 Aloha, and welcome to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. My guest today was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and began singing before he began speaking. He got his start in the church as a member of his family gospel group, the Walker Brothers. With aspirations of attending the new school for jazz and contemporary music, he sold his bass amp and bought a one-way ticket to New York, where he began another chapter in his musical journey. In his tenure at the school, this musician was afforded the opportunity to play with such jazz greats as Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey, Bob James, Jimmy Heath, Cassandra Wilson, and countless others. His musicianship garnered him a position as the musical director for R&B songstress Regina Bell, as well as touring with Ornette Coleman. This musician's first release, first time, produced two top five singles, giving you all my love and take time, which crossed over to become top 30 on the pot charts. His second release, entitled Sincerely Yours, included the classic song, How Do You Heal a Broken Heart, written by Chris and Carol Bayer-Sager, which has received over 40 million views on YouTube. As a student and lover of jazz music, it was an opportunity that came via a former teacher, Gil Goldstein, that would bring to fruition a longtime dream of his to work as musical director with seven-time Grammy Award winner, Al Jarrell. Chris was co-executive producer for Basanova Noetis, which produced shows for the USOC, French, German, and Japanese houses during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, featuring Daniel Jobel and Alexandra Jackson. In 2014, this musician co-founded and serves as president of Doc Fest, a non-profit organization that raises scholarship funds for deserving high school for the performing and visual arts. HBSBA Houston students attending the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York. He is currently working on a tribute CD to honor the life and legacy of his mentor and friend, Al Jarrell. My guest has worked with Al Jarrell, George Benson, four play, Yolanda Adams, Regina Bell, Dave Koss, Jonathan Butler, Kurt Wellum, Lisa Fisher, Gerald Albright, Jeffrey Osborne, Ornette Coleman, Bob James, Boney James, Cassandra Wilson, Diane Reeves, Jimmy Heath, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Daniel Jobem, Helen Song, Peter White, Alice Booyoung, Candy Dulfer, Mindy a Bear, Sheely E, Rick Braun, and many more. That was just to name a few. Please welcome my guest, Mr. Chris Walker to the show. What's up? Aloha. How are you? Aloha. Thank you so much. You didn't know who it was, huh? Who was that? You have been busy. Thank you so much for joining us on the show because I know at the time, what time is it where you are? It is actually 10.08. It's like probably past your bedtime. I'm keeping you up. I'm sorry. That's my bed. No, I'm burning the midnight oil. I'm sorry. But again, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and to my viewers, before we get started, we're going to talk about this later. Mr. Chris Walker will be here in a few weeks with Dave Kahn. They will be at Blue Note Hawaii with Dave Kahn and Adam Hawley. And I am so excited. I can't wait. I can't wait to see that show. I know that's going to be an awesome show. I know you're ready to come to Hawaii, yeah? Look here, make sure you bring your dancing shoes. Oh, really? Okay. Well, we have been warned. We have been warned. So Chris, so Chris, tell me, in reading your bio at the beginning, you have a very strong, you have very strong roots in the church. How was it growing up in a musical family? It was awesome. My brothers and I, we had a family gospel called the Walker Brothers, and I started off on the drums and my father put the bass guitar in my hand upside down because I'm left-handed. So I played like Jimmy Hendrix. Oh, wow. And yeah, so I played bass and sang, and my oldest brother played guitar, and my youngest brother played drums. And we had a family gospel group. We actually opened up for Shirley Caesar, the mighty clouds of joy, and a lot of famous quartet style gospel singers. So this is, it was awesome. It was awesome. Oh, my goodness. I wish I had seen that. I need to see some video of that now. I need to see some video of that. I really do. Well, I have a few recordings. Oh, do you? OK, OK. Now you said that you play the bass and you play the drums. Are there any other instruments that you play? Basically just the rhythm instruments, the piano, guitar, bass and drum pretty much. That I mean, I dabble with profession, but primarily the rhythm section. Oh, wow. I see I need to hear that all this. You know, I read your bio. I play percussion with my with my mouth, which I'll demonstrate when I come there. Oh, wow. OK, OK. Yeah, the mouth is an instrument also. OK, OK. All right. Now you worked with Mr. Gina Bell and I had the pleasure of meeting her and seeing her when she came to Hawaii. It was a couple years ago. She was at the Blue Note as well. How was that working with Regina Bell? Regina Bell was awesome. As a matter of fact, that's that's how I got my start in the business. I'll tell you a quick story. There was a drummer by the name of Abe Fogle. I was attending the New School for Jazz, Contemporary Music in New York City. And he told me about an audition for Regina Bell. He said, why don't you come down and audition as well? So I said, OK, I go down to the audition with my bass guitar. And in walks for Gina and I'm playing and she ended up hiring me on the spot. Wow. And shortly afterwards, I became her musical director. Now, she did a song with James J.T. Taylor from the movie Tap entitled All I Want Is Forever. And she tried to get him to come and sing it. And, you know, he was either too busy or he wanted a ton of money, a limo and everything else. But anyway, so she said, Chris, why don't you sing? And I at first I declined and I said, no, that time I was I was 18. You know, and I was nervous and I was just like, no, that's OK. I was comfortable behind the base guitar. But she said, just sing the first three lines of the song. So I did and she stopped the band and she looked at me and she said, you're singing this song, whether you want to or not. Oh, wow. You have a great voice. You're singing it in the story. So from singing that duet with her and traveling with. We did a show once for some executive for CBS. And one of the gentlemen there left CBS and started his own label and actually signed me as his first artist and and the journey began. Wow, what a journey. Now, I know I read in your bio. Uh huh. Where you you just left Houston with a with a little bit of money with a little bit of money in your pocket and went to New York. That's right. Little bit of money, but a lot of faith. Exactly. And you have to have faith. You have to have faith. But look at look at where you are now. It all started there. Now, I wouldn't advise your audience to do this if they're, you know, 18, you know, 18 years old. But what I did, I walked into the kitchen with my bags packed and I told my parents, I'm moving to New York City. And they looked at me like, what, you're going where? But I put out an application to attend the new school for jazz contemporary music. And this school told me not to come because I didn't have the funds. So I had a basin. So the base amp bought a one-way ticket to New York and school was already a month in progress. So when I arrived, I walked into the auditorium and heard her music and some guys were on stage and just so happened, they didn't have a base player. So they invited me up to play. So as I'm playing along, the dean of the school walked in and then struck over the program and gave me a full scholarship. Wow. Wow. Now, that was faith. That was faith, you know, and the word says that, you know, the steps of a good man are ordered, but you have to be moving in order for them to be ordered. Yes, standing and still, they can't be ordered. Yes. Yes. Now, you worked with your mentor, Mr. Algero. Yes. How was that? I simply loved Algero. I loved him. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Well, the picture that you're seeing right now is the cover, which was handpainted by the gentleman's name is Pascal Martos, and he's out of Paris. And this is the cover for the new CD that I that I'm that I'm completed. Actually, it's entitled Wearing This Love Together, Celebrating Algero. And if you look at the guest list and includes Gerald Albright. I see that list. Long list. And I tell you, it's been a labor of love. And so far, everyone that has heard it has reached out to me and just given it rave review. I mean, rave reviews. And in fact, I'll probably perform a few of those songs from that project in Hawaii. Oh, awesome. I can't wait. I can't wait to hear it. Now, when is the CD? When will the CD be out? Is it is it out already? Can we get it now? We're still working on it or what? Actually, it's not out. The release is it's not out yet because I'm working on worldwide distribution. However, I will bring some copies to to Hawaii to the Blue Note specifically for the Blue Note. So you'll have it before anybody else. Wow. Oh, I can't wait. Oh, I'm I'm excited now. We got two weeks so I can get this album. Two days now you're talking. Now, I mentioned I mentioned your foundation in your introduction. Tell us some more about that. Tell us some more about that. OK, well, Doc Fest was co-founded by Tamar Davis and I were graduates from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. And of course, my association with the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. We wanted to start something to honor my high school teacher and also to raise scholarship funds for deserving students going to the new school. So the foundation was started in 2014 and since its inception, we've raised the scholarship fund is now probably at a cost of one hundred sixty thousand dollars. Oh, OK, nice. And we started with a twenty five thousand dollar corpus, but now it's up to one hundred sixty thousand and we're we're growing every every year. So one year we had a broke came and performed for us. Bob James, Everett Harp, Robert Glass became last year and Gerald. So, you know, it's just it's continuing to grow and we're we're we're helping students go to college because it's it's terribly expensive. Yes, it is. And that leads into my next question. And I ask all of my guests this because I grew up playing music in the schools, but now, you know, they're taking it out of the schools. So I see that your organization looks like it's helping. It's helping. What else do you think we can do? Well, I think, you know, collectively, if we maybe start asking people to donate instruments, perhaps and try to implement after school programs and teach teach kids how to play an instrument. I mean, and just take a few volunteers to do it. But it's possible because one of the things I'd like to do is also start a summer program where we're mentoring kids. No, and it's, you know, instrumentalists, vocalists and giving them an outlet, you know, for the summer and then and do a big concert at the end of the summer camp. Nice. Nice. Well, so you need to be here in Hawaii because that's that's that's what we need to do in the schools in the schools here for sure. Now, what are what would what would you for new musicians or new artists coming up? Because there's a lot of them. Some make it and some don't. True. What would you tell a new artist that's coming up today? Well, the music business has definitely changed and you can actually you don't need the big record companies anymore to release a project, although having the machine behind you certainly helps with the distribution. But but my advice would be you have to stay true to who you are and kind of charge your own path and stick to it. You're going to run into a lot of people that's going to tell you what you can't do, but I'm a firm believer that you speak what you want to happen into existence and it will come to you. So that's what I've been doing all of my all of my life. And I continue to do it to this day. I mean, that's how I was able to complete the Algero Tribute CD. In fact, I launched a Kickstarter campaign of 30 days and I was able to meet my goal and and raise enough funds to complete the project. So go after it, pray on it, trust God and you'll deliver every single time. Nice, nice. Well, we have to go on a quick break, but I promise you we have to go on a break. You know, we got a week. Yes, I know, I know, but we'll be right back. Don't go. We'll be right back. Aloha, this is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About where every other week, Mondays at three, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation and world and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at three o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Tisha King. You can catch me every Wednesday. Alive at five. I'll see you there. Aloha and welcome back to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. And I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. Today we have a very special guest via satellite, Skype, whatever we're using here in the studio, Mr. Chris Walker. Hi again. Can you hear us? Can you hear me? OK, I can hear you now. I can hear you now. See, this is what happens, you know, when you deal with the Skype issue. But again, thank you so much for being here. Again, to my viewers that are just joining us, Mr. Walker will be here in Hawaii in a few weeks. I'm counting it down because I can't wait to see him. So get your tickets, get your tickets. Yes, we're going to do that, too. Get your tickets, get your tickets. Mr. Walker, Chris Walker will be here in Blue Note, Hawaii with Dave Kais and Adam Hawley. Get your tickets, get your tickets. Don't don't miss it. Don't miss it because I'll probably be at all the shows. You know, Blue Notes, my second home. But now getting getting back to you. We've talked about you working with Regina Bell. We've talked about you working with Mr. Algero and various other artists. OK, now is there any artist who you haven't collaborated with yet or haven't worked with yet that you would like to work with? Well, there are a few, but I have to say Stevie Wonder is pretty high on my list. You need a second person to say everybody says that. Everybody says Stevie Wonder. I mean, I love his music. And one time I was I was probably like five feet from him and he was getting ready to go on stage. I knew some of his band members and I started to walk up to him and just say, hey, Stevie, how you doing? But he was preparing to go on stage. And I said, no, but I missed that opportunity. But I wish I could go back and get it to me. See, you should have went for it. You should have went for that. You said it's true. You should have went for that opportunity. But I'm pretty sure, you know, I'm pretty sure it will come up. It'll come up again. Now, you're going to be coming. Huh? Go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to I was going to I was going to say I actually met him years ago when when I was Regina Bell's musical directors. It's too funny because well, we she performed in in Los Angeles and Stevie came to the show. And so we're in the green room and in come Stevie and he sits down at the piano and he starts playing and singing. Of course, Regina is singing with him and in walks Eddie Murphy with about five bodyguards. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. It was hilarious. That must have been something else. That must have been something else. Yeah, it's quite funny. So and I had an opportunity to meet Denzel Washington. Actually, he came to he came to see Nancy Wilson one time and Regina went as well and we all got a chance to just kind of hang out a little bit. And I was surprised that he was as short as he is. But anyway, not to run it for you, but I'm taller than Denzel. Oh, no, no, you didn't know you did. Sorry, Denzel. No, you didn't know. Let me ask you. Now, as we talked about your project that you're doing or your CD that's coming out with the tribute to Algero, what else do you have coming out? What what what what other things are you doing? What stories are you going on? What what do you have this coming up? Let us know. You never know. There might be somebody out there that's going to be. Oh, I want to go see him. Right. Well, I just finished the Dave Koss cruise, which was it failed it for two weeks in Australia. We went to Burney, Tasmania, Eaton and one other location. But which was awesome. And right after that, I recently performed at the Berks Jazz Festival in Reddy, Spain, which is a huge festival, a 10 day festival. And I'm getting ready, of course, to go to Japan, Hawaii. And then I'm performing in Mallorca, Spain. Oh, wow. Right. So there's a lot of things on the table. And I have an announcement for the Christmas holidays, but I can't share it just yet. Not yet. I can't share it just yet. But it's an upcoming tour that I'm excited about. And I'm I'm actually a part of it. Oh, nice. I'll share it perhaps by the time I get. OK, well, we'll be looking forward to it. We definitely will be looking, looking forward to that. Now, you guys, you, Dave Koss and Adam Hawley will be here in a few weeks. What can we expect from this awesome trio? These great men that are coming at Blue Note, Hawaii. What can we expect? Well, as you very well know, Dave Koss is an incredible performer and so is Adam Hawley. And the thing about it is it's going to be an energetic show. It's going to take you on some emotional roller coaster. And the main thing is that we just going to have a good time. OK, great music. And I think there's going to be something for everybody. So so make sure you come get the tickets early before the show sell out. Yes, it's going to be it's going to be a lot of fun. Yes, a lot of fun. And if you're an Algerofan, make sure you come because I'm going to I'm going to do a few selections off of the new CD. Oh, awesome. So speaking of doing selections. Yes. Would you be able to just like, you know, give us a little sample of what what we're going to hear at Blue Note, Hawaii. OK, well, one of my let's see. I'll give you this one music. I'm owning Mr. Rain of New York. I'm owning a little cheerio. I'm owning Sister. Don't worry, oh, I need a few things. Fine. Who in my mind and my favorite part of the bridge. My heart will. So. We love that's rare. My smiling face. We'll see. Every cloud, I need you to sing the second. Higher. I know I can't like it even without my hand. OK, get your tickets, everybody. Get your tickets to go see. You've got a blue note, Hawaii.com. Get your tickets, because I already got mine. I got mine. I got it already have my ticket. Whoa. Thank you. You're welcome. No, I can't wait now. I cannot wait. And also, I'd like to share with your listeners if you want to get to know me a little bit more, you can check me out on my website, ChrisWalkersMusic.com, or you can look me up on YouTube. I have a number of videos. In fact, I mentioned Stevie Wonder. I recently added to YouTube a link of me singing Overjoy. Oh, I love that song. Overjoy, and I did a wonderful arrangement for the Dave Koss cruise. So check that out if you get a chance. And some of my other videos as well. One of my songs, How Do You Heal a Broken Heart, that I wrote that you mentioned earlier with Parabella Sager, it's over 55 million views now. Wow. So yeah, so check me out. Everybody, check him out. Check him out. You have to check him out. Yes. Another thing I'd like to share. I'm doing a show. I have a very large audience fan base in South Africa. Oh, wow. And I'm going there, performing there at the Sun Arena, July 8th, July 7th, I'm sorry, in Pretoria. Okay. And I have a special guest that's actually coming along with me. I can't share now, but I will by the time I get there. Oh, okay. So that means people have to get their tickets to South Africa now, huh? To come to... Oh, come on now. To come to follow you now, to follow you. And you get a full 90 to 100 10 minute show of Chris Walker. Oh, wow. Wow. Everybody, you heard that, right? Again, get your tickets. Chris Walker will be here in Hawaii in a few weeks with Dave Kahn's and Adam Hawley. This is a show you do not want to miss. I'm telling you, you just heard how he sang just now, and he's not even on the stage. He's not on the stage. I know, I was holding back. I was holding back. Well, Chris, I thank you so much for being here on the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I cannot wait to meet you. I cannot wait to meet you in a few weeks. Yes, we're going to eat lobsters and we're going to just have fun. Yes, yes. I owe you, I owe you. I truly owe you, I owe you. But thank you so much. Oh, you're more than welcome. And we will see you in a few weeks. Sounds good, I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited, come on out and party. That's right, everybody, come on out to Blue Note, Hawaii and come and see Chris Walker, Dave Kahn's and Adam Hawley. I'm telling you, it's not going to be a show that you do not want to miss. But our time has come to an end here. Thank you so much, I know. Thank you so much, Chris, for being here with us. I will see you in a few weeks. And everyone else, I will see you next week. Aloha.