 This episode of the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection, I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. My guest today started her musical journey in Philadelphia, where she began playing piano at the age of 10 and had her first professional gig at the age of 14. Today, not only is she a musician, but she is also an educator, author, composer, and she is the first lady of Smooth Jazz. Her impressive resume as a recording artist and touring musician includes appearances with Norman Brown, Mindy Abair, Bobby Wollman, and Ray Parker Jr. just to name a few. She has received numerous awards and I am sure you have seen her at jazz festivals as the leader of the all-female ensemble Jazz in Pink or her other band, Three Piece Sioux. I am so happy to have her here today. Please welcome my Philly sister, Ms. Gail Johnson to the show. Aloha Gail, how are you? Thank you, I'm wonderful. I am so glad to have you here as you know I called you the very first time I met you years ago. You know, I've always called you my Philly sister. Right? Right? Now, you started music at a young age playing your first professional gig at the age of 14. That's amazing. What or who inspired you to play music? Well, I don't know. I think Stevie Wonder, I saw him with his farfisa at the Uptown Theater in North Philly. And you know, I always something always in me wanted to, you know, just do music. But when I saw him play at the Uptown Theater, I was like, oh, I was convinced that's what I wanted to do. So I called my uncle up, I was like, hey, you got to help me get, I got a good keyboard. So him and my dad got their little pennies together and got me a keyboard and just started playing with a band we called Natural Experience with my cousin. He played guitar. So yeah, those are the days. Now, where was your first gig? Just out of curiosity, you know, Philly girls, where was your first gig? That's a good question. I know it was North Philly and I believe it was a bar. You know, we were too young to be in the bar, but my uncle Bill was our chaperone. So he would take us all in the van and he would, we would all set up the equipment and we'd play music. And then on our breaks, we'd sit all in the corner and they would bring us a whole tray full of coats with cherries in them. But it was, I'm sure it was right in North Philly somewhere like Gordon Lehigh. Okay. All right. Now, yeah, then we started playing. Then we did the boat rides on the Delaware River. Oh, yes. All right. Look, look, it's been years since I've been back to Philly and you're getting and you're giving me flashbacks. Just, just all those things. Now, do you play any other instruments besides the keyboards and piano? Well, when I, when I got to high school, they were like, we don't, we already have a piano player. We already have a harp player. So you got to pick something else. This is what we got, a flute. So I started, yeah, and I started really liking it. I didn't like it at first because I get a headache. You know, my lessons were at eight o'clock in the morning and every day I had a headache for about three months. So that wasn't fun, but I really started to enjoy that night. I played first chair, I played second chair mostly because I had two girls ahead of me. That was just a bomb. And that was their instrument. But when they weren't around, I played first chair, people know. So and I mess around with guitar a little bit and, you know, I mess around on the drums and just enough to teach the kids at church how to play. This is how you hold the drum stick doing for, you know, and I get on the bass and I know the strings. Okay. Play this note, play that note. So, you know, I don't know how to play those instruments as a real musician. That's a teacher I messed around with several. What high school did you go to again? I went to Cardinal Daugherty. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah, we had a real department. Yeah, we had a really full-out orchestra and we played behind the plays that the students would put on. In fact, I was on the art committee, so I was also behind the scenes painting the set. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Now, you are the musical director for Norman Brown and I know that must be a lot of fun because I know when you guys were here and he was here just meeting both of you, I had met you before, but the two of you together were just clowning around. How is it working with him? Oh, he's been a sweetheart. He is like, he is just the best musician. I'm telling you, he's just a well-rounded player. He reads music well. He's a good leader and he writes well. He's a great composer and he's fun to be around, like anybody. After a while, they'd be like, leave me alone for a minute because I'm thinking about something else. There were a few moments in between for that kind of stuff, but otherwise he's very generous, very giving and he's a joy to play with. He's fun on stage. He seems like it. He definitely seems like it. Now, you are known as the first lady of Smooth Jazz. You have paved the way, you know, for some of these other, you know, female musicians to come on board and do what they do. Now, you started the group, Jazz and Pink, how did that come about? Well, I was with Norman on the Smooth Jazz cruise and I believe he was hosting that year. And, you know, when you're on the cruise, you know, you're going from Rome to Rome in same band to band. And I ran into this lady that was up there playing the flute and I mean, she was playing it. I was like, oh, man, come to find me out there. And I had met her prior in Detroit with the group called Straight Ahead. So, but I didn't know her. So I didn't recognize her. But once, you know, we met and we started talking and I was like, girl, you know what, this don't make no sense. There's just not enough opportunities for women in jazz. We need to get together and talk about it. So my friend, Keena, she was on the cruise the next day. We had lunch and we talked about we need to get together and we need to share the stage, play each other's music. And Keena went to work calling her people up in San Diego and got us a gig. Next thing you know, everybody came back home from the cruise and people were calling, I'll play, I'll play. Because I wasn't really thinking about an all-female band. I was really thinking about the female artist and any old band would do. You know, we can get some guys that can play, you know. But as it turned out, when all the ladies said that they were willing to play it, then I started calling up other ladies. It was like, yeah, let's do that. And so it really was a force. You know, it was like, OK, this is bigger than us. This is something that we need to do. We need to make a statement. We need to, you know, put it out there. Because once we got everybody together, Karen Briggs was on violin. You know, she's a virtual also. Yes. Of course, Althea Renee, she had the band everywhere and she is just fearless. She just means it when she gets up there. And then in San Diego was the first time I had met Maria Internet. And Keena had told me about her. You're like, oh, you should meet my girl Maria. And I was like, oh, my goodness. So she teamed up with us. And, you know, we ended up with a really, really cool band. Lynn Keller was on bass. And then Fidmont was singing Lee. And yeah, Cece Royal was playing saxophone. And, you know, it really turned out to be really a wonderful thing. Darling, D-Love, she played guitar. So it really turned out really nice. And we ended up playing with Cedric Anderson on drums because Cora Coleman was supposed to play with us. But Prince called her. Oh, wow. He came back to Minneapolis because we got to rehearsal. We got to do it, and we were like, oh, man. This is our very first gig, you know. So as it turned out, Cedric just filled in. And soon we got another drummer. And we got Althea's girl from down Dallas. We got Pocket Brown. And so, yeah, the rest is history. We just kept rolling after that. So who are your members now? Who are your current members of Jazz and Pink? Because I know when you guys were here a couple years ago, you had different members. Yeah. Our latest members are Dee Simone on drums. We have a new bassist now, Zuri Appleby, our music director, Robin Brown, who's off doing her solo career. So she had one record out. But heck, it's been five or six years. So she's like, you know what? I need to put some tension to that. And so all the blessings, just go do your thing, you know. I'm not sure. We don't have a guitarist right now. And so we're kind of rebamping. We got a new vocalist, Josie Aiello. She's done some work in the past with Patty Austin and Quincy Jones. And she is just absolutely fabulous. And she tore it up at the Hollywood Bowl. Oh, wow. Yeah, we closed out without every woman. We had the whole crowd going. And we got Gacara on percussion. And she's a fine vocalist as well. So we're kind of rebamping. Everybody's been really on hiatus. We've done a few virtual gigs. But it's just not as good as we were. So you also are in another band as well. You are a busy lady. You're very busy. So you have another band, Three Piece Suit. Right. Now that was my original band. My original band was Three Piece Suit. And Jeanette Harris and her brother used to come down from Fresno. And they used to come and play with me down at Lavalee. And I couldn't afford to pay her. But I said, you can come down, jam, and sell your CDs. And, you know, she ended up being on the jazz and pink stage as well. We ended up with over 50 women gracing the stage with jazz and pink. But yeah, Three Piece Suit was always my band, three guys and me. And so now I got some fellas from down south, down in Texas. And they play with me when I go out and do Three Piece Suit. In fact, I just covered one of the videos that we did at the Huntsville Jazz Festival. And that was fun, you know. Yeah, there's some little young guys. You know, I call them my little Berkeley boys. And the guys, they just come out playing so hard. It's like, oh, guys, I'm trying to keep up with them. But, you know, they pushed me to just, you know, do my best and be good. And they looked to me for leadership and guidance and career things. And, you know. Now, it's been hard, you know, for all of you entertainers, musicians, all of you during this pandemic. It has absolutely put everything to a standstill. What have you been doing to cope and get through this? Oh, girl, this really has been something. I, well, I started writing the record and we couldn't get together. So I just started writing and writing. And I finally finished the new record, Joy. I've been painting. I've been doing, working with acrylic paints. And so, you know, I've been enjoying doing that. I'm working on a cookbook. I got a new song. I said, I need to collect all these songs that I did and just write them down and put them in a book. And so, you know, like everybody else trying to find ways to monetize, you know, what I do. And so, you know, practicing and little video editing now. I've been learning that. That's that's really a skill set. Can you give us a little sample of what you've been working on? Or just something, just a little something to give us Gail Johnson, you know? Well, you know, I've been, what I've been doing, I've been really doing a lot of straight ahead stuff. And so I discovered, I recently discovered a tune by a monk called Evidence. And I've been playing that and reharmonizing giant steps. But I like James Williams, he's like my piano mentor. And this is one of his songs. I love stuff all day, but you know, I love my smooth dance. I like my beat, you know, but when I want to get pensive and when I want to go into my head. Uh-huh. Well, anything you play, you know, I'm going to listen to. I don't care what it is, I'm going to listen to it. You released in, I believe it was 2008, the album Pearls. And just out of curiosity, because you know, our vice president, our new vice president, Mala Harris, she has been brought out in all the females, everyone wearing pearls. Do you see another album, maybe Pearls 2 coming out or volume 2? Absolutely, because you know, everybody just loves that record. And I always tease, it was a big hit here in Los Angeles, but I really have come to find out that it's just been stringed all over the world, you know. And so that's been, that's been wonderful. That's, I think my best record, but now Joy is here, so I don't know. Joy, now you know, I love all of your music, but I really do love Joy. I played that on my radio show and I absolutely love it. I drive to work jamming to it, so. I'm telling you, that was, it was a lot of fun. I didn't feel pressure. I didn't feel, you know, like I had to create this of that, you know, I just had all this time and freedom, you know, okay, well, what are you going to do with your time now, Nick Corona's here, you know, you gotta go out and you know, so I just started trying to get all the things done that I hadn't had time to do before. And no one used to say that all the time, if I could just take a year off from all this ripping and running, because we were in airports every weekend, you know, every week, you know, we're in a flight somewhere and so it was great to have the time off, but now it's like, you know, we need to get back to work. Projects, are you working on or any shows? I know it's kind of hard to tell about shows or anything, but I know a lot of shows that were canceled, they're rescheduling them. So what new projects or what shows should we be looking for for you with Norman or with Jazz and Pink if possible? Well, we don't know my, I've got my manager, Michael Smith, and I've got two agents, Barbara Collins and Kathy V, and they're all feverishly looking for performance opportunities for us. So we may, we're on the books for something in San Antonio with heartbeat productions. So we're looking forward to that. And we've got a couple of offers for some virtual things and probably Vegas would probably be the next thing, but I mean, we would love to come to Hawaii. Oh yes, yes, I will. Yeah, right? Yes, Blue Note Hawaii is here. And yes, we need to get you to Blue Note. You know, you need to come to Blue Note. Now, one question, somebody, I told somebody that I was going to interview you. And one thing that they wanted to know was you started your career very young and what is one piece of advice that you would give to your younger self? Oh, to my younger self, I would have, I would have got a manager sooner. I mean, we had our manager when I was, you know, like I said, when we were younger, but once I went off to school, I went off to Berkeley and I started getting discouraged. You know, I was surrounded by everybody from my age to 50 that were well experienced and toured and were working with the best of everyone. And I became discouraged. I was like, it's no way I'm going to become another Herbie Hancock. So I better just go back to doing top 40. You know, I mean, so I just say, you know, if you really have something in your heart that you really want to do, stay the course. Because now when I got YouTube, I put on YouTube and I can jam with Herbie, you know, I can't get them yet, but I can jam with them. And I would have never thought I would even be understanding what he was, what he's playing, what he's, you know, the kind of intellectual music he was putting out, but I hear it and I understand it now. So I just think, you know, you just have to be tenacious, follow your dream, be passionate and stick with that manager. You know, I should have went back in and got my uncle to say, hey, I need you to help me again and help guide me through some roads. And I could have, you know, avoided some pitfalls along the way. Now, this might be on the long of what you just said, talking to your younger self for the new artists that are coming on board, new artists, new musicians. What advice would you give to them? Because it's very hard in the music industry right now. Yes, yes, it is. I think they need to learn the business. I think, you know, they, a lot of them, I mean, they're so awesome. I'm like, what are they feeding these kids? How is it that they're playing so effortlessly? They're playing so beautifully. They've got all this innate talent, but they don't know the business enough. And I think that's really the thing. I'm really encouraged by so many of them really trying to invent new things and have new ideas about how we're going to get this music dispersed. How are we going to record new music? You know, we have trouble with that now because we can't be together. It's like, how, you know, so we, you know, young people just, you need to be thinking about that. You need to usher the new in, you know, it was a time when there was, you know, vinyl and then the cassettes came along. Then the CDs and DVDs and all that digital audio. So now we're at the threshold. We have to cross over and we need young minds to take all of us, you know. And so that's what I say. Learn the business and try to invent something. You know, you've got to start your own business. You won't, you know, waiting for somebody to call you and say, hey, can you do this? Hey, can you play in my band? Those days are over. You have to start your own business. And if you do, if you become a Sideman, that's wonderful. It has its place and you're learning stuff along the way, but you have to have your own business. So when they decide to go on vacation or they don't want to do it no more or they get ready to have a baby and start a family and you just like, oh, what am I going to do? You know, you have your own business that you can still operate. So that's my advice. Now who would be your dream collaboration? Cause you've collaborated with quite a few people. Who would be your dream collaboration to work with? Ooh, to work with. That's right. That's right. Yes. Oh gosh. Well, you know what? I was just almost in tears watching Tia Fuller on the Disney Soul. That girl was playing and I was like, oh, I would love to play with her. And of course, Gerald Albright, it's always one of my guys, Kim Waters. If I could have Paul Jackson, of course, on guitar. You know, I used to play with him for years too. And then, you know, if I make a mistake or if I do another change that goes somewhere else, you'd be like, see, you wouldn't have done that if you played with Norman. He'd be like. But, you know, I think I really like all those guys. Cy Smith, I love her. Or even Lettucey, you know. And, you know, that little young Selena Albright, she is really coming up to be something really sweet, huh? And Candice, I just love her too. It's so many people that I really love. I would love to play with all of them. And of course, my girl, Karen, and what's the new girl, orchestra that plays the violin? Oh, yes. Yeah, Artiste, what's her name? I know you're talking about. Yeah, we've got a lot of different players that I haven't had a chance to play with. So, you know, I mean, you know, the list is just endless. Marcus Miller, I mean, if I could play with him, that would be great. Well, you speak, you know, you have to speak these things into existence, you know? I hadn't thought about it. I just was like, you know, okay, you know, well, we'll see what happens, but you're right. You have to say what it is that you want. What would be good? Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Now, this is one thing that's dear to me, is the arts in the schools. Like you said, you played in the school system in Philadelphia. I played, you know, same thing like you. I played the clarinet, flute, piccolo, all that in school. But as you know, in some of these schools they're trying to take the arts out, you know? Try them. They did. They did. They did. That's how we got hip hop. That's how we got scratching because we couldn't have no darn instruments. What do you think about that? And, you know, what can, what could possibly done to bring it back? You know? Yeah. I think we have to have the ones that the people that are really, really doing well in the business, I think they need to all come together and have their support system like people like me. And we need to say, hey, we got to help these kids. I mentor a lot of young people. And so I get on the phone and I make calls, you know? Hey, Nathan, hey, Joe, right? You know, so-and-so's coming up, you know? What can you do to help them, you know, get a horn or instrument? So that's what I think. I think we all need to come together and sit down and do business with these instrument companies. You know, we've been buying instruments. Girl, I've been buying keyboards for years. Our fender roads, this kind of roads, you know, that's kind of keyboard, clavinets, molds. I spent thousands of dollars. And I think just like any company, those instrument companies need to get back and they need to put, you know, but we need really headliners to spear the campaign and we need to have a conversation about that, that the instrument companies need to give up the instruments so that we can get them to the kids in the schools, you know? I want jazz and pink to be ambassadors of women of jazz. I want us to get the instrument companies behind us, sponsors to go over to Lagos. I don't care, or we go down to Haiti, or we go over to France and go into one of those girls' schools and sit down and have a cultural exchange with them and have the instruments and talk to them about the instrument, the parody instrument playing, you know, jamming, all of that, I would love that. And so I've already put that on pen to paper, I've already... Oh, wow. Yes, yeah. Nice. Well, I have one more question before they give me my little time, my time down. One more question. Where can people go to find your music or to find out more about you? Oh, you know, my website is being revamped and I can't wait. So my website, gailjonson.com, the J-H-O-N, and you know what, that's been a conversation piece ever since Lina reached out to my back yarders. She put that on my CD, my Keith and me playing and now my family called me up, girl, they didn't call me back. They didn't mess up your CD. They didn't spell your name wrong. So yeah, it's gailjonsonjho.com or jasm pink.com. And of course, Amazon, music, iTunes, it's all over the place, Spotify. We're streaming like big time. So this is something like this. Yeah. Well, gail, I thank you so much for being here with us today. As always, every time I see you we're laughing about something. But awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you so much. And I hope to see you soon. Yes. You know, on the stage somewhere. Right. Yeah, why can't we talk to Hawaii? We can come to the university down there and we can kick it and, you know, have a workshop and all of that, do a concert. Yeah, I'm gonna talk to you offline, okay? But thank you, gail, so much. And to my viewers, thank you so much for tuning in to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. Until next time, aloha and God bless.