About Rick Braun
Rick Braun is an English smooth jazz trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone and keyboards player, vocalist, composer, and record producer.
Braun was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and attended Dieruff High School. His mother was a self-taught pianist and banjoist. Braun played drums at Dieruff High School, and followed his brother in playing trumpet.
In the 1970s, while attending the Eastman School of Music, he became a member of a jazz-fusion band, Auracle, along with, amongst others, keyboards player John Serry, saxophone and flute player Steve Kujala and vibes player Steve Rehbein . The band worked with producer Teo Macero and Braun co-produced the second album City Slickers .
In the 1980s, Braun entered the pop music world, releasing an album in Japan as a singer. He then worked as a songwriter for Lorimar, writing the song "Here with Me" with REO Speedwagon which became a top twenty hit, and the theme for Lorimar's NBC show Midnight Caller. When he returned to the trumpet, he worked as a studio musician and touring member with Crowded House, Natalie Cole, Glenn Frey, Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, Tom Petty, Sade, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, and War.
In 1992, he released his debut solo album, Intimate Secrets , followed in 1994 by two solo albums, Night Walk and Christmas Present. The former featured him playing just muted trumpet and flugelhorn. His popularity increased enough by 1995, when he released Beat Street, that he was persuaded to pursue a solo career.
He has cited as influences Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Chet Baker, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herb Alpert. He cites Herb Alpert with inspiring his album All It Takes, which includes the song "Tijuana Dance", a play on Alpert's band Tijuana Brass. One of his influences was Freddie Hubbard, and Braun composed a song, "Freddie Was Here" in 2008, which he recorded on his album, All it Takes, in tribute to Hubbard, who died that year.
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