety of shows at the Berks Jazz Fest, including a Bebop session with Chuck Loeb, the Berks All-Star Jazz Jam and with Richard Elliot as part of RnR.
But before we get too far into Braun’s 2012 schedule, he’s already on the road racking up frequent-flyer miles on this year’s Dave Koz & Friends Christmas tour. Over the years, Braun has headlined on both the Koz and Peter White Christmas tours.
“I am very excited about the tour, and it is a great opportunity to sing some songs from my new CD. I think Dave's audience will enjoy that,” said Braun.
And, while he’s thrilled to perform live throughout the U.S., it’s tough being away from his wife of 14 years, Christiane, and their two children, Emma, 12, and Kyle, 10. So he brought his family to Atlanta, the first stop of the 23-date tour, to celebrate Thanksgiving together.
After the Koz tour, the Brauns will have a brief period of family time at home before they pack their bags and travel to Tucson, where Braun is hosting the Tucson Jazz Society’s All Jazz All Night New Year’s Eve Gala. He’s been involved with this event and the organization for more than five years, helping to keep jazz alive in Tucson by performing at various shows and benefits throughout the year.
“Tucson has some great young players and a thriving educational program featuring a student community big band that has been recognized nationally,” said Braun.
“The JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa, where we’re having the New Year’s Eve show, is in the mountains overlooking the desert,” Braun said, referring to the venue where he, Jonathan Butler, Euge Groove and nearly 1,000 guests will ring in 2012. “The weather is nice, and the fire pits and lounge chairs are great places to watch the sunset. There is always time to hang with the family and friends and have a great dinner at one of the resort’s restaurants. The room where we have the event is beautifully decorated and sounds great. I am especially looking forward to this year with Jonathan Butler and Euge Groove. I always look to bring artists who are fun to hang with and will create great chemistry for the show. JB and Euge are both great performers and close friends, and I don't think the three of us have ever performed together on one show before. It will be a fantastic musical event,” said Braun.
After the holidays and New Year’s festivities Braun, and his philanthropic endeavors, won’t be slowing down. As a board member of the Ocean Institute, he helps produce the annual Ocean Institute Jazz Festival (previously Jazz in January). Now in its 10th year, this two-day event features Braun, Mindi Abair and David Benoit at the nonprofit organization’s Dana Point, California, facility on Feb. 3-4, 2012.
Opening night includes a complimentary wine reception, appetizers and intimate concert for 290 guests. The premier event on Saturday features a cocktail reception with passed canapés prepared by the Balboa Bay Club & Resort and Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, a four-course gourmet dinner (prepared by chefs from the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa, Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa, Montage Laguna Beach and the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel), silent auction and show for 200 guests. All proceeds benefit the Ocean Institute.
“They provide hands-on experience with the ocean, marine science, environmental and ocean education and maritime history programs to inner city and underprivileged kids,” said Braun. “This event raises money to keep the Ocean Institute doors open and fund bus trips to bring kids to the Institute’s 61 award-winning, immersion-style programs, where they learn about ocean facts, sea creatures, oceanography and California history. More than 110,000 K-12 students and 8,000 teachers annually study in labs, live aboard tall ships or in the chaparral, where they can feel and taste the salty sea spray, study live specimens, observe migrating whales, collect scientific data and investigate the culture and world around them.”
When Braun isn’t busy making the world around him a better place, out on tour or in the studio working on a new project, he cherishes the time he can spend with his family at home. As talented as his fingers are with the valve buttons on his trumpet and flugelhorn, his hands are equally skilled with landscape and construction projects. In fact, his beautiful home has been receiving nearly as much press as the artist himself; it was recently featured in the Home and Garden Section of L.A.’s Daily News.
“I am a do-it-yourselfer. I have power tools and am not afraid to use them!” Braun said with a chuckle. He’s worked hard to make his home an artful and tranquil paradise with beautiful Mediterranean-style landscape, infinity pool, basketball court, pergola (an arbor formed of horizontal trelliswork supported on columns or posts, over which vines or other plants grow to form a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area), and xeriscaping (a quality landscaping technique utilizing native plants and drought-tolerant exotics that conserve water and protect the environment).
“Of course, I hired people to do the big projects but the planning and direction was done by me and Christiane. We have a hillside property so the infinity pool was a dream of mine since the day we bought the house. We did the pool, basketball court, hillside stream, pergola, playhouse and waterfall one at a time over the course of the 12 years we have lived here. I built the playhouse with my brother Russ and his wife, April. I built the pergola, stream, waterfall, balcony, pool shed and did a lot of the planting myself. I will disappear for days at a time on the hill and get creative. It is my hobby and it feels great to stand back and enjoy the results of hard work when all is said and done. Kyle is out there on the court a lot. He's a great basketball player, and I love to watch him play. Emma is constantly dancing out by the pool. When I think of the hours of joy we have enjoying our yard, I have to smile.”
Fond childhood memories of trips to the lumberyard with his grandfather on his mother’s side also make Braun smile. “He was a carpenter and helped to build the Sears store in downtown Allentown,” said Braun. “My grandfather on my dad's side died before I was born, but he was a wood carver from Germany, carving lifelike wolves and elk. He carved part of the alter at Cornell University. I took Kyle there this summer to see the chapel for ourselves. What a fantastic day with my son!”
In the spirit of further water and energy conservation, the Brauns use solar to heat the pool and in addition to xeriscaping the yard, they’ve installed artificial grass.
“My next step is solar panels as soon as we get some good government tax breaks in place. There are solar panels all over Germany; why not here?”
Braun visits Germany often. That’s where he met his wife, and where her family currently resides.
“We will be married 15 years next year; that's like four normal marriages in the entertainment world of LA!” Braun exclaimed. “We met in Germany through a mutual friend when I was on tour with Rod Stewart. She was so beautiful and positive. I never met anyone like her before. After a show, we were all hanging out at the hotel lounge, and there were no seats anywhere. Christiane offered to let me sit on her lap, which I did of course, and we started laughing, and that was the start.”
And the couple continues to enjoy laughter, and gardening, as they raise their family together. Now that the jet-setting, rock-and-roll lifestyle he once led has been eclipsed by his home life with Christiane and the kids, Braun has come full circle, dipping back into the music that captivated his 8-year-old, trumpet-playing self by grabbing the microphone and singing with strings.
For more information on Braun, including his complete touring schedule, visit www.rickbraun.com.
On Tour
Dec. 23
Rick Braun with Dave Koz & Friends Christmas tour
Balboa Theatre
868 4th Ave. at E St.
San Diego, California
www.jazzconcerts.com
(619) 570-1100
Dec. 31
Tucson Jazz Society’s All Night New Year’s Eve 2011 Gala
with Euge Groove, Jonathan Butler and Sylvan Street
JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa
3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd.
Tucson, Arizona
www.tucsonjazz.org
(520) 903-1265
Feb. 3-4, 2012
10th Annual Ocean Institute Jazz Festival fundraiser
with Mindi Abair and David Benoit
24200 Dana Point Harbor Dr.
Dana Point, California
www.ocean-institute.org
(949) 496-2274, ext. 412
March 25, 2012
Rick Braun and the Reading Pops Orchestra
22nd Annual Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest
Miller Center for the Arts
4 N. 2nd St.
Reading, Pennsylvania
www.berksjazzfest.com
March 29, 2012
22nd Annual Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest
Berks All-Star Jam
Crowne Plaza Reading Ballroom
1741 Papermill Road
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
www.berksjazzfest.com
April 1, 2012
RnR with Rick Braun and Richard Elliot
22nd Annual Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest
Crowne Plaza Reading Ballroom
1741 Papermill Road
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
www.berksjazzfest.com
DISCOGRAPHY
1993 Intimate Secrets Mesa/Bluemoon
1994 Night Walk Mesa/Bluemoon
1994 Christmas Present Atlantic/Wea
1995 Beat Street Mesa/Bluemoon
1997 Body and Soul Mesa/Bluemoon
1998 Full Stride Mesa/Bluemoon
1999 Best of Rick Braun Atlantic
2000 Shake It Up (with Boney James) Warner Bros.
2001 Kisses in the Rain Warner Bros.
2002 Groovin’ (with BWB/Rick Braun, Kirk Whalum and Norman Brown) Warner Bros.
2003 Esperanto Warner Bros.
2004 Sessions Vol. 1 ARTizen
2006 Yours Truly ARTizen
2007 RnR (with Richard Elliot) ARTizen
2008 Peter White Christmas (with Peter White and Mindi Abair) ARTizen
2009 All It Takes Artistry Music
2011 Rick Braun Sings with Strings Artistry Music
