 Ah, and welcome to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. My guest today has an unstoppable passion for new music, one that has kept him on tour and in the studio. He is best known for that funky tune in the 80s titled Funkin' for Jamaica. Remember this tune? He continues to captivate listeners as an entertainer who has successfully mixed stage, presence, and musical artistry with a sincere audience connection and warmth. My guest has definitely worked with some of the industry's best and brightest musicians, having shared the concert stage with Bob James, Najee Roy Ayres, Joyce Sample, Melba Moore and a host of others. Please let's welcome Mr. Tom Brown to the show. Got me movin' already! I got you movin' already, you know, it's in my ear, so you know, I'm movin' and stuff too. How are you? Thank you so much for being here with us today. Hey, thanks for having me and thank you to you and your listeners for supporting this music we appreciate it. Oh, no problem. You know, I love music. And it's just an honor for me to interview today because listening to that song brings back memories. So now I'm actually talking, I'm talking to the guy. It brings back about three inches of my hairline, actually. Well, let's get started because I'm sure my audience and my viewers, they want to know more about you. So how did you get started in the music industry? I got started, well my first recording was back in 78 on GRP, but I actually got started through a gentleman named Weldon Irvine. Weldon was the songwriter and arranger that did Young Gifted in Black for Nina Simone and Mr. Clean for Freddie Hubbard. He was a very, very gifted arranger and happened to live in the Jamaica Queens area. And he was really responsible for bringing all of Jamaica cats together. Bernard Wright, Lenny White, Marcus Miller, myself, Omar Hakim. So many young musicians who were in Jamaica came through Weldon's band. Now what made you start playing the trumpet though? What made you start wanting to play the trumpet as far as your musical instrument? That was a whole other story. There was just something about the instrument, the regalness of it, I actually started out and still do play classical trumpet. And there was just something about announcing the king or something that just drew me to the sound of the horn. And I've always just loved the pop of it, really. Really? Well, I tell you, you can play it because listening to you and researching about you, I'm like, wow. Now, let's talk a little bit about that funkin' for Jamaica tune, because that was just one of your greatest hits. That was just one. But how did all that come together with the title, the musicians that were in that? Because when I watched that video, that just looks like you guys had a great time in the studio doing that. We did. Actually, the video track was just dubbed. I hate to say it, but it was not the musicians, well, except for the vocalists. It was not mainly the musicians who did the track. I know that's going to get me in a whole lot of trouble while I'm going to get some phone calls tonight. But that album, the Love Approach album, was 99% done. And the record company said, oh, it sounds like it needs just one more song. And I had this bass track and this drum beat bass track that I was working on. And really just broadening the studio, showed it to, showed the bass track to Bernard Wright on Synthesizer, and he said, oh, I dig, and he just expanded it. Bobby Broome and Marcus Miller put the plucking sounds on top of it. We just built it up. We built it up from nothing. Horn parts built it up from nothing. And Tony Smith was the fiance of the keyboard player that was playing in my band at that time. And nobody knew she just, she was a Chaka Khan, I won't say sound the like she had her own thing happening. Chaka didn't have a record out at that time. Oh, wow. And Tony Job, Tony Job, Jamaica Funk, and it was just right place, right time. You know, people said, oh, that's Chaka's new record. Well, OK, that helps sell a record great. Well, that was that was that was a hit album for you. That was one of the hit albums for you. Yeah, it was it was a blessing. Now, what people don't know. I actually I actually tried, I actually tried going on stage and saying, I'm not going to play that tonight. That didn't work out. But it never but it I'm pretty sure every time you go on stage, somebody wants to hear that, correct? Oh, I always play that song. I mean, the day the day I tried not playing it, it wasn't pretty. So I always do that song. Now, what a lot of people don't know, because I want people to know this, too, is that you're also an airline pilot. I am. And you also majored in physics. So what school did you go to with with your when you were majoring in physics? I went to Kingsborough Community College, which is part of City University in New York. OK, wow. And then what made you get into being a pilot? That that actually was my passion, passion that I was going to do a career out of. It was going to be my primary career. Music was going to be my cool at my hobby. And somehow the things just got flipped around and I still do both of them. It works out fine. I mean, the the job I'm flying with now gives me two weeks on two weeks off. Nice. You know, you know what I'm doing? There are those two weeks off, right? Yes, yes, we do. Yes, we do. So you have the best of both worlds, which is awesome. You get to fly and then you also get to play your music. So that's awesome. That is awesome. Now, describe your sound to me. Go ahead. No, I was just saying, I get to I get to listen to to to to Gwen from Hawaii Smooth Jet Connection during my two weeks off and appreciate good music. And I appreciate that. And that's how we're going to have to get you over here as well so I can speak to you in person. Now, describe your sound to me. What sets you apart from other Trumpeters? What one thing that I learned early on, and I guess I learned it from my classical training, is that sound is everything. There are there are some players who who go, oh, you know, that 90 percent of their effort is in high register or speed or. You know, sort of an articulation. I learned early on that any instrument is an imitation of the first instrument. The first instrument is the human voice. And so I try to make my horn sing. No matter what I'm doing, it's got to have some kind of some kind of singing element to it in order to be relevant. You know, the trumpet grates that I grew up with, you could hear them and in one or two notes know who it was. Dizzy Gillespie or Clifford Brown or Lee Morgan, Freddie. But any of those guys, all they had to do is play one or two notes. Oh, that's Freddie or that's Dizzy. Right. Those those I won't say those days are are not the same. But it's definitely what drives me. It's it's definitely what I go after. Nice. Nice. Now, what do you enjoy about being a musician? What do you enjoy about that? Well, well, considering that that when I went to shake the hand of my wife's grandfather, when I met her and he found out I was a musician and he said, listen, you know, hurt my little girl. That was the first words from his mouth. Oh, wow. So I so I so I enjoy surviving. You enjoy surviving. I enjoy being able to live without someone knocking the heck out of me. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. I mean, I mean, musicians are known for doing some crazy things. I mean, let's you know, I do. I know a few of them, too. I try not to do crazy things. Now, let's talk about your your new CD as come what may, which is released earlier this year. And you have two hits or you have two up and coming songs, which I call hits because I love both of them that are on that CD. And the first one is Mia Moore and the vocalist on that. Her name is Joyce San Mateo. How did that come about? How did that collaboration come about with Joyce? I I got called to play the Delft Jazz Festival in the Netherlands in 2000 and a lot of times when I travel, I just pick up a band wherever I go. And so I was going over to Europe and and picking up a band over in the Netherlands. And Joyce was one of the featured singers that was going to be in that backup band. And, you know, she she's she's a she's about a five a five foot Filipino gal. And so my reaction was like, OK, how's she going to sing Jamaica Fung? OK, and she opened her mouth and just knocked me out. She's she's she's amazing. She's absolutely amazing. I think my viewers can hear it, but we're playing a little bit of the song Mia Moore and her amazing voice. When I first heard it, when you first contacted me about it and I first thought I was like, wow, wow, I absolutely love that song. But then you also she actually she has the ability to go any direction. She can go funky, she can go smooth. She can cover it all. Well, she has that smooth, sultry voice and I can I can guarantee you the next time that I speak with you, I would like to have her here with us. So we can talk with her as well. But the other song called The Groove Line. Mm hmm. If people hear that, they're going to hear like, oh, I remember that song. I've heard that song before. 1975, I think it was. Yes, some around there. Heatwave. Yes. Yes. I say heatwave song. But it's the disco shoes on the smooth jazz version that you and Joyce do. And I love it. See, people are watching and you know, I want to move because it's in my ear right now. But yes, The Groove Line, both of those tunes, Me or More and Groove Line, those are both on Tom's new album called What Come What May. You guys need to go out and get it because I will be playing it on my radio show. Best believe that. Now, you have worked with many people, many people. I named them at the beginning. Who would you like to collaborate with next? Oh, there are so many great musicians. I've always admired Quincy Jones. Mm hmm. You know, there's only a handful of producers who have the ability to find an artist and shape the world around that artist rather than shaping that artist to the world, in other words, let the artist retain their originality and find music and arrangements that work for them. Quincy is one of them. Dave Gruesson was definitely another one, is definitely another one. Bob James, you know, folks like that, they're they're very far and a few between. I would like to do something with Quincy at some point. He is so far in a different league that I don't know if that happens. It'll be it'll be a blessing. And I can see you doing that as well. I feel it. I feel it would be a blessing. Now, what's what's coming up next for you? I know for a fact, I just came back from the Long Beach Jazz Festival. So I know for a fact that you will be at a few festivals coming up. So what else do you have in the work? I've got the I'm hosting the Oxnard. Yeah, Oxnard, California Jazz Festival coming up. I've played that the last couple of years in a row. And so I'm actually hosting it this year doing Jazz Cafe over in London. I've got Los Cabos, Mexico, things called Lux Lux Life Jazz Festival. And that's and that's actually going to be a nice one. That's with Roy Ayers and Ronnie Laws and quite a few of my my friends that have been with through the years. So just a lot of things happening, just, you know, finishing up this CD, getting it out there, doing a lot of touring and trying to spend some time during those two weeks I have off from my flying job at home as well. Oh, nice. My wife is my wife is a honeydew list. And you know, that's you have to get that done. You have to get that done. Well, we have to we have to go on a quick break. But we will be right back. Don't go anywhere. Sounds good. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, inviting you to join us on Wednesdays at one o'clock for Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000 year odyssey where we take a look at cannabis as food, cannabis as medicine, cannabis and religion, cannabis and your old uncle's family. So please join us to learn all about cannabis again, Wednesdays at one o'clock. Thank you. Hi, guys, I'm your host, Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from three p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. Aloha and welcome back to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwen Harris, and I am here with Mr. Tom Brown, that smooth jazz funky trumpeter. Tom, he is here with us today and I am just so honored and and glad that he could be here with us now. We I mentioned in previous to this previous to the commercial, I should say, we talked about what you had coming up. Now, what if you could change anything in the music industry? What would it be? Probably a lot of the we're rather let me let me focus a lot of the younger players, like everything else that our youth are doing, don't take the time to learn a lot of the fundamentals, as with everything else, it's it's give it to me quick, give it to me now. And so there's just so much sampling going on. There's so much autotune going on. There's so much instant arrangements going on. I would say to take the time to learn the business, take the time to really hone your craft, it's not going to happen overnight. It happens over decades. And so I mean, to almost anything that young people are doing today, take the time is probably the key words I would use. And see, that's one of the questions that I was going to ask you was what advice would you give an up and coming musician today in the industry? Because, you know, like you said, some make them, some make it and some don't. So that that was that was pretty good advice. But this next question that I want to ask, I ask of all of my musicians that that I interview. And it's really important to me just because I grew up playing music since the age of six, and I started out in the schools and I played all the way up through college at Hampstead University in the marching band. So my question is, what is your thought on the arts and music being taken out of some of the schools, some of the school curriculum? Yeah, that's that's a really serious peeve that I have. You know, there are so many studies that show the correlation between the arts and mathematics, the arts and the sciences. As far as development of skills in other areas, music is essential. Music is really helps wire the brain in so many ways. That's why music is therapeutic in so many ways. It was a huge mistake to take music out of the school systems. And and unfortunately, you know, it's the communities that have the higher tax brackets that still mysteriously have music in their programs. Yes. So it makes me wonder sometimes if it's by design. But I'll leave that to the interpretation of the of a listener. I have to be politically correct. Exactly, exactly. And I understand and I understand exactly what you were saying. Now, what is your favorite song that you have ever recorded and why? You know, I have a habit every time I do a do a record. I try to have to look back on that record. I try to just keep moving. Probably, you know, I would probably say Mia Moore or Groove line. Mia Moore or Groove line just from the new record, go out and buy that record. You heard that. You heard that. You have to go out and buy Tom's new album with those those two songs. I'm telling you, Mia Moore and the Groove line, you're going to you're going to love it. You you will love it because I couldn't do that better myself. I did. I did say that. Now, can you play a little bit? Can you play a little bit of something for us? Just a little bit of something. Just tease us with a little bit of something. Well, I just happened to have this thing. It just happened. How did this thing get here? Yeah, this is this is this is my new baby. I needed I needed I got a couple of Trumpets, but I needed a new one. My other ones are like 30 years old and they're still a good shape. But so I worked out a deal with Satan Trumpets. And so I'm addressing this is my new proud of my baby. I'm super proud of that's your that's your new baby. What's the company? What's the company line again? It's called Fate, Fate, Fate, OK. Yeah, yeah. But I could try a bit of maybe me or more or something. OK, whatever. Any second because I wrote that song for her. Oh, nice. So you met you met there for you. You made that song for her. You wrote that for her. The the entire album of Come What May is dedicated to my wife. It's actually as a victory over breast cancer. OK, the actual the Y in May is actually the the ribbon symbol. And the whole record is everything on it is is about yes, this we beat this or she beat this with God's help. And it's it's it's about a brighter outlook. Wow, who was who's going through that that dreaded disease. Well, that's that's a beautiful song because because I have heard it. And I'm going to now I'm going to play it over and over again now. Now, tell me about or tell tell the viewers, tell me and the viewers about your organization and it's titled Errolina Music and Flight Support. What's that all about? I used when I first started commercial flying. This is long after I got my license years ago. But back around eighty seven or eighty eight. I flew for a gentleman named Warren Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler was the first African African American pilot that was hired and flew as a captain for Piedmont Airlines. Piedmont became US US Airways and US Airways merged into American Airlines. He's long since retired, but he and I got together and we're trying to find a way to get high school students who couldn't necessarily afford the extreme cost of the flying lessons when I when I started, it used to be fifteen, sixteen, seventeen dollars a flight hour to rent an airplane. That same plane now is one hundred and fifty dollars a flight hour. Oh, wow. So yeah, so it costs multiple thousands of dollars just to get your basic license. There's there's there's a better way to do that. And actually, a lot of the airlines are starting programs now for aviation cadets, you know, kids in junior high school or high school to get interested in this and pursue an aviation career. They're making ways to do that. But that's that's what we're doing also. We're we're pretty much working with high school age youth with a simulator that Mr. Wheeler purchased and actual flying lessons. And we're pretty much, I won't say guaranteeing, but we're making it available that by the time that these kids graduate high school, they have their private pilot license in hand. Nice. Nice. Now, where can people, if they want to to donate to your organization, where can they where can they donate to? If they go on to www.arolina, that's it's like Carolina, except with a arrow, arrow, line, A-I-I-R-O-L-I-N-A dot org, www.arolina.org, and there's a donation link on that. We are a 501 C3 nonprofit and we're also a STEM based program. Oh, OK. All right. Now, I know you said that you're going to be at Oxnard and that's going to be that thing that's that's at September, right? September, the 14th, something around there around September. Yeah, I could I could find out. Because I just want people to know that if they're going to be in that area, in the California area, you never know, I may pop on over there. Like I said, just within long reach. So I may pop on over there to the festival. But where can people go to find out where your upcoming dates are if they want to see you? Yes. And yes, it is October 14th for the Oxnard Jazz Festival. You can go to my website, which is Tom Brown with the E dot or triple W Tom, B-O-O-W-N-E dot or G. Or you can catch me on Facebook at Tom Brown, Jamaica Funk. I don't know why I named it that pretty popular. So either one of those they'll remember it that way. Yeah, they'll remember it that way. They'll bite up in a song like that. I just can't remember. So to my viewers, you have to go get Tom's new CD. You have to get it. And it's entitled Come What May. And I'm telling you, those two singles are actually those two singles are the first from the CD. It will be out in about a month. In about a month. OK. Yeah. So I'm promoting for you beforehand. That's what we're much much appreciated. We're going to put it out there beforehand. So those two songs that if you heard them or me or more and the groove line and Joyce San Mateo, she is the the vocalist that is on those two tunes. Amazing, amazing. Just like Tom, amazing in playing the trumpet and playing the trumpet. So, Tom, you know, we really I really would like to get you over here to Hawaii. We need to have a little funk session over here in Hawaii. And of course, you're going to have to play that too. No, you're going to have to play fucking for Jamaica. You can't get out of that one. You can't funk it, funk it for Honolulu. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Fuck it for Honolulu. I like that one. But I thank you. I thank you so much for being here with me on the show. I really do. And we're definitely going to we're definitely going to have you back here. And to all my viewers, you can listen. I will be playing Tom's music on my radio show on Sunday. So just listen to Smooth Jazz Sundays in Paradise. I will be playing his music. And I don't know, Tom, maybe you can call in on my show on Sunday. We'll see. We'll talk about that offline. I can do that. OK, we'll talk about that because it's all about you. It's all about you and getting your music out there. But thank you again, Tom. I appreciate you. God bless you and to my viewers until next week. Aloha. Thank you so much. And God bless.