 Welcome to the Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. My very special guest today is one of the most creative talents in this era. Having recently enjoyed the title's number one most added on smoothjazz.com and number one on the billboard, Smooth Jazz Charts for his writing on the latest release by multi-grammy award nominee, Najin. This multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer is most known for his high energy and charisma on stage. He has appeared in such major motion pictures as Martial and Breathe. This artist has toured with legendary saxophonist, Najin, and is currently on tour with Smooth Jazz icon, Brian Culberson. He is the musical director for Canadian pop sensation, Julius Wilson, and has recorded with great artists throughout his career, such as Sissy Houston, Marvin Winans, Riley Richard, Chante Moore, Alcasse, Denise Williams, just to name a few. Please welcome Mr. O'Dell, Rishan O'Dell to the show. Aloha, how are you? I'm well, thanks. You're well. First off, I have to say thank you for doing this show because you were just here. You were just here in Hawaii with Brian Culberson. Now you're back in Buffalo, New York, and I know you're tired. What is it like, what, uh, 1106 there? It's, it's pretty, it's pretty late. Pretty late. You should be in bed sleep. So how are you doing? How's it feel to be back? Uh, it feels great to be back, but you know, it's back to the grind, as we say. Right, right. For those, for my viewers, Mr. O'Dell, I tell you, he is off the chain. He was here with Brian Culberson for the past last Friday through Sunday, and they did two shows every day. High energy shows, I must say. High energy. So what I want to ask you is, what, what, or who inspired you to play music? Um, I think that would have to be my dad. He's back, back here with me. Oh, hi dad. Aloha. Yeah, so, uh, yeah, my dad. What, what age did you start playing music? Uh, well, music was just around me. I would, I would watch and, uh, I never really started until late. I was a late bloomer. Oh, really? So, uh, yeah. So, you know, I played sports, and then once I couldn't play sports anymore, I just picked up the music, the music, and the rest was history. Uh-huh. So how many instruments do you play and what are they? Uh, okay, so bass is my principal, and then guitar, piano, violin, trombone, Wow. And pretty much, or yeah, pretty much whatever I pick up. Whatever you pick up. You know, I played, I used to play. I started out playing the violin at the age of six, and then I played flutin' all that through college. So, I know how, I know how that is. That's awesome. You know. So, how was it working with Mr. Brian Colverson? Uh, Brian is, he, he's nothing short of amazing, and I'm not just saying that because I'm working for him, but like, he's, you know, just to sit back and watch him work, uh, professionally, and just on a personal basis. Like, he's a great person. Like, a really, really great person. He really cares about, you know, his, who's in his company, and it's everything, he's, everybody's treated like family. But he's also great with business. He's great with, um, the music is phenomenal. Like, he hears everything. Like, he's, he's got the biggest set of ears. Um, and I don't mean literally, but like, he's, he's got the biggest set of ears. He hears everything. Like, he's, I know why he is where he is. Well, I know those shows are very high energy. The whole band is, is into it. Yeah. And he calls, he definitely, definitely calls for excellent. Yes. If you're going to be around, you know, and I'm sure you know, you know Brian. So you know that he's always great musicians in his company. And so it's, I consider it an honor to be asked to tour with him. Well, that's, that's awesome. That's awesome. Where did you get your musical training? Musical training would have to be just years of listening. Really? And yeah, just, yeah, I'm just soaking it all up, watching my dad at his shows. And, um, my mom would sing. My grandmother, actually she played every instrument and just like my dad, but they played every instrument. So I just picked up a lot. My grandmother introduced me to Liberace. Really? Wow. That introduced me to ACDC, Megadeth, Stevie Wonder, Queen. And a bunch of other random albums that were, oh, Rick James. Just, just, oh, everything. Random albums in the front room. Well, you definitely come from a musical family. That is nice. Wow. Now, when you are not on tour or working on music, what do you do? Uh, usually, well, here lately, a lot of production. So I produce for a lot of artists, one being this, that just came out, Dian. They hear it's her latest single. There's a video on YouTube somewhere. And, uh, I do string arrangements for orchestras. I do, well, orchestra arrangements, I have to say, and then big band arrangements. That's been here lately for the most part. You know, I'm just like every average person. I read a lot of books. If everybody else- What's your favorite book? My favorite book, which I consider my Bible, is Hope on a Tight Rope by Cornel West. Okay. Now, I did read that you have a sociology book. I do. Tell us about that. I do. So I write as well. Uh, I write and I pretty much help people out with kids that's always been like my vocation, sociology, and just, you know, just the betterment of society. But I write on, I write books on parenting. You know, I think that's one thing I'm pretty good at. Wow. And yeah. So you just do it all. You do it all. Yeah. And I keep, I keep the books easy to read because I know that everybody doesn't want a heavy read. You know, they don't want to read a long time. And pretty much the demographic that I'm going for, many of them may not read. So I keep it really, really short and informative. Okay, all right. Now, why don't you tell us about your foundation? Or I should say your production company. Oh, my production company. I started back in 1998, hard to heart music. Basically, I wanted to bring music history and music education back to a community that I felt was dying with the younger generation, not knowing really the history and the culture behind the music, mostly jazz. But, you know, I know sometimes, especially in American culture, we can kind of kind of lose ourselves and lose our identity. So I just want, you know, I just wanted everybody to know exactly where the music came from and that it's still here. Right. So the question that I have is, as you know, I know here in Hawaii anyway, and I don't know how it is on the mainland because I haven't been back in a long time. But, you know, it used to be music and the arts were in the schools. Now they're taking that out. So it's making it a little bit harder for the students to be in band, orchestra, take music lessons, whatever the case may be. What do you think that we can do to possibly bring it back into the school? Of course, you're a production company will help, but what else can we do? Which is why I started the production company, because, you know, teaching in the public school and private sector, I noticed that, you know, everyone knows in that arena knows that music in the arts, you know, is a way to cultivate kids' minds. And, you know, music, the education of music, it teaches kids, you know, math and science, whether they want to or not. You know, it automatically brings their scores up. Knowing that, you know, why pull something like that out of the schools, unless there was, you know, an underlying thing. I don't mean to speak politics. Right, right, right, right. Sociology, but, yeah, so which is why I started my production company, because I wanted to, that was one of the other things I wanted to derail. So, you know, writing, having written music books as well, and, you know, just putting on events, festivals, to acclimate kids back into, or acclimate music and arts back into, you know, the general population, because kids need it, they need it. Exactly, because I know that's what kept me out of trouble growing up. Oh, because, I mean, you take the average teenage boy, their fidgety, they need to do stuff, you know, even taking physical education out of the, out of the schools, that changes everything, because they need that time just to relax, to get off, get off all of that energy, and then they can come back in and focus. Right. But they don't have that, you know, you know, then you have behavioral problems, because not every kid is just, you know, cut and drive, focus, you know, they have schools for that. But at public school, that's not what it is. Right, right. Now, tell me, I saw where you are, the musical director, for, how did that come about, how did that come about in Canada? Yeah, you know, I have really close ties there, friends, family. So, one day I got a phone call to actually just play, just play the show. And eventually, you know, once we started going through all the motions, they needed a leader. So, I just kind of took it upon, I didn't ask for it, it was placed in my lap. You know, things happen for a reason, and it looks like they have the best person to do the job. Yeah, so it's because, you know, he's like a 19-year-old pop star. So, you know, he's all, you know, you know what that means. Like everything that he's the epitome, he's the epitome. So like when I first came across him, he was, I think probably like 50,000 followers on Instagram. So, and I didn't know who he was, but he's an amazing kid. He writes his own stuff, he produces his own stuff. Of course, he has a team of producers and out at 111, 111 Music. Yeah, they are really doing an amazing thing. And I'm excited to be a part of it. I mean, you got, I think nominated for a couple of Junos this year. Wow. Well, we have to go on a quick break. And when we come back, you're going to play something for us, right? We'll do. Okay. We'll be right back. So stay tuned. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. I'm live at five every Wednesday, where we have entertaining and educational conversations that are real and relevant, both here in Hawaii and across the globe. I'll see you at the Crossroads. Aloha. I'm Yukari Kunisue, the host of Konnichiwa, Hawaii, Japanese talk show on Think Tech, Hawaii. Konnichiwa, Hawaii is all Japanese broadcast show. And it's streamed live on Think Tech at 2pm every other Monday. Thank you so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. I'm Yukari Kunisue. Mahalo. Aloha and welcome back to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I'm here with my special guest, Mr. Rishan O'Dell. And he plays the bass with Mr. Brian Culverson. So thank you again for being here for our viewers that are just now tuning in. I know you are jet lagged. You are back in Buffalo, New York. And it's way past your bedtime. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. So we have a special treat. Mr. O'Dell says that he will play something for us. And this is just going to be a little snippet, because what I saw when he was here was like off the chain, for real. So what you going to play for us, Rishan? Uh, we'll see what happens. Not to mention my dad's dog is on top of my foot pedal, so I couldn't get to anything. This is what happens when we do things like this. So you have the dog sitting on the bed. They don't know. They don't like my... That's okay. That's okay. Yeah, no, the whole thing with the looper and everything, but I've got a big bulldog on my pedal board. It's okay. That was still awesome. That was still awesome. Now, what I want to ask you is, what would you give? As you know, it's kind of hard getting out into the music industry for some people. So what advice would you give a new artist starting out in the industry? I would say, depending on where you are, I will say, as far as America, actually, you know what? Anywhere in the world, create your own market. That's it. Create your own market. Don't wait for an artist to come to West Jehunger to come pick you up. And that's nine times out of 10. It's not going to happen. What you do is create your own market. And then you allow people, if you want to go up under somebody, that's fine. But one thing about Brian is everybody in Brian's band is their own artist. When they, in their own city or in their own market, they have their own CDs. They have their own brand. So I think that's very important for an upcoming artist or upcoming musician. Awesome. Awesome. What's new for you? What do you have coming on? Oh, so I have, of course, I'm a producer. I've been behind the scenes just like Brian when he came on. But I also have my own singles. I'm finally going to release my full CD. I've always done a few songs here, a few songs there, a lot of singles. But I'm finally going to release my CD and there are a ton of songs because I've written songs for everybody. So I've got, I think, going down the list. There's Marcus Anderson. He's going to do a song with me. There's Ryan Kilgore, who has done already a song with me. That's going on album. Elon Trotman. And one more, Adrian Crutchfield, who was on to Brian. Yes, the saxophone player. The saxophone player, yes. That's the last saxophone player I'm going to use on the project, I promise. And then Brian's going to do one. Yeah. I'm going to do one with me. Nathan Mitchell out of Florida. He's going to do one with me. He's a keyboardist, vocalist, and, oh, Riley Richard. I can't, no, I said no more saxophone players. Okay, so Buck Riley, Richard and I are working on a project right now. That'll be out as probably as a single, but I produced that one. Really? Well, I can't wait to hear this music. I cannot wait to hear it. Not at all. But I'm super excited. And then I have some stuff with Alex Booyoung owes me a favor. So if you're listening, Alex, I'm going to cash in. All right. Now aren't you coming up? You guys are about to go back out on tour. I know you're in a little bit of a break right now because you just left Hawaii. So now you're about to go back out, but now on the mainland, right? Yeah. Out like, okay. East Coast, mostly East Coast. I'm going to make sure I tell all my friends about it. Yeah, that'll be great. And tell them the, tell them the, tell them the hell me. I will definitely, I will definitely tell them that, but I want to thank you so much for taking time because I know you're tired to be here with me today. It's awesome. Good luck to you or the tour. I'm going to try and come out there. We'll see. I'm going to try. I don't know. Y'all just pop up. But anyway, I'm going to try and come out there, but thank you so much for being here on Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. And to my viewers, thank you so much for tuning in. Tune in again next week, same time, when we're going to have Joshua K on the show. Until next time, Aloha and God bless.