 and welcome to the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection. I am your host, Gwendolyn Harris. I hope everyone's new year is going great so far. It has been a few months since I've done my show, but I am back. My guest today is a very special and talented young musician who was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a top 10 billboard charting artist, producer, composer, and contemporary jazz bassist. He has been called a musical genius and has been compared to the great musicians Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Wayman Tisdale. This artist is a graduate of the University of Missouri, Kansas City Conservatory of Music and is currently touring and playing bass with the amazing saxophonist and flutist Najee. I am so happy to have him here on the show. Let's welcome Mr. Blair Bryant to the show. Aloha, I'm good. How are you? I am well. I am just so excited to have you on the show today. You know, we saw each other back in November at Jazz Legacy and I told you then I need you on my show. You remember that? I do. I remember that just like yesterday. And you are here. Thank you again for being here. Let's get this party started. Like I like to say, how did you get your start in music, Blair? Musical genius. Ah, well, I don't know about genius, but well, my mother is a musician. She's always been in the church and my family is full of musicians. I got uncles that play drums and I got cousins that play bass. So music was just always really in my family and my mother, like I said, she was in the church and my dad at the time couldn't watch me. So I would end up going to church with my mother. So my mother was always playing and I just never forget when I was a kid, when I was a baby, actually, I was a really bad baby. I was busy, I was all over the place. So I just remember her telling me that the drummer at her church at the time, we lived in Florida during this time. The drummer offered to watch me doing service. So he kept, so he would keep me by him doing service and he would play the drums and he noticed I was interested. So one day, I don't know why he just decided to give me a drumstick to hit and with him doing service. And when he gave me that drumstick, I started playing the drums with him and I started, I was on beat, I was on rhythm and he noticed it and he was like, hey, my mom's name is Alyssa. So he was like, Alyssa, do you see what's going on here? Like your son, your son's got something here. You need to invest him in a drum set. So they ended up buying me a drum set when I was like one and a half years old and started playing it, beating on pots and pans and one thing led to another. They said, I used to always make these weird sounds with my mouth and they figured it out that I was making cymbal sound, which is. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. So I started playing drums at age two by three. I could play a full drum set or at least decent enough to keep time. And everybody was just amazed by it and led to me picking up other instruments and here I am today. Well, Blair, you play how many instruments? I know, but I want you to tell the audience how many instruments do you play? I counted 21. I think that's about accurate. Yeah, about 21 different instruments. And I'm hoping to learn more. I want to learn some more. Hopefully by next year or the end of this year, I'll have another one on my belt. So we'll see how that goes. Wow. So you just amazed me. You are just so amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Now, we're gonna get into your discography, okay? For those of you that do not know, this young man has four albums out. Am I correct? That's correct. Four? So 2015, you'd have new colors. 2016, you have gold. 2018, you have cerulean blue. Cerulean blue, yep. Yep, and then 2022, which is your latest one, it's entitled Red Tiger. Tell us about that. It's very interesting how you got the title of that. Tell us about that. About Red Tiger? Yes. Yeah, so Red Tiger is actually named after a bass that I had made specifically for me by this brand that I'm endorsed by, called Markle Bass Guitar. And he made this bass for me because like Red is my favorite color. And I remember when I went out to the NAMM show, I stumbled across them and I met the owner and we just kept in touch. His name is Markle, which he is amazing. He's actually from Brazil, but he lives here now near Portland, Oregon. But we ended up talking and I was really impressed with his basses and so I gave him my info and I hit him up a couple of weeks later after the NAMM show was over. And I was like, hey, I love your instruments. I would like to get one made by you. I'd like you to make me a bass. And so we ended up getting an endorsement deal and he said, I'm going to make you something real special. And it's crazy because I told him I wanted a red bass and it was a six string bass, beautiful bass. And when he gave it to me, what he did was it had tiger stripes on the bass and he stained it red over it. So when I got the bass, we decided to call it Red Tiger because it got tiger stripes and it's red. So that's kind of where the name came because I love that bass so much. I played that bass on all my albums and all my work I was doing, that was kind of the bass that I would perform with, go out with. So when people would see me, they would see Red Tiger. So I decided to dedicate an album to that bass. Wow. Now, why don't you tell us on this album, you have some featured artists on this album. Why don't you name who they are? Yeah, so I got Freddie Fox on there, great guitars, Grammy award-winning guitars. He played on Hello Beautiful. I got, of course I got my man, Najee. I mean, you can't do an album not have Najee on there, right? That's my guy. So yeah, I have him on a song called Ember Glow and I also got, let me think, who else do I have? Geez, I got this saxophonist named Dave Davis. He's out of the Connecticut area. He played on Power Up. I also have done on Hayes too on there and he also played on Ember Glow as well. So, yeah. Wow. Now, we talk about Najee. How is that working for Najee? Oh, wow. It's one of the best suspensions I've ever had in my life, honestly. There's nobody better I would wanna work with other than Najee. I mean, the way that he has just taken me in as one of his own, the lessons that he would teach me, the stories he tells me all the time. I mean, he's really got my best interest. It's like anything I wanna know, he always tells me. Our relationship is just, it's amazing and it's really a huge blessing because I remember years ago, I would always listen to Najee and my dad was a big Najee fan. So that's kind of why I got hip to him because when I was little, we would always take these road trips and move because my dad was in television. So we was always traveling and stuff and he would always play Najee, Tokyo Blue, Gina, day by day. So I was hearing all these songs and I just got a love for it. And I just said one day, I want to work with him. I was seven when I said this. I said, I wanna work with Najee. And wow, look how God works. Here I am today, working with Najee. It's crazy. That is crazy, that is really crazy. You are truly blessed, truly blessed. Now, you work with Najee, okay? But if you had anybody that you would want to collaborate with, who would that be? Oh, that's a great question. It doesn't matter the genre or... It does not matter. If anybody, who would you wanna collaborate with? Well, I definitely wanna work with Babyface. I love Babyface. People tell me I look like him too. I get that like all the time. You do. I do. That means a lot. But yeah, definitely Babyface. I really wanna work with Justin Lee Schultz as well. That's another guy that I've really enjoyed. I just love how he plays his style. So I would love to work with him too. Wow. And some other stuff, but those are the main two I can think of at this moment. And those are some big people. Those are some heavier ones right there. Absolutely. Now, what would you define as the most life-changing event so far in your career? Ooh. I don't know. I think when Najee called me to come play for, honestly, I think that would have been the one for me because during the time he called, he actually didn't call me. He called my dad, which was a testament to how great of a man he is. But during the time he called, I was really down because my career wasn't going the way I wanted it to. I couldn't get no traction. I was just at a point where I was like, am I really, am I'm just wasting my time? Like maybe I need to do something else. But then I get this phone call from Najee that I didn't get to call. My dad got the call asking if I could come on a roll with him. And that was just crazy to me because I always wanted to work with Najee. And I already had Najee on my project on Surreal in Blue, Book of Steam Material, which I would probably say that was probably one of the other life-changing moments was when I was able to get him on my album because I always have dreamed of writing for Najee, writing a song for him and going all these things. And so now the fact that I'm getting to do these things with this guy that I grew up just idolizing, it's like, wow, this is unreal. You are truly blessed. I am just amazed at you. And we talked about this when I spoke with you at Jazz Legacy back in November, how just an amazing musician and individual you are. Now, I asked this of all the artists that I interviewed because it's very important to me. What advice would you give a new artist coming up into the music industry? Absolutely. So I think my advice I would give is don't get discouraged if it doesn't happen overnight. It's a really slow process, especially in this genre of jazz. I'm still trying to climb. I'm dealing with people that's been in this genre for over 30 years. And of course, people are always going to flock to them more than they would someone like myself that's brand new. But what I tell people is don't get discouraged. Keep going. There's always people that want to hear your music. It don't matter if it's 30 people, it don't matter if it's one person. Just keep going because there is somebody out there that wants to hear your music and you're going to be a blessing to them. And it's just important to stay in the race. Just don't give up. Now, with that being said and listening to music, can you give us just a little bit of snippet of what you do, what people, whenever they come to see you, because you just amazed me when you're on stage. I'll try. I'll see what I can do. Okay. See, now everyone, that's just a little bit of snippet. He does more than that when he's on stage. So that means you have to go find out where he is and listen to him. But Blair, before we, we're going to close out here shortly. But there is a question that I follow you on Facebook, of course, and you are deemed Mr. Leggings. I sure am. Because every time we see you, you are in a pair of leggings. That is right. I love my leggings. You got that right. What is it that you like about them or love about them, Blair? I love everything about them. You've got different colors, all types. You got, you have, Dick, when you got different ones. Yeah, yeah, I got, I got every color, every print. Some with diamonds on the side, rhinestones. I think for me, the thing that I just love about leggings the most is pretty much what everybody loves about them. They're really comfy. I like the feeling of not feeling like I'm wearing pants, which is what leggings feels like. I'm free. I can express myself through them, different prints, different colors, different designs that you can't really get on jeans or pants. Or if you can, they're really expensive. I just like how easy they are to wear. And, you know, they go with mostly everything. Can't go wrong with them. And like I said, they're just really comfy. And yeah, I definitely have ditched my jeans. I don't think, I don't even know when the last time I wore a pair of jeans. Like, it's all leggings for me. I love leggings. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. You rock them. You rock them really well. I tried to. I still got some work to do, but yeah, I'm still working on it. Now tell us, are you working on any new projects or anything coming out soon? Yeah, so I just got done doing this song with D. Lucas coming out. It's called Stay Strong. We literally just finished it like a couple of weeks ago and he's gonna be releasing that this spring. So be able to look out for that. It's called Stay Strong by D. Lucas and I'm featured on it and I produced the track and really excited about the track. It's a nice feeling. It's got a nice groove to it. It's very easy listening. It's not too over the top. It's not too complicated. And I think you guys really like this track. So I think that's the next thing I got. I am working on some new stuff for hopefully next year. I'm planning on coming out hopefully with a new single. And that's the plan in a new album too. So got to get caught back up because as you know, I'm behind on my album since COVID happened. So I got a lot of good music that I got to give you guys that I'm eager to put out. So hopefully I'll be coming out here real soon. And we can't wait to hear it. So why don't you let people know where they can find your music? Yeah, so you can find out about you. Absolutely. So you can go to my website, which is Blair Bryant Music.net. Got my bio and it's got where you can get my music. But my music is also available on Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, not CD, baby. I take that back because we all know what happened with them. But of course, pretty much anywhere that sells digital music, you can get my music. It's on Deezer. It's on Spotify. I got my own Pandora station, Blair Bryant. So yeah, my music is pretty much everywhere. You can listen to it on YouTube as well. There's a site if you want to buy it or not. So yeah, there you can go to my Facebook, which is Blair Prince Bryant. Or my Instagram, which is Blair underscore B-R-Y. And you can get my music there as well. I got a link that's posted on my website there too. So yeah, it's available everywhere. Everyone, you need to go get his music because you're going to love it. You're going to absolutely love it. You know, as I stated in my intro, this gentleman is compared to Wayman Tisdale, Stanley Clark. Yes, Stanley Clark. My favorite bass players. Yes, and he's a musical prodigy. So you've got to get his music. And so what you do is you go find out where Najee is playing and Blair will be right there. That's right. That is very true. I should have said that. You're absolutely right. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Blair, for being here. You know, I'm going to do another interview with you. Yeah, I can't wait. I look forward to it. But thank you so much. I've enjoyed you. I enjoy watching you. I enjoy listening to you play. You are just amazing. Keep doing what you do. Absolutely. I can't wait to see you again. And hopefully I'll have a really cool pair of leggings for you because you know, you know, I always have a cool pair of lines. I always just see the pair of lines now. It's pretty cool. You are so funny. But thank you so much, Blair. I really do appreciate you. Likewise. I appreciate you too. Much love to you. Same here. You take care, OK? You too, Mahalo. OK. OK. To my viewers, thank you so much for tuning in to my show today. I look forward to seeing you in two weeks when I will be interviewing Nils. Until then, Aloha and God bless. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.