Hey Jeanette, Hi Rachel.

So we just got off a really great interview with Baron Raymond, who is a musician.

He has also been inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame.

He constantly plays gigs every weekend around the city and does recording, and he played for Rod Stewart and Gloria Gaynor and the Blues Brothers.

He tells several stories about the people that he's played with.

He's played with legends in the jazz and blues industry.

He plays a million different instruments.

He'll explain.

His main instrument is the saxophone, but all of the saxophones, and you'll learn a lot in this interview about how he developed his voice, his signature sound that you asked him about.

So enjoy this interview.

Barron, welcome to Lost in Jersey.

So nice to have you on the show.

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate this, yes.

So this is Rachel and Rachel, you've never met Barron, but I know, Barron through my husband, Roger he, I think, introduced us years ago when we first moved to New Jersey and I remember he told me that you were a sax player and then we went to go see you at a show and blown away with what a great musician you are.

Thank you.

Now, rachel is also a musician too, so I don't think I had told you that she's a classically trained violinist.

Nice, my father was, and my a classically trained violinist Nice.

My father was, and my great uncle was a violinist.

Yes, I was going to ask you about that.

I looked on your Instagram and I saw that wonderful older photo of extended family and I was wondering about if you could tell us about that and why you did not pick the violin.

My great uncle played with Toscanini in the NBC Orchestra and my father at some point, I think when he was in high school, lived with Uncle Aladar and he played violin.

My mother was an opera singer.

They started me on piano when I was very young.

I was six years old when I started lessons, so they wanted me to play classical.

My parents definitely wanted me to play classical.

Yes, which I kind of rebelled.

Did you?

I get that Right, I mean Rachel you also.

You started playing the violin when you were a toddler.

I think, right, yeah, I started Suzuki Method at three and a half, barron tell us about yourself.

I think that you play several instruments, right, Like?

How many instruments do you play?

Well, I don't know if I can count off and saxophones my primary.

I play all the saxophones I play flute, clarinet, piccolo piano.

I started in piano.

I also started when I was a toddler.

There was a school in New York called Del Crozi my parents brought me to just to get me started with listening.

What else do I play?

I mean, I can kind of play some of the brass instruments but I don't consider myself a player.

I can teach it if I want to, to beginners.

What's your favorite saxophone to play?

Alto soprano, do you have?

Known as an alto player, but I play tenor quite a lot too.

I just did a show in Edison, new Jersey.

It plays in the park, beautiful the, the Carol King show, and I had to play flute, uh, clarinet, tenor, sax and baritone sax.

Wow.

So you were, like you were in the pit orchestra for Beautiful.

I was in the pit.

Uh, that's so.

It's what a great musical.

It's a great place to see a show they held up uh, about 3000 people can come.

It it's outdoors, it's really nice.

I never knew about it some.

My friend, mark baron, who lives in new jersey, who is also gloria gainers um musical director, who I've worked with, he asked me if I would like to do a pit gig, and I don't do that much pit work and I thought, hey, why not, it'll be a challenge.

I I have done some broadway.

I did ain't nothing but the blues, but the band was on the stage and I did, uh, off broadway love janice, the why not?

It'll be a challenge.

I have done some Broadway.

I did Ain't Nothing but the Blues, but the band was on the stage and I did Off-Broadway Love Janice about Jacqueline, and that was.

I was on stage too, it wasn't in the pit.

It's a very different kind of playing if you're playing in a pit rather than with your band, right.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean I play, I'm very versatile.

I went to music school in Texas, which, jeanette, you're from, it's called University of North Texas.

But I learned a lot.

I learned jazz there, but I'm classically trained and when I got out of school I ended up playing with one of the Blues Brothers on the road and I learned to play blues and R&B and I guess I'm kind of a jazz R&B.

I play rock.

You know, I played with Rod Stewart, who I met him through a friend in Nutley where I live.

Really.

That's how I?

Yeah, so it was New.

Jersey.

How did that go Like he just introduced you.

It was great because what happened was I was friends with Chuck Kentis, who lived in New Jersey but was playing with Rod Stewart.

He used to have me come over to his house to record saxophone for him on tracks and sometimes we co-wrote.

We actually got something on Ricky Lake Show.

He used to ask me when Rod used to come to New York to do TV shows, do you know any musicians?

So it was helping out and I had been the contractor for musicians in New York and I'm still am uh, contracting things.

I just contracted something at the Mahegan Sun with Wayne Newton, contracted the whole band.

So that's how I met Rod.

And then eventually what happened was he needed a horn section benefit, uh for, uh, um, city of Hope.

So it was through somebody from New Jersey that I met Rod Stewart.

I met a lot of people through New Jersey.

I mean I, I was originally a New Yorker.

New Jersey gave me a lot of breaks that I've gotten in my music career, absolutely yes.

I want to know that progression of when you went to you were in a New Yorker and then you went to Texas to study, you know, to get your degree.

How did that transition go from New Yorker and then you went to Texas to study to get your degree?

How did that transition go from New York and then going to Texas and then back to New York?

It was frightful at first because my first week down there in Denton, texas, I was in the town square.

I was going to buy school books or whatever I don't remember stuff A fan.

I needed a fan because my dorm didn't have a fan and it was so hot and there was a Ku Klux Klan march going on and it really freaked me out.

I'm from New York and I called my parents and they're like don't leave school, stay in school.

They were just concerned that I didn't drop out of school.

So I was like don't pay attention to those crazy people.

Maybe you know I was telling him maybe I could go to William Patterson, because that was a good jazz school which I eventually went to get my certification as a teacher, which does have a great jazz program well known around the world.

Yes, william Patterson School of Music yes, but my goodness, what an introduction to Texas.

Yeah, and the South, yeah, oh, my God.

But yet you made it through, you did.

Because you know what the school was like its own entity and there were so many great musicians there I met and we played and I got into the music and I kind of that was just once I saw that, but it was my first week there, so it was just like God, you know after college, how did you move into becoming a professional?

Well, first of all, my father was kind of pushing me to go to music school because he said I don't want you end up playing in bars and grills for the rest of your life.

They emphasized reading and I started learning how to transcribe music off of solos from all the different instruments and learn, you know, my basics.

Yeah, it set me up network wise because there were so many musicians in New York and LA and Chicago and that went to North Texas State University.

Still to this day there's guys on Broadway.

One of my friends who lives in New Jersey plays sax with the Rolling Stones, tim Reese.

My other friend, matt Bissonette, was playing bass with Elton John, and it just goes on and on.

And just the preparation, it was fierce competition.

Honestly, I was stressed a lot because the competition was so stressful, but it did help me for auditions.

When I came to New York after school I went into a couple auditions where there was a cattle call, where there was 100 sax players.

I think one was with Chubby Checker and they called me because I got so good at auditioning.

That's something good to know, because I know a lot of kids here in our town, montclair, go to school for musical theater and all that and the competition, like you said, is fierce while you're even in it, but I guess it really does prepare you for auditions.

Well, that's what they said at the school.

They said we're preparing you.

This is like the outside world, because there's so many great musicians here and it's fierce competition.

Yeah.

I remember when I first got there it was like, oh, I got to really step it up with my practice.

I would start practicing six to eight hours a day.

So you go into auditions.

What was your big break?

I mean I've had a lot of breaks in my career, I guess you know going on the road with Matt Guitar Murphy.

I was pretty close to being I just had done a stint with this guy in Atlantic City at the Sands Hotel.

Jt Bowen, who was a part of Clarence Clemons' band from Bruce Springsteen's sax player, and Matt Guitar Murphy asked me to go on the road so I got to play with Lester Chambers from the Chamber Brothers and Harvey Brooks.

They had a band together and they were older than me.

They knew Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and they took me in like when I was in my 20s and I let them school me.

They liked my playing but you know they were teaching me.

Harvey played on Highway 61, bob Dylan, the whole record, and with Miles Bitches Brew and all these different famous records.

It's incredible.

When you say they schooled you, what kind of education are you getting there?

That's different from when you're getting it in music school, just curious.

Well, when I'm in music school.

It's all about scales and theory.

And precision.

Precision yes, yeah.

Technique.

But Harvey was like play like a singer.

You know, when you record records people don't want to hear.

I mean, some people play like that, but when you're playing on a pop song it doesn't make any sense.

If you listen to some of the great pop songs, they were very simple parts and simple solos and I kind of had to unlearn some of that from north texas, which that's been an issue that musicians have talked about going to the music school and then having to unlearn because, like the beatles they never to the music school and then having to because, like the Beatles, they never went to music school and they put out beautiful music.

I appreciate learning that from you.

I've been learning that over this long journey of not playing classical that I I would bring in vibrato for everything and it just doesn't need it in a lot of the rock songs.

You know, is there a signature sound that you develop, or is that something that you don't want to have when you're playing with many different groups of artists?

The more I played out, the more I found my voice on the instruments.

Yes.

That takes a while to mature.

I started developing my sound in school because I was practicing six to eight hours a day and I did some themes for TV.

I had a friend from North Texas.

He was arguing with his wife because I hadn't seen him for like 25 years and he goes.

That's Baron on that theme on that TV show.

And then he called me up because his wife said how do you know?

25 years he goes.

I know Baron sound, you know it's amazing.

And then I called him up and I said it was me and he goes.

I knew that is so impressive.

Yeah.

He was able to pick that out.

And for a person like myself, who's not, like you know, an expert in you know, jazz or anything, it is a little hard to tell the difference.

But I'm kind of old school with Coltrane, chet Baker, all of these older people.

I don't know the new ones, but I can tell when you hear their sound.

You know.

You do know.

I had some things I wanted to ask you about, about your influences, because I'm not up on all of the jazz of today and the blues of today.

Who are the people that you look to today, that you think we should know about?

Well, I definitely like Joe Bonamassa, the blues guy out there.

He's great.

I love Steenie Van Zandt.

I don't know if you knew I played with him, filled in on tour with him, which was great.

This is Chris Potter on sax.

Joshua Renman those type of people are for jazz, are very influential.

I kind of listened to more of the old school R&B guys King Curtis.

I also am a Coltrane guy.

I love Coltrane.

My parents are actually buried in the same grave lot as Coltrane in Long Island and I actually walked by his grave looking for my parents' grave.

I thought, oh, I've never seen another Coltrane, but it was him.

There's not like a monument or something there.

No, it's just a plaque, like my parents, so of course I wanted to find out if I could be buried there.

But there's no more plots left.

There's no more plots left.

My mom is buried in the same graveyard as Buddy Holly.

Wow yeah, because we're from Texas, in Lubbock, texas, and when you drive into the cemetery you immediately drive past the Buddy Holly.

But it's you know, they've done it up.

It's not like you know, just a plaque, it's like you know you're passing Buddy Holly's.

So it's kind of cool.

Talking about Buddy Holly, I actually played the surf ballroom his last gig in Iowa, where he died and the bus driver brought us where the plane went down.

But there's a booth that he made his last phone call to his wife there.

So this was in the 80s.

I think it's still there.

It's called the Surf Ballroom, but it's in the movie.

Yeah, yeah, Okay, incredible, and I'm going to add you another story that I get.

I have to tell to you about is that my aunt's mother was passing away.

When I went down to Texas a few years back and we were all hanging out in the kitchen, there was two people that were there with me.

I didn't know who they were.

They were friends of her mother and we were talking and they're like this is Peggy, hi Peggy, and it was Peggy Sue.

That's Peggy Sue from the Buddy Holly song.

And I was like, oh my God.

So one thing that you did touch on earlier are your stories with Rod Stewart.

Now I think Roger has told me a little bit about a couple of stories about you going on the road with him.

What was that like?

They were having all these other artists, like Jewel.

They were going to do all Rod Stewart songs and surprise him at the end with Rod Stewart.

Anyway, what happened was the night before I went to rehearsal I went out to dinner with Rod and the band and they were going to have me play just one song.

Some guys have all luck or something.

I forgot what it was.

He said welcome to the orchestra.

I'm looking for a blonde female sax player.

And I said, well, let me think about it.

I mean, I'm friends with Candy Dolpher and her dad over in Holland.

She used to be Prince's sax player.

So anyway, the next day I went in there and they're like Brandy and all these artists, can you play flute on this and sax on this and rehearse on it?

I was just supposed to do one song and they recorded this.

Rod records all his rehearsals to hear them, even though he wasn't there.

This was at SIR in New York, which used to be a big place that a lot of people used to go rehearse.

And the next morning when I came in, they were like Rod really likes how you sounded on that ballad with Brandy.

And when he came in he goes I want to hear Baron with Brandy.

So I said okay, I'll play.

And then afterwards he walked by me and said I want you.

And I was like blonde hair, blue eyes, that's not me.

I thought, yeah, I'm like 41 years old and I'm.

I'm not a blonde with blue eyes.

But I guess he was serious because I had to renegotiate the money, cause after that rehearsal the musical director came over and said can you play on Rosie O'Donnell tomorrow?

And I said sure, so I.

But I got to go home and practice.

I went over to I think it was NBC Studios and he really liked my playing.

And after the charity thing he came over to me and said you're really great.

And I said no, rod, you are.

I did the human tour and then 9-11, a lot of things fell apart and then he eventually got the blonde.

Anyways, he finally got the blog back.

It's okay because I was not doing that much and I ended up getting into teaching because I did go back to when I moved out to New Jersey to William Patterson to get my certification as a music teacher and I started teaching part-time in Bloomfield.

Then Nutley needed somebody and I really liked it.

And now I've been teaching for 23 years and I teach at the high school in Nutley and I love it and I love giving back to kids.

At first when I started teaching I thought, oh, this is the end of my music career.

But really the people I've played with since then, like Levon Helm, the Blues Brothers, gloria Gaynor, stevie Van Zandt I've been so busy playing with all these you know, I just found a picture of me playing with Daryl Jones, with the bassist from Rolling Stones.

This is all while I'm teaching and people can't believe it.

How is that happening?

Because as long as I've known you, Baron, you're always having a weekend gig or something going.

First of all, I don't know how you have the energy.

I'm in the middle of doing a project, a record we're just finishing with two guys from la baron von freykenpaul it's a new band.

I've wrote a bunch of the stuff for the guys and I guess, just being in the business for 40 years and I'm very good at networking, I've gotten very good at social media.

Because I was self-employed before I taught.

I became a hustler and I still hustle, not that I want to do that all the time.

I got to be choosy.

What I want to spend my time, like you know, this record project.

That's a priority versus playing a bar, though I do like playing bars too, because it's more intimate.

I have passion, I am driven by music, I am, I love music, I.

But another reason, I think, is because I lived on the road for so long that I got used to that pace.

Go, you know, when you're doing 40 cities and two and a half months.

That's a lot of traveling and getting up and going and having to play in front of people, being tired and whatever.

I never went for fame, I went for being a good musician, writer.

I was not one to say, oh, I'm going to be famous.

I worked with some very famous people and, I have to say, being around, that there's definitely a price they pay.

It's not free.

I remember when I was Rod Stewart going with his son to a couple places because Rod couldn't go there with his son.

He's not going to go into McDonald's with his son, otherwise everybody's going to go chasing after him, as it was when we went out to restaurants.

People would see him and then all of a sudden there'd be a crowd at the bar.

When I first started out with Matt Murphy, it was like the Blues Brothers.

We had a van and a Cadillac and we drove everywhere up to Calgary, all over Texas and I had to help move the equipment and that was pretty rough.

Working with Rod Stewart, I was staying at Ritz Carlton's and Four Seasons and even Stevie Vins' private jets.

That's nice.

Sure, I'll take that.

Being away from family is not easy.

I've seen musicians, you know, when their daughter or son's having a birthday they're crying because daddy's not home and all that.

It's not an easy life.

Put it that way.

You know I'm not coming home for three months.

It's not, you know, when you have family, that's hard.

Yeah, you said that you have a record coming out.

This record I'm doing.

Now it's done.

It's with the band baron von frankenpaul.

I met these guys at the nam show, the big convention in in anaheim, california.

They asked me to play at one of the booths there for gear.

I can send you a story about it because of I wrote that and um, we had fun.

And then pa, the bass player, was a record producer too and he goes let's make a record.

So we started collaborating over the internet.

First they came to New York and they said can you get a studio, baron?

So I went to my friend in the loft in Bronxville, al Hamburger's studio, and we recorded five songs.

And then Paul had me come out and record in LA.

And we're going to do a release party at the Bitter End in December 11th.

Yeah, at 9.30, december 11th.

Steve Ferroni I don't know if you heard of him is playing drums.

He was Tom Petty's drummer.

He played with Eric Clapton Durant.

He's really amazing.

Will Lee from David Letterman is going to be playing a couple songs because we're doing a song called Cactus that Will Lee played the original.

So we said why don't we have Will and I'm friends with Will and he said, sure, I'll come down and play that in a Miles Davis song.

And then we have Lou Marini from the Blues Brothers is going to accompany me on a couple songs.

Wow, yeah, he's been touring with James.

It's an all-star group.

Yeah, I feel really blessed.

Emma Dean Rivera is playing and this great pedal steel guy, greg McMullen, is going to be playing on it, but we're excited about it.

We're in the midst of copywriting and watermarking things and then making charts and then we're speaking to a publicist, but that's where we are right now.

That's so exciting, but it's very exciting.

Learned a lot from paul as a record producer, I'll have to say, and he was very open and he's taught me a lot about record producing definitely is it that you said that taught you?

ill like ill, that's the same.

Yeah, he used to live in new york, way back the industry's changed so much.

I mean, I guess you have to like get it out to all the different distribution channels, just like you do with anything.

Now.

If you're sending it to a radio station, they want a CD.

What is the big jazz station in New Jersey?

That-?

BGO.

BGO, yeah, yeah.

I know Ross and Roland's Kirk wife was working there volunteering.

My friend from Texas, eric Scorsia, organist, who still lives in Texas, came up and I said you want to see WBGO Because they played some of his music.

But right from the Newark airport we went to WBGO and there was Ross and Roland Kirk's wife right there and he goes.

Oh wow.

But it really is the only jazz station I mean in the area yeah, it's a great station.

Yeah, new jersey's known to have an incredible depth of jazz players.

I that's something that I've always heard is that you have no idea who lives around these parks, you know, yeah yeah, like in montclair christian mcbride, andide and Bruce Williams.

The alto player, steve Turrey, lives in Montclair, I think at least he used to.

Billy Hart, famous drummer.

I do this Ray Charles tribute which we're playing at the Blue Note in November on Thanksgiving weekend.

But Billy lived right across the street and he came in to see us play and it was like oh wow, billy Hart hart and he was just like.

He said, no, I just live across the street.

So I heard you guys play that's so wild.

I love that we usually wrap up these interviews with asking your favorite thing that you love about new jersey, but I would like to twist that into what is your favorite jazz or club gig places to go to in new jersey.

Well, I used to love trumpets.

Unfortunately that's not there, but I play at the La Bamba's Holiday Hurrah.

Every year it was at Stone Pony, which I love.

Playing Stone Pony Last year we did at the Vogel was really nice.

I like the Wonder Bar, I like Asbury Park is kind of cool.

I've played at PNC, my favorite.

Well, I guess Stone Pony is kind of fun.

It's really when that place is crowded and people are going crazy.

It's, it's a lot of fun.

So I would say probably stone pony is stone pony.

What about in new york city?

Is there still a jazz club that's kind of the the jazz club?

well, there's a lot.

There's still village vanguard disease, but I like I've been playing at the blue note with forever ray and I love playing there.

It's so much fun, I have to say that's great I would go out of my way if I can't.

If I have something else going on to make sure I play there.

I don't know, Rachel, if you've had probably have done the crawl of the hidden jazz clubs there.

I don't know if they're there, but sometimes you'll just stumble upon a little room that's playing jazz.

Is that still something that you see, Rachel?

do you have you seen that?

I haven't, but I haven't been in the city that much, but I used to love going to the Village Vanguard a lot and then Smoke up all the way up Upper.

West Side was really fun, and then Smalls.

Those are great places.

There's other places and Brooklyn and all Shaker Lab.

Yeah, I love going there.

Yeah, that's the amazing thing about New York.

Back in the 80s, when I lived there, I walked by a little place it was a nothing place and there was a sign there Antonio Jobin, and I was like are you kidding me?

And there he was.

I went in there and he was doing a duo with somebody else.

You know, I was like oh, in there he was.

I went in there and he was doing a duo with somebody else.

You know it's like oh, in new york something like that would happen.

I mean, that's the thing is that I wish I knew all the names that you know, but once you hear them play, once you hear it, you know this is, this is a great type of you know musician that you don't see every day, and I think that you're one of those people, baron.

When people meet you, you're very kind and very understated and you're one of those people, barron, when people meet you, you're very kind and very understated and you're really nice and friendly.

When you see you pick up the sax and play, you're just blown away.

Now I'm going to go down a journey of knowing your music, but I saw just some clips of you on Instagram from recent and you are phenomenal.

I understand about your voice coming through that sax.

It's beautiful.

My mother was a singer.

I think I got some of that voice from my mother.

Yes, I always practice high notes.

I can play high notes.

Yes, I hear that all day going away up and I could play in the autism register on this sax up and I could play in the autism register on this act.

Well, I think that you did end up playing bars, and you know places that your dad didn't necessarily want you to be playing at.

I hope that you feel that he would be impressed with what you've accomplished.

I'm sure he would yes, absolutely, absolutely.

Do you have a Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen story?

We'll take it.

Okay, well, I did play with Bruce Springsteen story.

We'll take it.

Okay, well, I did play with Bruce Springsteen at the Paramount Theater for the Light of Day concert with La Bamba Big Band.

That was so cool.

And then being at Bon Jovi's house, what happened was La Bamba, from Conan, and he used to play with Springsteen, had a big band which I was playing with, which we do the holiday hurrah with, teamed up with Southside Johnny, a very known Jersey singer, to make a tribute to Tom Waits album.

Since Southside was friends with Bon Jovi, we did it at his carriage house on his property in Middletown, which was really cool, yeah, and another thing that I did in New Jersey was, you know, stevie Wonder used to have a place in Alpine.

Yeah.

Got to play his daughter's wedding, aisha that he wrote Isn't she Lovely?

And get to play with her.

And the first song he sang to his daughter he sang himself and I was about five feet away from him and he sung his heart out and everybody was crying.

My God, it's that emotional.

But these are the things I've met.

You know, people I've got to play with in Jersey About a month ago I end up in a recording studio in New Jersey and I don't know who I'm recording for, and the Philip Rose from the Indian from YMCA, it's for him.

It's like wow, I saw that video of yours.

He lives in New Jersey.

You know these YMCA.

It's for him.

It's like wow, I saw that video of yours.

He lives in New Jersey.

It's been good for me to live here.

I know.

I know that's the thing.

I feel like it's been good for me and I feel like it's probably good for you too, rachel.

I mean, it's a great place because you don't have the pressure of New York City.

It's so much more casual, but everybody's like toiling away at their pursuits, you know Well, barron.

Thank you so much for joining us and sharing with us your story about music, your music journey and your life here in New Jersey.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

I want to come see you live, so.

I hope you keep us posted.

I posted on my website saxbarroncom S-A-X-B-A-R-R-O-Ncom.

I post all my public showings.

Okay, we'll put those links in our website too.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Have a great day, Thanks.

Barron.

This podcast was produced by Rachel Martens and Jeanette Afsharian.

You can find us on Spotify, itunes and Buzzsprout.

Thanks for listening.

See you next week.