Harmonizing Hope: Rick DellaRatta's Journey from Jazz Pianist to Peace Advocate

Renowned jazz musician Rick DellaRatta joins Pastor Bob Thibodeau on the Kingdom Crossroads podcast to discuss his impactful journey and the transformative power of jazz.

As the founder of Jazz for Peace, Rick has dedicated his life to using music as a tool for social change, having performed over 850 concerts worldwide to benefit outstanding causes and promote cultural understanding.

He reflects on the profound influence of jazz as a unifying force, celebrating its roots while bridging communities across the globe. Rick also shares a personal story about abandoning his car to pursue his musical dreams in New York City, emphasizing the importance of following one's passion despite challenges.

Tune in to discover how Rick’s work continues to inspire a new generation of musicians and advocates for peace through the universal language of music.

Takeaways:

• Jazz is a powerful cultural force that unites communities and promotes creativity.
• Rick DellaRatta uses jazz as a tool for social change and cultural understanding.
• The 'Jazz for Peace' initiative has supported over 850 outstanding causes worldwide.
• Music can bridge divides and foster dialogue between different cultures and communities.
• Through personal experiences, Rick emphasizes the uniqueness of each individual's contribution to society.
• The importance of adaptability in a musician's journey is highlighted through Rick's story.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Email:   info@jazzforpeace.org

Website:   https://jazzforpeace.org/

FREE PDF:  https://jazzforpeace.org/foryourpodcast.pdf

Thanks to Behind The Music concert December 2nd at 2pm ET:  https://watch.e360tv.com/player/29492/686934

Jazz for Peace™ Founder Rick DellaRatta listed as one of the worlds “Most Viewed Global Entrepreneurs”: https://jazzforpeace.org/mostviewed.pdf

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast with Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

Pastor Bob conducts personal interviews with Christian influencers from around the globe, helping Christian authors, recording artists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and, yes, pastors and ministry leaders to get the word out about what they are doing to impact the world with the gospel.

Our podcast has been rated in the top 1/2% of all podcasts in the world by ListenNotes.com so you know your message will be heard.

Now, here is your host with today's interview, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

Hello everyone everywhere.

Pastor Robert Thibodeau here.

Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast today.

We're so blessed you're joining us.

You know, jazz is more than a music genre.

It is a powerful cultural force that has inspired countless musicians crossing borders, uniting diverse communities.

You know, emerging from the African American communities In the early 20th century, jazz has become a symbol of freedom, creativity, resilience.

It, it blends improv with complex harmonies and embodies the unique voices of each performer while celebrating the collective whole.

It is truly mesmerizing when you get a group of jazz musicians together and they just go for it.

Amen.

And we're blessed today to have one of the most notable jazz musicians of our generation with us.

Rick delarada is a renowned jazz pianist, vocalist, composer.

He has significantly contributed to this legacy.

As I just described, Rick was a celebrated and internationally acclaimed jazz artist in New York City before witnessing the extraordinary events of 911 from his rooftop that was less than a quarter mile away from ground zero.

On that fateful morning, the words of a poem titled Jazz for Peace were written down.

And he went to do over 850 concerts across the globe to help the world's most outstanding causes.

Educational presentations, instrument donation, programs for the benefit of children.

As a founder for Jazz for Peace, Rick Delarada has used jazz as a tool for social change, performing worldwide to promote peace and cultural understanding.

His work has bridged communities globally, showing jazz's universal appeal and transformative power.

Known for his creative and innovative music style, Rick's contributions continue to inspire new generation of jazz enthusiasts today, keeping the art form vibrant and relevant in today's world.

Amen.

With all that being said, help me.

Welcome to the program Rick Delirado.

Rick, it is such a blessing to have you on the program today, brother.

Well, thank you so much, Pastor Bob.

I can see you've done your homework and it's always a privilege when I get to be with the hosts such as yourself.

Amen.

I appreciate that.

Now, the first question I always start with is this.

Other than that brief information I just share, can you tell us in your own words, who is Rick delarada?

Well, I'm someone who has come to the conclusion that we are all very unique, very special, all part of God's creation.

And each and every one of us has something unique and special to offer the world that no one else but us can do.

I mean, I can't do what you can do.

You can't do what somebody else can do.

Only them can be that special thing that they are.

And I think we can just really make a extraordinary amount of progress just by tapping into everyone's true potential to do good for this planet and this and our people, you know, and humankind and, you know, in every which way that there is.

Amen.

Amen.

I have to ask, how did you first get involved with jazz music?

You know, I really.

I came across jazz in a library, but there was a bunch of steps that led to that.

One of the steps was a piano that ended up in the living room of, you know, the house I was growing up with on Christmas Day.

So I thought that that piano was delivered by Santa Claus, of course.

And I thought that, you know, I'd better figure out what this giant thing is.

Being that he went through all this trouble to get it into our house.

I know he couldn't fit it through the chimney.

So I was trying to figure that out on my own.

That led to me kind of getting caught, you know, sneaking around and playing the piano when nobody was around, which led to piano lessons, which led to two things going on.

One, the great music that my piano teacher was showing me, and two, was the music that, you know, all the kids were listening to at school, both of which I admired a lot.

So through my musical training and my growth and my just love of music, I ended up in a situation where I happened to just open up a drawer or something in a library, and I was like, what is this now?

And it was all these jazz records.

So I started taking them out of the library.

And between all three of those genres, I really had my.

I found that I really had my hands full.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

And jazz has such a deep and varied tradition.

Which artists or experiences have most influenced your style?

You know, it really depends on what it is I'm playing, as far as.

As far as, you know, which style it is.

I mean, it really, what I do is I often let leave it up to the listener to decide what they thought they heard and where they thought it came from.

I was recently on something a show called behind the Music.

And before they got to me, they were interviewing all these old jazz greats and when I was listening to them all play, you know, in this little introductory video.

And so as soon as the they got to me and they said, hey, why don't you play something?

I couldn't help but play some of the really old time jazz that I was hearing them play and play something in that style.

So, I mean, if you heard me on that show, you would have heard me playing in a very old, you know, old, or maybe early, you know, bebop, pre bebop style of jazz.

Because that's just, you know, what was inspiring me at the moment based on what I was seeing.

But you know, some people will hear me take a pop music and turn it into jazz.

Some people will hear me take a poem, which is the Jazz for Peace poem, and freely improvise underneath it.

So when you hear me do something like that, where I'm just creating music in the moment, the music could come from African rhythms that I heard in one of my nine trips to Africa, or it could come from classical harmonies that I studied, you know, you know, from the music of Chopin or Bach or Mozart or Beethoven or.

Or it could come from the bebop legends, the very first one that gave me my first break in music as his opening act and MC Dizzy Gillespie.

So I mean, it could really.

Or it could come from rhythms of Brazil from where I'm also have a lot of influence.

So you just never know.

It's endless.

It really is endless.

I don't think there's enough time in one lifetime.

That's.

That's for sure.

Amen.

Amen.

I heard a story, something about you abandoned your car to chase your musical dreams.

Can you share about that time of your life and that event?

Oh, that's so cool.

Well, that's so cool that you heard that.

Basically what happened was I was studied in Boston and after I got finished school, I was making a living as a musician in Boston.

So I was feeling like, well, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Let's play in Boston where I can pay my bills.

People know who I am.

I've been here for a number of years.

You.

And the phone was ringing and that was all going on, except that I did have a friend of mine who came to New York and called me up and said, hey Rick, you know, maybe you should come check out the city if you ever want to come down Here, you could stay with me for a few days, just check it out, you know.

And I thought, okay, I'll take you up on that.

So that led me to a situation where I ran into someone on the street who recognized me on the street from Boston.

And he said they were, he was looking for someone who could play the keyboards and had original music and, you know, all these things that described me.

And I said, wow, that's pretty interesting that you're, you know, looking for someone exactly like me.

What a strange coincidence.

I said, well, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

Could you join our band?

And I said, look, I'm.

I'm living in New York.

I'm just visiting for a couple of days.

Well, how about, can you come to a session?

So they, they set up this little jam session at this drummer's house.

And I went there and they were like, Rick, I mean, you really, if you could join our band, it'd be great.

I said, look, if, you know, I have a rent situation in New York.

I mean, rents are high down here.

I don't know.

They said, what if we find you a place?

I said, look, if you guys find me a place, you know, that's, that's absurd.

That's crazy.

But if you do.

Well, they did find me a place with a little bit of a trick.

They found me a place in Jersey City, which is not very far, but it's not New York City.

But they were able to finagle something.

And then they told me the price, which was half of the amount of the apartment because it's.

Well, it's have to get a roommate.

If you get just two of you, it's this amount.

Anyway, I needed to come.

Anyway, they finagled it.

So I came down to New York City.

Now I had a car in New York City.

And that was leading to some crazy situations because eventually I did move into the city.

I was on Central park west and the top of the park near Harlem.

And it wasn't ritzy back then, believe me, that up there where I was, it was a rough neighborhood actually.

But I was there with a person on Rent who another drummer wanted me to play in his band.

And he had a rent controlled department.

Well, I was getting gigs, but the gigs I was getting was because I had a car.

So I was kind of reverse commuting.

I was playing gigs in Long Island, I was playing gigs in New Jersey.

I Was playing gigs, you know, in Connecticut.

But I was here to play kind of in New York City.

And what happened was I.

And there was no way.

I mean, the car already was difficult.

Even if you're.

Even if you're in New York City, it's tough to have a car watching it because of the crazy rules they have and people vandalization, all the crazy things going with the car.

So now I was really in trouble because I wasn't gonna be around, and you couldn't.

The car had to be moved every morning across the street.

You know, they have these rules.

So I basically decided that this was a decision I had to make.

I was like, okay, I'm going on this tour, and when I come back, I'm gonna play in New York City or I'm gonna play in some.

For someone that called me from New York City to come somewhere else, you know, But I'm gonna play here in this.

On this island here when I come back.

And I took my car and I drove it to Jersey City, where I knew there was a cul de sac because I had lived there, like I told you.

So I knew because people there could have cars.

You know, there's one of those little islands, you know, and I put it on that little island near where I used to live with a screwdriver.

Now I had.

And I un.

I took the screwdriver off, you know, I took the plates off, and I just walked away from the car.

And I've never owned a car since.

Wow.

Not a car since.

Wow.

Never owned a car since.

Well, the thing is, in New York City, you really don't need a car.

And there's other places I go to, but what am I gonna do?

Just buy.

You know, I like to ski in the mountains of Utah, for example, and everybody does have cars there.

But what am I gonna do?

Buy a car just to ski?

You know, it's like, this doesn't make sense.

So what I do, I find out, though you'd be surprised what you can get away with without a car.

I mean, just like in Utah, basically, you know, you wake up, I ride a bicycle to a ski bus, and then I take a ski bus to the mountain, and they.

The mountain pays for my ski bus.

So I don't need a car there, technically.

Amen.

And I hate to say it, but.

And I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist.

Theorist, but it is a fact that you didn't need a Car.

When cars came out, because the public transportation system was impeccable, far beyond what it is now.

And the car, like those trolley cars were coming, electric trolley cars, green energy, coming every six minutes.

And nobody was buying cars.

So it was until the car companies basically bought the private transportation systems and kind of dismantled them, forcing people to need cars that we need.

You know, we became so dependent on cars.

I mean, I don't.

Listen, I don't mind that anyone has a car.

It's just that I can't have one here in New York City.

It's impossible.

It would cost almost as much to park the car as it does to rent the apartment.

Yeah, yeah.

My daughter, she loves New York City.

Matter of fact, my grandson, he lived up there for about six months, and he bought.

He took his car up there, and when he came back the second time he went up there, he just left the car at home.

Right, yeah.

So that you get the picture.

I mean, you could really get in a lot of trouble with a car in New York City.

Either the expense of.

Of, you know, housing it, making sure it's safe, or the things that can happen to it if you try to avoid that expense.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Well, I.

You know, with a name like Thibodeau, I've spent my fair share a time down in South Louisiana.

And is there a different style to jazz music being from New York City as compared to, say, New Orleans?

There really is.

So, you know, what happened was New Orleans, really, the word jazz is a Creole word, and it's actually spelled J, A, S S.

And when I went to Haiti, I found that.

I found that people put up a big sign, and the sign said, welcome Jazz for Peace.

Jass.

And that's when I realized, because I'd also been to Ghana, Africa, and Ghana, I noticed, looked exactly like Haiti.

So that's when I realized that, you know, those slave castles they'd shown me, slaves had come from Ghana to Haiti, then from Haiti to New Orleans.

And when jazz came out, you know, I mean, it was lower.

You know, it wasn't the, you know, the high, the hoity toities that were listening to it.

They were playing it for whatever audience they could.

And it appears to me that the Haitians that they were playing the jazz for gave it that name, which is a lively term for music.

And they were playing a.

It's a very lively, swinging, happy sort of feel.

But then jazz started moving, and it moved to Chicago and then Kansas City in Chicago area, kind of that Midwest area.

And then some of those musicians From Kansas City and Chicago, took jazz to New York.

And then in New York, it started something called bebop.

So it took on a more of.

I don't know, it took on a different flavor, a different feel.

In fact, a lot of the New Orleans musicians, some of them said it was just a bunch of wrong notes that they were hearing over in New York because it had changed so much.

And it took some time for the New Orleans and the bebop guys to kind of get on the same page and say, hey, no, no, no, this is all our art form here.

Let's.

Let's welcome both New Orleans music and, you know, the new music coming out in New York.

But then it started really, because New York was such a melting pot.

I mean, New Orleans was somewhat of a melting pot.

It really was, you know, but nothing like New York.

I mean, New York, you had, you know, what's that island over there?

Right, Ellis Island?

You know, forget it.

I mean, you had every.

So New York, the.

The music started really getting influenced from all kinds of things and growing in all kinds of ways.

And boy, I mean, you have Brazilian jazz, you have Latin jazz, you have.

So you really.

It's really extraordinary, and it's been really fun for me to embrace all of those different styles of jazz from New Orleans all the way through.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, as the founder for Jazz for Peace, you performed all over the world, including a huge benefit at the United Nations.

Can you share a little bit about that event for us?

Sure.

So what happened was.

What happened was basically I was.

I had.

I.

911 had taken place, and I had a poem, and the poem was called Jazz for Peace.

And I was trying to see what to do with this poem.

So I recited it at a jazz festival in Savannah, Georgia, a few weeks after 911 when the country opened up again and I had started playing a few jazz repeats concerts around New York City.

And then I was thinking about a possible benefit concert series, just things like that.

While I was doing all that, I asked my manager if she would just in her free time, call over to the United nations and tell them that I had a.

You know, I wanted to bring a group of multicultural group over there to play as a showing of how we can all get along through the American art form of jazz can unite people in a positive way and how we really can all get along, you know, through music and art and culture.

And, you know, she gave me a strange look, and I said, listen, you know, they'll probably redirect you here and there who the heck knows?

But just, you know, every now and then, if you could, you know, please give it a try, you know, and almost a year later, I mean, really, it could have been six or eight months later, because it was about a year after that that, you know, the consequently happened.

She did say, hey, oh, and by the way, this United nations thing, they want to do that.

And I said, you're kidding me.

What.

What do you talk.

And she said, yeah, they have some sponsor.

The American something or other is going to sponsor the chairs and the tables.

And you.

You need one sponsor, though, for the blah, blah, blah.

So anyway, we finagled this thing, and I told her, I said, look, this thing is coming up.

I know you might not.

I knew she didn't under.

Nobody really understand.

I'm the one who really thought it was a big deal, and nobody else really did.

And, you know, I mean, the musicians, I don't even know if they knew what.

What we were.

You know, they just probably saw it on their schedule or Rick called me to go to this place at such and such a time, who knows?

So I said, look, whatever you do, you got to have one Israeli, one Palestinian.

And I said, you can make it.

I don't care where the other guys are from.

I don't care if they're in Tuscaloosa or Osaka, Japan.

I don't, you know, wherever they.

Whatever you want to do with the rest of the guys.

But one guy's got to be Palestinian, one's guy's got to be Israeli.

So she made sure of that.

And we had this multicultural band, and then we did a concert to not a whole lot of fanfare, but as time went on, you know, people started referring to that concert.

So I started to get letters from people.

I mean, one of the first letters I got was from the mayor here in New York at that time, Michael Bloomberg.

And he sent a letter to a concert I had, and he.

And.

And they read it at the concert.

I said, what is that?

They said, this is from the mayor, and here, and it's yours.

It's to you.

And they, you know, and they want us to read it.

And I was like, wow.

And I thought, well, man, if.

That maybe there's more letters to be had.

I don't know how, but I also realized at that time that I had a.

You know, I'm.

I'm running around four or five little boroughs with a worldwide mission.

So, you know, I better expand this to at least the rest of the state, maybe a couple more states.

Well, the next thing you know, I started to get to other states and I started to get to other letters from other people.

You know, in Vermont, I got a letter from the governor.

In Chicago, I got a letter from Barack Obama, you know.

Yeah.

So I mean, in Kenya, I got a letter from the prime minister.

So it just started with these letters and they started referring to that concert as being a very significant cultural event of our time.

And so it started growing and people started getting the picture of what I wanted them to get, which is that I'm not positively sure if all these wars are really necessary.

Yeah, we have people that don't want them even on the sides that they say are against each other.

Yep.

And sometimes this is not the will of the people that we are letting, allowing.

And like I said right at the beginning of this podcast, we are all unique with a profoundly positive contribution inside our spirits somewhere.

So when you have these kind of old fashioned, oligarchic type of things, everyone's dependent on one person, you know, so this one person in this country has argument with that one person over there and now they got to send all their, you know, bombs and people on horses with ste.

You know, but wait a minute.

What about if we include, you know, I mean, I could, I know I could probably learn something right downstairs from the guy who sells fruit.

I could probably have a talk with him and he could teach me something that I don't know.

I'm sure of it.

So let's give, let's give common sense a chance and let's give the possibility that there are options coming from people that are not in high positions of power a chance and review them.

And Jazz Rubies did do a poll where, because we have a solution based on all of our trips around the world, all of our concerts, you know, we have what we feel is a solution and working with both Israelis and Palestinians in that situation related to the United Nations.

And we said, let's let them vote.

Let's just see what happens.

Let's see what happens.

And we gave them three choices, the Jazz rupees.

And with Jazz rupees, you can click on a link.

It's called jazz for peace.org conflict resolution Q&A PDF and they were, we would give them the link and they'd click on that link and look at our proposal.

This is our proposal for what we think based on all of our work with Israelis, Palestinians.

What will work here?

Click on it, look at it.

Now, here's a couple other options.

One, you keep things going the way they Are now keep things.

No biggie.

You can vote for that.

2.

If you are one of those people that believes we have to, you know, destroy, you know, escalate and blah, blah, you can vote.

You can do it.

Well, the crazy thing was no people voted for escalation.

There was even a single vote, you know, and millions of people saw it because we had documented over 1 million impressions on that social media platform over the course of a week.

And that was tallied and sent to us by LinkedIn, that social media platform.

They.

We got this thing that said, your.

Your impressions have been skyrocketed.

And this is the total for the week.

And it was over a million.

Amen.

Over 1 million.

So.

And the poll ran for two weeks, so people were seeing it.

Yeah, and they were Palestinians that were right, were writing us and sending us stuff, you know, and Israelis.

We were working with both sides and everybody around the world, you know, there's people in every country of lots of Americans.

So we.

That was zero, which was kind of shocking.

Nobody voted for it.

Now, that doesn't mean there isn't an occasional person, but that got zero votes, just so, you know.

And then to keep things the same, that got 4%.

And the Jazz repeats actual solution to the problem received 96%.

96%.

So, you know, you would think now maybe that these two parties would get together and look at this, because this is not us voting.

This is the people.

You know, this is what the people think.

Why don't you consider what they think?

Why don't you consider taking a look at it?

Why don't we include this kind of statement, you know, from the world, a worldwide statement into the discussion.

And who knows, maybe we can solve, you know, there might be a.

There might be other problems we can solve, too.

I mean, I just think the people are not always wrong and governments are not always right.

I mean, who's going to argue with that, right?

Amen.

Amen.

Since we're talking about Jazz for Peace, tell us a little bit about your organization.

Well, one of the most popular things that we came across is called an empowerment tree.

And basically it's a fundraising model for outstanding causes.

You know, over the course of our time, we've had a lot of little slogans, you know, jazz for Peace, helping those who are helping others.

Well, that's relates to our benefit concert series.

We.

We want to help outstanding causes.

Why?

Because those outstanding causes are helping others.

So rather than go around and try to help each of the 8.4 billion people on the planet, you know, One by one.

Why not help a cause that's reaching thousands of them, then another cause that's reaching thousands over here at the same time?

When you do that, you separate the wheat from the chaff, which I know a term you know very well.

So that's an important term because there's a zillion of these nonprofits and nobody really knows who's what, you know, but when we help an outstanding cause, that cause is telling us, look, we are gonna, this is our mission statement and we are gonna do this if we get the help we need.

So that's separating them from those who might be putting on a dog and pony show and throwing a few turkeys around on, you know, Thanksgiving and taking pictures and writing it, writing a lot of money off their taxes from a for profit business, you know, or whatever their other reason is.

But these situations, I mean, and then come to find out some of these people that we helped are just average.

Every.

You'd never think they could make such a profoundly positive difference as they do.

Which reinforces what I said.

Actually, it helped me come to that conclusion because some of these people were regular people, probably people who would come to your church, you know, your, your congregation in a church, A person, just person, people you see on the street, just regular old people.

But they had a passion that really affected them.

And, you know, I really feel like rather than give this job to this person and this job to that person, what about the person who's really passionate about that situation?

What about getting them in there?

Because I've noticed you give a baton to somebody who's passionate about running and good luck beating them in the race.

That's right.

Amen.

Amen.

So we.

Empowerment.

Empowerment, yeah.

Empowerment and enlightenment.

Those are two really important words.

So that's a big part of jazz trapeze, that people again, are starting to realize, wow, maybe there could be something to this.

Because over 850 outstanding causes have benefited and we don't use our words.

We get you as quickly as we can over to a page called jazz for peace.WordPress.com forward/about, and we get you to that page so you can read their words and you're just on and on and on.

I mean, if you get to the bottom, you get a prize.

No one's ever gotten the prize, so we don't have to worry about replacing it.

But it's just on and on with these testimonials.

And I feel gaslighted when I look at them because I'm like, I can't Did I really do jazz for peace to all that?

So, yeah, I don't even believe it myself.

But nevertheless, this is their words and that's what they're saying.

And if they said I helped them, then who am I to.

What am I going to do?

I can't put up a defense against my, you know, who am I to argue.

Amen.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

So for young musicians who look up to your work, what advice would you give them if you could talk to them one on one?

You know, I'll tell you something, and I only came across this recently, but it's a little thing you've known in the back of your mind, but you don't really.

It's never really at the forefront when it should be.

So that's an interesting, that's another interesting thing when you look at, because you know, you look at scriptures and you know how smart and intelligent people were that lived so long ago, we think, wow, they didn't have cell phones.

They must have been in the dark ages, right?

But I mean, we need, we often go way back to learn things now, and we go back to learn them and as you know, some of the greatest people ever lived way, way back, you know, so this is a little parable and it's called the Old man and his Horse.

And this is about a guy and might have been in like the Yang Xi and dynasty in China or something.

He's just a man, old man with his horse.

And one day the horse runs away and his neighbor, the neighbor comes by and says, oh, old man, I just want to, just want, I want to come by and tell you how sorry I am about your horse.

And the old man looked at him and he said, who knows what is good news?

Who knows what is good news and what is bad?

And he said, oh, well, okay, I appreciate your positive attitude.

Listen, I just want to say.

But you know, okay, okay.

Four days later, the horse comes back with five other horses.

Neighbor comes by again.

He says to the man, old man, I just wanted to come and tell you how happy I am about the great news that all your horse is back with all these other horses.

Now you have five horses.

The old man looks him and says, who knows what is good news and what is bad?

So the guy says, okay, buddy, well, all right, okay.

I just Wanted to say, you know, I just wanted to, you know, share in the joy that you must be feeling.

He goes back now a few days later, of course, his son, his only son, who he needs to plow the field and do all that stuff, gets on to try to break one of the horses in or whatever.

Horse bucks them off, smashes into a fence, this, that and the other.

Breaks his leg really bad, you know, two or three places.

Bedridden, can't walk.

Don't even know, you know, if it'll ever walk.

We don't know what's going on.

Guy comes over again, I'm so sorry.

With a horrific news that your son, you know, and that guy, once again, who knows what is good news and what is bad.

And now he's looking like, well, okay, this guy's.

This guy's a little nuts.

He's really crazy.

But he's my neighbor.

I'll be nice.

But man, he's got to be crazy.

He goes back five days later, government knocks on his door.

Officers, what do you need?

We need every able bodied man.

The war has started.

We got to take your kid.

I'm so sorry.

We got to take your kid and we got to send them out to war.

All the kids are going from the whole area.

They look at the kid.

Oh, sir, I mean, there's no way we can take this guy.

We can't even walk.

I mean, I'm sorry.

I'm very sorry, but we can't.

We can.

We're going to have to go to the next house.

We can't take your son.

All the other kids go die in the war.

And this kid who had the worst news broke his leg.

So what I might say to a young person is it might look overwhelming, it might look, you know, distraught.

But if you play your best game of life every single day, if you could try to do that the way as I started doing when I started trying to live up to the words of that poem.

So that caused me to have to play a darn good game of life every, every day.

If I wanted to live up to the words of that poem I wrote on 9 11.

I said, if you do that every day, don't get so wrapped up in the good news and the bad news because who the heck knows what is good news and what is bad anyway?

Yeah.

Something bad that might happen to you could turn into the greatest news of all down the road.

Yeah.

Amen.

So I would just try to get all of that if you could.

And believe me, I wake every day, I Have to try again tomorrow.

But, you know, if you could do the same, just keep.

Just keep a perspective and do your best.

Amen.

Amen.

Could you do a little bit of the Jazz for Peace poem for us right now?

Oh, music.

I could.

I could.

So basically I'll recite the poem and I have no idea what I'll play.

All right.

I hear Jazz for Peace coming through the trees and in my heart it fills me like a celebration.

I see light and I want to follow.

Inspired by the past contributions of those that came before and lay the groundwork for us to build on in this universal language that is a gift for all mankind.

When we speak it, people are inspired by the creativity and artistry.

Stands for peace and love and humanity, an intelligence that leads to reaching potential that we have in our souls so we can raise our total conscience and see the gift of giving.

It's our greatest privilege.

I hear Jazz for Peace.

Man.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Praise God.

Amen.

And you also have an upcoming concert soon on.

On December 2nd.

I believe that's about the time this will go live and be published.

Where's this going to be at?

Okay, great.

December 2nd.

I do have something on December 2nd.

Now what is that?

Let me check or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Let me see.

All right, let me see what I have.

December 2nd.

Oh, you're right.

Yes.

In Chicago.

Okay.

So, yeah, in December 2nd.

You know, it's funny because people do that sometimes.

I don't know where I am and I have to, you know.

That's right.

You something calls buddy on December 2nd.

I am doing something with behind the Music again because of that.

The earlier in the story, I told you and they said, we love that people go crazy, went so crazy over that show.

We want you to.

We want you to be appear again on December 2nd.

So, yes, I.

I am doing that again on December 2nd.

Behind the Music.

Amen.

Yep, Amen.

Amen.

Rick, this has been so interesting.

If someone has a question or they'd like to receive more information maybe on upcoming tours or getting involved with the six branches of empowerment themselves, you know, and all that, or maybe do an interview like this.

How can they get in touch with you?

How can they do that?

You know, one way is to.

Well, our email address is info@jazzforpeace.org It's a simple email address.

And Jasper Beast funding really starts with a simple comment.

So sometimes people just send us a little comment and we get a hold of them and say, hey, I mean, are you.

Do you have an outstanding cause or something.

We can take this comment and show you how it becomes a seedling to grow an empowerment tree to help an outstanding cause in your community or even outstanding cause that you're involved with.

But they can get a hold of us, you know, any which way that they want.

We also have a new book called Paving the Path for Peace through Music.

And people are like contacting us saying we learned so much from this book.

So it's on Amazon.

It's called Paving the Path for Peace Through Music, the Amazing Story of Rick Dolorata and Jazz Rupees, of course, our website, jazz for peace.org and if you can spell my name, rickdelrada.com or other places that people like to go.

Hey, man, I'll put links to all this in the show notes below.

Praise God, folks.

Without abandoning the true art form of jazz, Rick frequently performs for large crowds all around the world.

He's an innovator as well as a visionary.

And through his lifelong endeavor just to help advance people to their highest potential through the understanding of jazz.

Not to mention he's spreading peace worldwide.

Through his Jazz for Peace world tour and nonprofit, he is working diligently to be a blessing to others.

Through Jazz for Peace, Rick has helped over 850 different international causes and continues to make an impact.

Today, as you just heard, he's going over there on December 2nd to do another one.

Could you be one of the next ones to benefit?

Or maybe you can join in and help a great cause.

There's only one way to find out.

I urge you.

Drop down the show notes, click the links.

It'll be right there.

Reach out to Rick, click the links for Jazz for Peace.

Send along an encouraging note and see how you can get involved.

Amen.

Rick, I do appreciate your time coming on the program and join us today, brother.

You know, there's a spiritual song called Hallelujah.

Are you familiar with that by any.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I was gonna play you guys out with that because someone had requested it.

When I told them I had, I said, I'm gonna be on with Pastor Bob.

And they said, oh, man.

Could you.

Could you.

Could you play Hallelujah for his show?

And I said, if you want, I'll see what he says.

Praise God.

Absolutely.

Okay.

All right, let's give it a try.

Amen.

I heard there was a secret chord.

That David played and it pleased the Lord.

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this.

The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift the baffled king composing Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Well, your faith was strong?

But you needed proof?

You saw her bathing on the roof?

Her beauty and the moonlight over through you?

She tied you to a kitchen chair?

She broke your thorn and she cut your hair?

And from your lips she drew the hallelujah?

Hallelujah, Hallelujah?

Hallelujah, Hallelujah?

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Amen sa hallelujah, hallelujas, hallelujah?

Hallelujah?

Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Appreciate that.

With that, folks, we're going to close out.

Be blessed in all that you do.

Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Kingdom Crossroads podcast.

Please subscribe to our podcast so you can be notified when another episode is published.

To share their messages with the world, please visit our website@www.podcastersforchrist.com.

that web address again is www.podcastersforchrist.Com.

for more information, until next time, be blessed in all that.