The Imitation Jazz Trio™ handsome pic in my studio getting ready for the Christmas show! Click the pic for tic link.
BRETT RAYMOND short BIO
Brett Raymond is a music composer, he... Okay, I'll dispense with the 3rd person stuff...
I'm a music composer. I also write lyrics and though I've never called myself a lyricist, that has changed in the last few years with my grown-up love of and respect for lyrics. I do think about things deeply, and from many angles, and that helps... I play keyboards, mostly acoustic piano and Hammond organ. I don't consider myself a singer, but I've made quite a few recordings doing just that, and people have actually paid me to record... And I do love to sing I must admit. I also arrange and produce; I've made a few bucks doing it, and I think I'm pretty good at both, but can I be honest enough to say I really don't like to do either very much...
Despite my tenacious dreams of pop stardom, I was never the "next Billy Joel" (maybe you noticed) I kept those dreams going for about as long as a person can before that person's just too old... However, I have been very fortunate to have had the support of a few labels through the years, and I continue to record and I enjoy that. No, it wasn't the singer/songwriter of Brett's dreams (oh oh... 3rd person...) that kept the food on the table though the years. But it was music, and I'm grateful for that.
I've worn a variety of 'hats' through the years, being on 'both sides of the glass' as they say. I've been the piano man at the piano bar atop the high-rise hotel. I've been the studio player playing for the artist, I've been the artist other musicians are recording for. I've produced artists, I've been produced as an artist. I've been an arranger, I've had my pieces arranged. I've had musicians back me up on live shows, I've backed up artists on live shows. I've even been the studio engineer, pushing buttons. But the biggest single thing in this crazy business that has kept the bills paid and tummies full has been my work in production music. Everything from jingles (Velveeta Shells and Cheeze) to TV Themes (The Agatha Christie Hour) to promo work ("America's Biggest Road Show"- College Football on ABC) The biggest of those gigs has been, and continues to be, The Today Show on NBC, which has used my 'main studio theme' for a number of years, and which I'm very grateful for.
I play with my band The Brett Raymond Imitation Jazz Trio™ as occasionally as we can! We do summer gigs we call "cul-de-sac concerts". Coming to a neighborhood near you! And we also do a Christmas show each December, adding a brass section (trumpet, sax, and trombone) and usually a guest female vocalist, so you don't have to hear me all night!
Currently I reside in Kaysville, Utah with my wife Becky. I like Kaysville, and it's good to be here because so much of our family live around here, but I miss Franklin, Tennessee, where we recently moved from, and where we spent some very good years. Love that place. I grew up in Utah, and it has been our home on-and-off through the years, except for Franklin, a couple of very interesting years in Japan, and a few great years in Thousand Oaks, California.
LIST OF NOTABLE GIGS/clients:
television:
The Today Show on NBC [link is to classic/original theme music]
Good Morning America (ABC)
The Ricki Lake Show
The Agatha Christie Hour (Arts & Entertainment)
American Playrights Theatre (Arts & Entertainment)
Fox Sports themes
Einstein Babies song
The Oprah Winfrey Show promos
The Tudors promo song
WPIX NYC station ID song
KTVI St. Louis news package
The Price Is Right show music (Germany)
Wheel Of Fortune show music (Germany)
Let's Make a Deal show music (Germany)
jingles:
Tombstone Pizza
Velveeta Shells and Cheeze
Raging Waters
Deseret Book
Nissan Stanza (Japan)
Hitachi Air Conditioners- Shirokuma kun (Japan)
Tokyo Disneyland (Japan)
film:
Dear God (Paramount Pictures)
song "Angel's Gonna Find You"
Scarecrow (Nest/Warner Brothers)
song "Come One, Come All!"
Charly (Excell)
song "This Craziness is Love"
Dream Machine (International Creative Exchange)
song "Something Like That"
Zion's Camp (LDS Church CES)
score
What Is Real (LDS Church)
score (partial)
Labor Of Love (LDS Church)
score (partial)
Together Forever (LDS Church)
score (partial)
BR works [link is to current ASCAP list]
