Rick Braun March April 2022

Feature
what I wanted to go, but after awhile I knew I wasn't going where I wanted to
go. So I have to really dig in and work things out. I just kind of kind of said
“okay, this is cool, but it needs to be a lot more interesting harmonically than
what it is. “ And it's an interesting process, but once I finished it out, I had
what I wanted and I was proud. I'm really happy with this record. I really think
it came out, really nicely and I'm very pleased that we have a real string section
on there. We
have a live
string section. A won-
derful rhythm
section on each and
every song. Everything
has humanity
all over it with
people just wonder-
ful players playing
really, really musi-
cally on this record.
I try to encour-
age people
throughout because
people will
come into a session
and will try to
play things exactly as
maybe they had
heard it on a demo
and I would always
tell them, you
got to have fun
with this. It may be
my record but
you express yourself
through what
you’re playing.
tle bit further.
were in a fusion
What do you re-
experience?
SJM: Going back a lit-
In the late 70’s you
band called Auracle.
member about that
Rick: Well, first of all, that was the vehicle for me to start becoming a professional
musician. I was at the Eastman School of Music. I was studying classical
trumpet and jazz. I was basically a trumpet major at a music school. We recorded
a demo and took that demo to Los Angeles to New York and Chicago
and we got a record deal in Los Angeles and we were on Chrysalis Records,
with Blondie and Jethro Tull. We became a fusion group and leaned on Spyro
Gyra and Weather Report and released two albums as a result. We went to
32| SmoothJazz Magazine…..Let the music take you… Mar/Apr