 Aloha. Aloha and welcome to this episode of the White Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Wendell and Harris. My guest today was Warren and raised in Ohio, where she began her musical journey as a clarinet player and began playing saxophone in high school. She shares her love of music in many facets, one of which is working at a hospital and using music therapy to help patients to meet. This musician has played with some of the top bands in Cleveland, Ohio, and has performed with many of the industry-leading musicians. Her latest single, Summer Vives, will have you up and dancing and is climbing the charts. I am so happy to have her here today. Let's welcome Ms. Brittany Atterbury to the show. Aloha, Brittany, how are you? Aloha, great. How are you? Great. It is so great to have you here. I think last time you did my radio show and I promised you, I promise you will be doing live here with me on the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am so glad to have you here. Let's jump right into it, Brittany. How did you get your start in music? Well, I got my start with the clarinet, as mentioned. I was listening to 107.3 The Wave, which was here in Cleveland, the backseat of my mom's car. My mom loved this music. I want to do this, I want to do it, and I probably was listening to this pause because that man, that's my guy right there. Oh, and so my mom's like, well, your cousin has a clarinet. You could start there and start it in band and I took off from there. Nice. Now, where was your first gig or your first performance? I should say. Oh, that's a hard one. I performed here in Cleveland. So there was a spot named Frederick Swannadine, and I was invited out by another local musician. I was like, hey, bring your horn. Come on, play. I was so scared. Oh, my God, I was terrified. No, because I was used to playing, you know, classical music in a band, reading music, and this was like on stage. I wasn't reading music. It was memorized. Oh, my goodness. Oh, but I loved it. Do you play any other other instruments? You know, you play the clarinet, of course, because these woodwind instruments all go together, right? So play the clarinet, play the saxophone. What other instruments do you play? I play guitar and piano. Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. That's one of the ones I want to learn how to play is the guitar. Oh, my goodness. Yes. You know what? I have this bass behind me. I have been, you know, picking it up and trying to like, you know, get it. Don't ask me to play right now, because it's not. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure you are going to be picking it up. That's going to be in one of your records, too. I'm pretty sure. Now, who are your idols? Who named some of your idols growing up? Oh, man, I'm going to have to say Kenny Garrett, Dave Koss, Gerald Albright, Kirk Whelum, Mollie James, oh, that's in her style. Man, there's kind of all Adderley for sure. I mean, that's that's, you know, classics. Those are my idols. Now, who would you if giving anything, who would you like to out of your idols or anybody else? Who would you like to collaborate with? Because I know I know you've done some collaborations with a few people already. OK, but who would be your dream collaboration dream? It would have to be Dave Koss on his cruise. I have just, oh, my gosh, every since I heard about that cruise, I was like, I have to be on it when I just I just have to be on it. Just oh, my goodness, it just Dave Koss for for the simple fact that, you know, overall, his his character, his personality, his business sense and his music. He is just a phenomenal role model for me. But I am doing collaborations with other people like Vandell Andrew. We just did this latest practice. Yes. So we might have a show coming. Well, we don't have to be looking out for that. Yes, for sure. Now, with the code, you know, I just I'm just so happy artists are coming back out really and and performing. So with with that being said, with COVID, you know, put everything to a halt. What exactly were you doing during that time to, you know, to keep yourself up and up to be, you know? Yes. So actually, COVID was probably one of the best times for me because I got to sit down and really hone in on the recording process. I was recording my first single starting now with Judith Sealy, a great producer. And and I was also working on Summer Vibes. And I just remember spending hours in my home studio, which was a great advantage because I got the chance to sit down and really listen to what I was doing and critique and adjust and grow on top of being a mommy, a new mommy. But yeah, I was just building the brand in the business and and playing as much as I possibly could. How are you balancing? Because your your son is just so cute. He is so cute. How do you balance between your just how you balance life in general with everything that you do? You know, touring after a while, I'm sure. So, you know, you got to keep that in the back of mind. How you do it? Yeah, you know what? That is a very tricky thing. And I will first off say that I have so much respect for the musicians who are out there who are mothers and they are touring and doing their thing with the kid because they take a lot of work. They take a lot of work. Oh, they take a lot of work. But I will say this. I am grateful for my husband's support. He's extremely supportive. I mean, he he loves that boy to pieces. We both do. But I try to make sure my routine is silent. I make sure I'm working out. I'm getting some great exercise. I'm eating healthy. I spend time with him that's dedicated. And then when I put him to sleep, this is mommy's practice time. You know, even if I make exhausted, I'm like, I'm going to practice at least I'm going to get a good 30 minutes or a good hour in or I'm going to, you know, tweak something. And I think it's just putting it into habit and and and continuing that. And at times of stuff, you got to know when to step away. When it's time to take a break and say, OK, you know what? Buddy, I mean, like this week, for example, this week has been tough. We have the interview tonight. I have a concert tomorrow that I'm going to be doing here in Cleveland. And I have a funeral to perform at on Friday and another show on Saturday. So it's just like one thing after another. And it's great, but it does take a lot of work. Wow. Now, people, you know, some people may know and some people don't. But you have a very unique job because not only are you a musician, but you actually have a job doing music therapy. Tell us about that. So music therapy is super, super cool. What it is is playing like guitar or piano and singing to patients to help them accomplish their musical goals. So, for example, working in the hospital in a intensive care unit, you'll find patients who may have suffered from a traumatic brain injury or a stroke and they need to be rehabilitated back to homeostasis where they can be oriented to what today is, who they are, how to speak again. Sometimes it's using fine motor, gross motor skills that may have been lost as a result of the injury. And then we use music as like this happy medium to you know, kind of take their minds off of the the difficulty of accomplishing something and music is like this direct signal that just a hard wire is like directly to what we needed to do. So it's just amazing seeing these patients light up and seeing them accomplishing their goals. Now, you know, we are going to talk about this new song that you have out. Your first single was starting now, and I've told you this. OK, we talked about this. Your first single was starting now, and I love that. OK, but when you came out with this new one summer vibes, I was like, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh. You know, the viewers will be hearing it later on here in a few minutes. But tell us about what was the inspiration for this item to. OK, so the inspiration is this, I know, right, because it's such a fun track. So as a little girl, my mom and my dad were huge party Friday night after a whole week of working, we call it a party. The family's over. We had so much reggae music and dance hostile music going on, you wouldn't believe it. OK, it wouldn't believe it. So that's in me and I love that. I love the dance. If you play that style of music anywhere, you better believe I'm on a dance floor. If there's line dancing, I'm on a dance floor. So when I was sitting down to write, you know, I talked to Vendell and I'm like, hey, I want to do kind of like a dance hall style, you know, grew. But he's like, really, you know, he was like, oh, OK, I've never done this before. But let's let's work on it. Let's do something. And when we came up with this, it was just like, oh, that's it. That's it. So I just love it. I'm telling you that that tune is fire, fire. You think you could play it for us? Possibly. I have my sax in here. Sure, let's give you a little sample. Yes, just a little sample. Just a little bit. See me dancing, but I mean, I'm just like in here to the dancing that you guys have to go out and get that you're going to have to go out and get it. Goodness, you just play your new art. What advice would you give other artists that are coming into this industry right now? Oh, my goodness. I would say don't be discouraged by what's around you. Focus on what you can do to improve you, keeping great, make great connections with people and stay positive. Know that it is not a sprint. It is a marathon. So enjoy this journey. Yes, I like that. I like that. What shows do you have on Verizon? What can what's on your calendar that we need to be looking at? Yes. So coming up tomorrow and next Thursday, I will be at the front stage right here in Cleaver Heights, Ohio. This is going to be from eight to 11 p.m. Please come on out and have a good time and support. And we're just going to have a blast. You're going to have a blast. It's so fun. Where can people go to find your music, Brittany? Where can they follow you? Where can they go to find your music? Give us all the details. So you can find me at www.britneyataberry.com. That is my personal website. And there you will find links to download my CD. Purchase the CD. Get the autographed copy. Oh, it's so nice. You get the graphics you can set it up. Even if you don't play CDs anymore. You know, the artwork, you know, put a lot of that, right? You can also check me out at Brittany Ataberry on Facebook and MZLADYSAXX, Ms.LadySaxx on Instagram. Wow. Well, Brittany, it has been a pleasure to have you here on this show. And like I say, because we talked about this, I know you want to come to Hawaii. Yes, absolutely. I got to cut. See, I got the song for it now. You do. I'm ready. You do. You know, so, you know, we're going to have to work on it. We're going to have to definitely work on getting you here. Here to Hawaii to play that, you know, so we all can be, you know, just jamming to it, you know. Oh, my God, thank you so much. And thank you for all the support, the streams. Oh, it's so appreciated. Well, thank you again, Brittany, for being here on the Hawaii Smoojez Connection and to my viewers. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time, Allah and God bless.