NOV | DEC 2020
GAIL: We do have to be introduced to Jazz. I was talking with a friend of mine Keith Williams drummer. He’s teaching students now and they all know about trap music, but they don't know about jazz. So yes I am right with you on that. So what really got you started in music ?
Willie Bradley is a one of those artists you simply must respect. We met soon after I moved to California. Found out we were both North Carolina boys so that common ground paved the way for a friendship. However the thing that brought our souls together was when we shared our stories of addiction, our struggles and our roads to redemption. This man is my brother and I love him. Being able to feature Willie in my magazine brings me a true level of joy and satisfaction. So read and enjoy this amazing interview with our Music Editor Gail Jhonson.
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GAIL: Hello Willie. You have been on the grind, back and forth to Los Angeles, performing and burning up the Billboard charts....tell our readers about yourself, where did you grow up and how you got started on this journey. WILLIE: Okay. Well, I grew up in Orangeburg South Carolina and I started playing the trumpet in the fifth grade. I continued playing in high school at WilkersonOrangeburg High School, the only High School in my hometown . We had a new band director who’s name was Dwight McMillan and he was the one who introduced me to jazz.
INDIE INCOGNITO
WILLIE: What really got me started in the music was my dad who had every album that you could name. Me and my siblings had to have our clothes ironed for five days for the next week for school and none of us could go outside. We couldn't turn the TV on to look at cartoons. But we can turn the stereo on, so yeah, we're in the living room acting like we're the Supremes, Dizzy Gillespie and Lena Horne. We were just mimicking all the people we heard on those records. You can name every kind of music and my dad had it. That's where I really fell in love with the trumpet listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker and Miles Davis..
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