Well, I wanna thank my princess Kori (my daughter!) for tending to myspace. Yo Tim! We ARE the band.
Influences
Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston (performed with her for 7 years), Hank Crawford, Arnette Cobb, Ronnie Laws, Wilton Felder, Grover Washington, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, and more recently, Soweto Kinch and Kenny Garrett.
Sounds Like
ME (but I wouldn't mind sounding like Joe Henderson)
-- Rendezvous Entertainment -- KIRK WHALUM ROUNDTRIP More Kirk Whalum
I love LOVE what I do! I have the best job in the world. It can be really hard at times, especially being away from my girlfriend (she's also my wife) and our kids and grandson. But I still love it. My philosophy of "the big break" comes from my actual story.
I was fronting my own band (by God's grace and utilizing the gifts He graciously gave me) in Houston, Texas at a club called Cody's in the mid-80's when I got a call to open a concert at a theater (oooh, big stuff!) for Bob James (oooh, even cooler)! My band and I had been fine-tuning our music and working REALLY hard for over 2 years in all kinds of funky situations before this magical call came in. But when it did...we were ready!
We had learned not to get our hopes up because we had opened a few concerts before -- no big break happened. Not even a little one! So we just took the stage and did what we do -- no expectations.
Little did we know that God's hand was already at work and that night became my big night! I got a call from Bob's manager that next week asking if I could come to New York and record with him on his album (no CD's at the time!) called "12."
Of course I said yes and the rest is history. Touring the US, Europe, Japan with him, signing my own deal with Bob as producer, etc. It all started that night! BTW, I now have 18 solo or collaborative CD's!
But here's the deal: It didn't really start that night. It started with us giving our all in the "small" places. There's a proverb in the bible (my favorite book) that puts it like this: If you'll be faithful in the small things, God will give you bigger things to do!" (my paraphrase)
Don't spend too much time networking and posturing and worrying about how you can get "the big break." Spend that time fine-tuning your game -- practicing, studying, private lessons, college...whatever it means for you. And make real sure you attack EACH performance opportunity with hard work and preparation.
And remember; it's not WHETHER the break will happen, it's whether or not you'll be READY when it does!
Kirk out
PS. Drop by www.kirkwhalum.com for my full bio -- and some cool pictures of me doing what I do!
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