By Tracie Reed
Rick Braun, Kirk Whalum, Norman Brown are BWB. They are on tour now and will be playing in Tucson, AZ. on May 17th at the Anselmo Valencie Amphitheatre. I will be there to hear their great jazz music and to take plenty of great live photos! (Photos will be posted here after the Tucson show.) I will also have an up date for you after the show. Here are some questions that I asked Rick Braun about their music. Enjoy reading!
Rick Braun plays trumpet
Kirk Whalum plays saxophone
Norman Brown plays guitarTR- BWB are the letters from your last names. Who came up with the idea of doing that for the name of the band?
Rick- Well, It was kind of a process of elimination between all of the things. You know, one of these things. How about pickle herring- all the Monty Python names that didn't work. We kind of went down the list. We thought, well, what could we do here.
Originally we were going to call it Triple Threat and it was even called Triple Threat right up until the point where a lot of the press releases were talking about this new band called Triple Threat with Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun and Norman Brown.
At the last moment, I don't even know who came up with the name in the process of like that. Somebody came up with it. Either one of us or somebody from the record company or management and we just all of a sudden thought- Yeah! That's kind of cool! It doesn't sound like Four Play which Triple Threat kind of did. It's really having the word threat in a name.
It's kind of like well, we're not a threat to anybody, we're all some of the nicest guys you could meet. We're not really mean or anything. BWB seemed to me, but had a kind of ring AWB. Kind of lead to a little stick that we do in our show where we actually played from AWB. For those people who may came to see AWB instead of BWB.
TR- You are doing a U.S. tour right now. Are you going to plan on a European tour?
Rick- Actually one of the things that gave us the idea to do this is we played at the Montreal Jazz Festival and all of us were on that show and we got an opportunity to play together. We did that one year and then came back. And the next year, we debuted our CD pretty much at the Montreal Jazz Festival. We don't have any plans to go back there right now, especially with the economy and travel so difficult. We're not scheduled to go back, but we certainly would like to. There are a lot of opportunities to play over there.
TR- Do you travel by bus or fly?
Rick- We have. We travel by bus when we have a routed tour, when we have a string of dates in a row. If we're not doing a routed tour we will fly and use a lot of commercial air.
TR- Have you played Tucson before?
Rick- I have played in Tucson on my own a number of times. It's a great audience! I like the town a lot. I like the desert myself and I think it's a very quaint kind of town. It's kind of a small, big, little city. I always enjoy it! It's a good turn out. We played in an old theater downtown, actually, by the bus station. I've played there a number of times.
TR- At the Rialto (theater in Tucson, AZ.)?
Rick- Yes, I guess that's what it's called. I don't even know if it's renovated. It's just a very classical old theater.
TR- Are you currently working on your next CD now?
Rick- We are not. We all have our individual careers. And right now I'm finishing up my record which hopefully will be out at the end of August. I'm also working on producing David Benwa's CD. He's a keyboard player. I produce records for other artists as well.
TR- Are you planning to keep working together- the three of you- in the future ?
Rick- Absolutely! We all enjoy what we do. We enjoy each others company- very inspired by what we do musically. I think these guys are my comrades. Comrades on this project are some of the most amazing players around.
TR- What are your ages?
Rick- Well, I really don't know what Kirk and Normans ages are and mine is a top secret. No, I'm only kidding! I'm 47! A young 47!
TR- How many trumpets do you own?
Rick- How many trumpets do I own? Oh my goodness!
TR- Must be a lot!
Rick- Well, It could be more, but I probably have about six or seven. But I can only play one at a time. So, it doesn't matter. Right? (laughs)
TR- Right! Matt Pierson got you three together. What made him think of getting you guys together?
Rick- I think it kind of follows along the line of a group like Four Play or something like this. It's kind of a combination of people who just seem to of. We all have worked together on his records. We've all played together. We're big fans of each other and I think Matt has been a big fan of each of our individual music and it was an opportunity for him to come into the studio with us and make a record and do something different then what we would normally do together. So, I have to say Matt came up with a very good idea right there.
TR- Out of all three of you, do you guys just work on the songs together or who comes up with the ideas for the songs?
Rick- We do! We have collaborated on the ideas of what we would like to record. On the first record Matt was the producer and because of all of our schedules he had a lot to do with the song selection. More then we did as artists. That's one of the things that we wanted to do on our next record is for us to go in and to actually do some writing.
All of the songs that were recorded on the BWB record are covers. We didn't write any of them. They're not our original composition. That was kind of like, let's just go in and play some great music and not worry about having to write songs that are appropriate for the record and who was going to get one on and who's not. It was a good way to just come in and put out the first record. Have a level playing field. It kind of minimize the complications.
TR- At least you guys are showing your talents out there!
Rick- It's really a show case for us to play. It's really what it's about.
TR- Out of all the songs. Which is your favorite?
Rick- I think it would have to be the ones that I solo on. (laughs)
TR- Ok!
Rick- That would be "Ruby." Which is the new single. That's one of my favorites. I like to play Freddie Hubbard song as well as Povo. But I have to say I think the record It's just a lot of great playing from all of us and I think we all have our individual favorites.
TR- What is your favorite city to play in?
Rick- Favorite city? That's a really tough one! I think it's really not possible to have a favorite city to play in. I have played in so many cities around the world in so many different situations. I do enjoy going to Europe a lot. I do enjoy that! The Montreal Jazz Festival is very beautiful. Switzerland and it's just a gorgeous place to be to play. But that's one of the reasons to go. It's just so different then anything that we have here in the United States. But there are many great cities to play in here in the United States and if I get to play in a theater and it's full of people who are looking forward to seeing me. At that moment that is my favorite place to play.
TR- Have you always wanted to play jazz?
Rick- I think so. I mean for awhile I wanted to play drums when I first started. I just love sitting down and playing on those things. It felt so good. And also, I for awhile studied classical music and I went to a classical conservatory. I studied all of the orchestral and all of that. But for me playing music that is very spontaneous is totally an open pallet. It was really the place that I wanted to go. I have just always loved jazz. I love and respect so many of the great musicians who are able to create on the spear of the moment and just give it a template of harmonic template and just being able to play over top of that. I think it's solo challenging and fun.
TR- Do any of you have children?
Rick- I do! You heard them running around didn't you? (laughs)
TR- Yes. If any of your kids wanted to follow in your footsteps in music would you help them?
Rick- Well, They're to young to know at this point. My daughter is three years and two months and my son is eighteen months. So, I've got two little babies here and they do love music. They love when I play. They get very excited when they hear the music. I hope that continues. If they want to pursue music I'm certainly going to support them. I know how much I've enjoyed it and how much of a blessing it is in my life. But I'm absolutely not going to force them. If they want to do what ever they want to do. If they want to work in a hardware store then that's fine with me as long as they are happy.
TR- That's cool! Sounds like they have a supporting father in that way.
Rick- I just have to stay that way. (laughs) Got a ways to go yet!
TR- What would you like your fans to know of your future goals for your upcoming CD? For the one that you are working on?
Rick- Well, the new CD is going to be called, "To Manhattan with Love." The CD is really cool! It's a little bit different from anything that I've done before. It's leaning more towards a little bit more electronic, a little bit more intricate production. I've used live strings on it. Normans playing on it. Norman Brown and Kirk. So there is one song in there that pretty much features BWB. There's a lot of up temple fun stuff on it.
I had a great time making it. It's hard to talk about a record that's kind of in it's infancy. I suppose I should be hyping it up. I love it! That's one thing I would like people to be looking out for. I do have a new CD coming out. The single should hit the air some time in June or July and it will be released August 26th of this year.
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