In this episode, Carl interviews Ellis White, a Florida-based guitar player who experienced contemporary jazz success as a member of the group, Catch The Groove. Their single, "Shaken Not Stirred," reached the Billboard Top 20. Ellis talks about how he decided to become a solo artist in 2019 and released his first single, "Keeping It Real." He also reveals how he recognizes when a song is ready for release.

Ellis shares what it was about contemporary jazz that drew him and who his top musical influences are. He continues to describe what it was like the first time he heard his song playing on the radio and how it felt to have success on the charts. He also discusses what his process for making music is, how it comes to be, how he gets started, and how he makes it come to fruition.

Ellis explains how seeing people get into his music impacts his show and how the pandemic has changed the music industry. He plans to continue writing music, release new stuff in 2023, push the festival markets and venues, and increase the number of performances. Listen to the episode to hear Ellis' music and find out something about him that you'd be surprised to know.

Episode Highlights

03:24 - It was the integration of so many different styles of music. I mean, you listen to my music or some other artists, and you hear not only Jazz, but you hear an R&B influence in some songs. You hear some Blues. You hear some Latin. You hear some Pop. It allows you to kind of mix up some music. Then the art of improvising. That's probably what really drew me in.

12:11 - Once I take a final listen to everything that's in there as the song has been built, and when I close my eyes and I hear everything the way that I had envisioned hearing it from the very beginning, then I know this is ready to go to the public.

26:31 - It's a major accomplishment. And it's like, "Wow. This song really had an impact. It made it to the charts." In "Keeping It Real," I didn't have the ability to capture one of the big four or five radio promoters with "Keeping It Real." So, it was a lot of self promotion. But that song has been on multiple charts itself and been on a couple of different Top 100s. It's been number one in England. It's made a mark all on its own without the big radio promoters. And maybe next time I can go back to that way of doing business.

Contact

Fresh Coast Jazz Festival

Ellis White