 And welcome to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. My guest today has been called the Renaissance Man, which is a term dating back to the time of Leonardo da Vinci, who was described as a man of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination. My guest for a decade musical journey through the worlds of R&B, pop and jazz, is the modern day musical equivalent to Leonardo da Vinci. Starting as a drummer, he became an engineer for R&B legends Diana Ross, Luther Van Dros and Aretha Franklin, before evolving into a two-time Grammy award-winning urban jazz producer with over 60 number one radio airplay hits and finally a popular guitarist, artist and performer in his own right. Please welcome Mr. Paul Brown to the show. Aloha! Oh, you did it! How are you? How are you? How are you today? It's great. I've been looking forward to talking to you. I've been looking forward to talking with you as well. I'm so excited that you are here with us today. And I know some people, I've had some people ask me some questions that they want me to ask you. So some are going to be my questions. Some are going to be probably taken, you know, from the people that have asked me. But let's get started, okay? You started playing the drums at an early age and I think I read it was around the age of five, right? And then a couple years later, you started with a guitar. Now you come from a musical background where your mom and dad sang for Mel Tormé, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. What was it like growing up in a musical family? Well, it was, you know, for me it was all I knew. But it was great. I used to go with my mom and dad to the studios all the time growing up and my drumsticks in my back pocket and, you know, back then they did these variety shows like the Red Skelton show and the Dinah Shore show and Nat King Cole show. And so I tag along and there would be the orchestra there playing and, you know, on the Red Skelton show they had the Dave Rose Orchestra, Ray Brown on bass and Frank Cap on drums. And I would sit back there by Frank Cap and Ray Brown and Ray Brown was going, man, you sure you don't want to play the bass. They were such great guys and my mom and dad were singers. So they would, you know, be rehearsing with the singers and the orchestra would be playing, the dancers would be dancing and it was like that every week. I just figured, you know, that's the way it is. And so I got to witness a lot of unbelievable performances because back then the variety shows pretty much had anybody who was a star at that time for Sinatra, you know, Sashmo, elephants Gerald, you know, Sarah Vaughn, on and on and on and they sang with them all. So I got to see that on a daily basis pretty much and then when I got older I started going to the studio myself and started getting into the recording process and producing and so on and writing. Now, what made you pick the instruments that you play, the drums and the guitar? What made you pick those? Well the drums, I was just a little kid and my dad was working with Henry Mancini and Ledwig company gave Henry Mancini a set of drums and he didn't know what to do with him. So he asked my dad if he wanted them. So my dad took them and gave them to me. And it just so happened also that my uncle Al, Al Goodman, was a really well known drummer with Vicky Carr and some other people. And so I had drum lessons from the time I was five till fifteen every week with Al Goodman. Wow. He played the vibes and the drums so you know the way he taught me was like he would write out a rhythm you know and he would play the vibes. So he would just jam out on the vibes and I was grooving on the drums. So from a very early age I was you know playing with other musicians on a pretty high level and improvising and sort of seeing how you know the play between musicians works. Wow. Amazing. You're so lucky. You were so lucky. Now you started in high school at an early age getting in or working as in the engineering studio. Correct? What made you get into that engineering portion? Well again it was you know from going to the studios with my parents I would sit in the control room often while they were out recording and I was like you know these guys. These are the cool guys. They're doing the cool job. They're engineering and taking care of business and it just always looked like something that was really fun for me and I was even as a drummer I was already arranging the songs and my bands and writing the music. So it was kind of a natural progression and also again you know with the family my brother-in-law Lee Hershberg was Chief Engineer Warner Brothers so when I you know when I could I started working for him. Oh wow. Wow. He was doing my start in the studio like really working in the studio and basically he quit playing drums at that time and started just producing and engineering. Amazing. You attended the University of Oregon and you studied music and math. So once you completed your college career once you graduated you moved back to LA. What was your first job out of college? Actually with an English singer Long John Bollardry. He came to the troubadour in LA where my band was playing. And his band got stuck in immigration in England. He was about to do a tour of Canada in the United States and he really enjoyed my band and afterwards his manager asked us if we all wanted to go on tour with him starting in a week going to rehearsals in the next couple days and we were like wow okay really okay well yeah I'm kind of interested so we went and got the record and started listening to it and learned the songs and we were in rehearsal a couple days later on the road making money and it was my whole band that basically had a high school. Nice. Nice. Now eventually you stepped from behind the scenes from producing and engineering and all that and then in 2004 you released your first album up front. What made you decide to come from behind the scenes and release your first album and put yourself out there? It kind of came as a surprise a little bit because I was really busy as a producer and had very little downtime to work on myself as an artist and I probably produced over 100 records at that time and I was writing a song one day and it was this song and that was 24-7 but I wasn't writing it for me I was writing it for you know Boney or Kirk Whelan or somebody and I had played it back and I listened to it and I was like wow that really sounds like a finished record for the first time I never had that experience with me as a guitar player artist and I was like wow this is really cool so I played it for some people and they're like man this is great who is it? I said well it's me and said we'll do a few more so I did a few more and you know I got signed to 48 years old to do my first record so I kind of went backwards because usually it works the other way around the guys you know they make records for a while they learn how to produce records and then they start producing people and whatnot but I kind of went backwards but that's that's just kind of the way it worked for me. Awesome awesome now when you're not touring or producing or or playing or composing or composing what do you do in your spare time? I love the golf I you know see from my raging suntan today I have a golfer that's one great thing about Hawaii nothing but golf courses and I love wine and my wife and I like to search out some bottles of wine and enjoy those and we love to travel and we have two kids and then you know we do the normal things. Normal family things? Yeah we got dogs you know kids all that. Now your wife and your kids are they in the music industry as well? Well funny enough my wife 40 years by the way everybody's always like how in the hell can you stay married in Los Angeles music business and did I tell you know what it's like 15 minutes underwater no we love each other we have a great relationship and she's been pretty independent she's an author and she's done comedy and you know she's worked for the LA Times as a writer and so she keeps herself really busy but I never heard her sing until about six months ago she wrote this song for our daughter and we have a daughter who's an addict and she wrote this beautiful song and she was singing it around the house I'm like wow that sounds pretty amazing and then we had friends come over and she would sing the song and eventually I said you know we gotta record this song so we recorded it it was her first time singing first time recording and the song Somebody's Child which is kind of like from a child's perspective of being you know an addict and having a home I'm not having a home but anyway that song My Record Company loved so much they put it on my last record Uptown Lose so that song by Becky is actually on that record and then they loved it so much they're like well you guys got to do a whole record so we just finished doing a whole record on her called Love Love Love and Jackie Brown and it's gonna come out on My Record Company that my records come out on Woodward Avenue and it's finished and the singles out now called Y.O.Y. and it's called Y.O.Y. The singles called Y.O.Y. the album's called Love Love Love okay I'm gonna be looking for that I really want to hear that I really do want to hear that album want to hear the whole album and it's pretty interesting it's kind of country-ish Americana folk-ish has some some jazzy you know influences but essentially it's more of a country style and she's Canadian but still she loves country music and maybe that's one reason we never talk about music for 40 years so now we're doing you know the nice thing is we've been doing a lot of gigs together and she'll come up and sing a couple songs and so when I go on the road hopefully I won't be alone anymore so that's nice oh nice yeah that would be nice that would be nice now if you did not if you did not be coming musician what would you be doing right now what do you think you'd be doing right now I'd probably be a pastry chef an oil rig now I don't know I really you know I fortunately have never had to make that decision when I was you know after I graduated college there was a time when I thought I might go into professional sports of some kind I was basketball player and volleyball player and golfer but that never materialized and I just wanted to play music and it's just been it's been my life since I was born basically and I really don't know any other way to go about living honestly well I love your music and we have to go on a quick break but we'll be right back hi I'm Rusty Komori host of beyond the lines on think tech Hawaii my show is based on my book also titled beyond the lines and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence leadership and finding greatness I interview guests who are successful in business sports and life which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness join me every Monday as we go beyond the lines at 11 a.m. Aloha hey loha my name is Andrew Lening I'm the host of security matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on think tech Hawaii live from the studios I'll bring you guests I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe your co-workers safe your family safe to keep our community safe we want to teach you about those things in our industry that you know may be a little outside of your experience so please join me because security matters aloha aloha and welcome back to the Hawaii smooth jazz connection where my guest today is Grammy award guitarist Mr. Paul Brown and I am so glad he is here with me today or I should say via via Skype hi welcome back well thank you for still being here now we were we were just chatting it up a little bit before the break and I'd like to know what do you feel is the best song or album that you have ever released and why one of the ones I mean I've been so lucky because I've gotten to work with some of the most amazing artists and some of my favorite I'm like George Benson you know I'm like whom I said hey I want you to come and work for me at GRP I want you to produce you know the first thing I want you to do is George Benson like okay and I you know I got to work without Jero I worked with Luther van drills for 15 years and you know these guys just they're just on another planet and love doing every minute of it and you know had some great music with Bonnie James we did nine records together which is pretty unusual in this business and written probably over a hundred songs with Bonnie so there's a lot of special moments I mean some of the Luther stuff is just incredible yes yes and I must say when before the interview and getting to know you and all that and reading everything I'm reading everything I'm like oh he worked with Jesse Jay oh he worked with this person oh he did it so much I'm telling you to my viewers if you do not know you need to go to his website and read about him it's just so many people that you would not have thought that this man has worked with and I know why you are in a Grammy Award winning guitarist I know I know now you've worked with all all of these people and this leads into my next question you have worked with so many musicians and artists who would you like to collaborate with next somebody that you haven't worked with kind of hard work a lot yeah honestly I you know I really wanted to work with the Franklin and I really wanted to do a jazz record with the Rita I think that would have been incredible and lately I've been actually singing one of her songs you know goodness see now you have to come back to Hawaii you know because now I'm sitting here in the studio grooving to that like a bluesy version of a song and the point of it was that you can take you know artists that aren't necessarily because you wouldn't consider me someone that would do an Aretha song so in the same fashion Aretha wouldn't be expected to do a sort of jazzy or right you know but there there's a lot of great you know vocalist I like working with vocalists honestly yeah that this it's just you know that's the music that I grew up listening to and and playing and I didn't really get into instrumental music and smooth jazz until I was you know in my 30s I guess you know I mean I like Eric Clapton you know some of my influences are you know I was a deadhead so Jerry Garcia Jerry Garcia and Wes I like I listen to them both and I love them for what they do and I always say you know I'd rather listen to I'd probably rather listen to Eric Clapton and you know John McLaughlin or some amazing technicians so that's just kind of the way I grew up nice now if you can have your fans remember one thing about you what would it be oh oh dear I guess that I you know I'm very passionate about music and luckily I've been able to experience music that that that moves me and makes the hair in my arms stand up and when that happens I know that the record that I'm producing is done or the performance that I'm trying to get is done and I've been lucky to be able to to get that and I don't everybody has that good fortune so I've been really lucky so I don't know I just I live and breathe music it's starting you know people always say are you a you know religious person and I I'm really not but I'm a spiritual person when I say that music is my you know in my religion I guess because every day I'm either playing it writing it producing it arranging it recording it or going out on the road and playing it live so it's pretty much the air I breathe and what makes me tick now your latest album the latest one is kind is titled uptown blues what made you come up with the title of that album well I've been messing with you know I have a blues band to call brothers brown with another guy named Paul Brown losing Nashville and I've been incorporating a lot of blues into my music and I love Jeff Gallo and actually wrote this song blues for Jeff which is on this album for him and and I was working with this drummer who's a blues drummer like Tony Bronnical he plays with Taj Mahal and Robert Cray and others and he's a great producer and he was listening to my to my brother's ground out of him actually and he was commenting so you know man it's not like really bluesy it's it's more like uptown it's uptown blues this meaning you know a little bit more sophisticated than your normal blues as core changes in there that moves core you know musicians don't use but it still has the roots of blues so that I thought wow that's a great name so that's how it became that's how it became well I like it I like the whole album like I said I love all of your music I love it all my favorite album of yours is White Sand album which you did in 2007 I love it now yeah that's a very nice album now as you know music in the schools the music and the arts in the schools are slowly being taken away out out of the schools so what is your thought or what do you think that we can do to try and keep it in the school so our our students or our young people can have you know to learn the music in the arts and and be like you well I mean you know it's all up to the parents the parents just have to fight for it you know they have to let the schools know they have to call their Congress people and I mean you know people just have to stand up for it they can't just keep letting them be cuts like that since crazy you know you go to other places in the world and they have way more importance put on the arts and music in schools etc and America it's a shame but most states you know just cut that's where they cut it's weird yes and it's unfortunate in the education period you know the education of his country is not what it should be and that includes the arts what advice would you give for new musicians or artists that are trying to make it into the industry because you know some make it in some dough so what advice would you give them to come if they want to come into the music industry well one things for sure you have to do pretty much everything now I mean if I was just trying to play the guitar I couldn't have my lifestyle I couldn't this wouldn't be possible you know I have to engineer I have to write I have to record I have to produce I have to do everything arrange go out and play music whatever I have to do all those things so you pretty much have to have a really good you know coverage of a lot of areas and very very few people can make a living just playing an instrument and God bless the ones that can but I couldn't I can make I can make a living as a producer but not as a guitarist what new projects do you have coming up you you said a few but do you have anything new any tours that are coming up that we should know like maybe you're coming to Hawaii can you make some calls for me I'm playing in Portugal this year and I think my wife's gonna go with me on that and probably play a few songs and playing in South Carolina September 1st and Atlanta August 29th I think and you know here and there and everywhere and I'm playing with some new artists that I'm producing here in LA at the Mint and other places in LA like the write-off room and I'm just trying to get these new artists off the ground including my wife we're gonna actually go to Nashville and do all the open mic you know just guitar vocal acoustic guitar and singing these singing these bars and just you know go up and down the street walking down Broadway and do some that are set up and some are not and just you know play music nice now where can people go to look for your tour schedule to look up your biography to look to learn about you where can people look you up well you know I get an email from wiki from Wikipedia almost every day now well you know set up a page for you or what I'm like geez I have a website all brown jazz.com that's my website and my touring is there my records are there where you can get the records it's all there but you can pretty much everywhere that records are available the records are there so that's nice okay so you heard that everyone you can look up Mr. Paul Brown at www.PaulBrownJazz.com and I'm telling if you want to learn about this man this awesome man go to that website look up to where he's playing and maybe we will get him to Hawaii we're gonna work on that we're gonna work on that I'm have to talk to Mr. Palo on that one but I want to thank you so much for joining us here today it's been a pleasure to speak with you to talk with you and to see you again and hopefully I'll get to see you whenever you come back to Hawaii yes that would be great and big love to everybody in Hawaii can't wait to get back over there and see everybody all my friends awesome awesome well I thank you everyone for tuning in here to the Hawaii smooth jazz connection starting on June the 13th I will be moving to 4 p.m. and I will be every two weeks I'll still be on Thursdays so tune in on June 13th when we'll be adding some spice and Latin flavor to the show with Eddie Ortiz and Cynthia Romero of the song could he be salsa band and they will actually be in studio so until then aloha and God bless