Riff On This

Sitting down and chopping it up with Orlando’s own Smilez and Southstar was nothing short of legendary.

The latest episode of Riff On This is full of nostalgia, wild moments and laughs as the duo shares their journey in hip-hop in the early 2000s.

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From a 70s funk band, to an 80s southern rock band and the last 23 years in an English blues rock band, Bryan Bassett’s guitar chops have probably made you get up a dance at one time or another.

Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bassett was surrounded by incredible musicians in a city where jazz flourished in the 40s and 50s expanding to an incredible nightlife scene full of clubs and lounges belting sounds of rock-and-roll and funk from every entrance.

Bassett found music in his hands as a young teen one Christmas morning opening presents in his childhood home.

“It was a Harmony Rocket, a big red guitar with white knobs,” Bassett said. “Santa Claus, you know, my parents had bought me that and two Jeff Beck records. I mean talk about putting up a hard thing to follow, but yeah, I loved it.”

Bassett’s love for guitars grew more and more. Like something out of “A Christmas Story” the young musician had a Ralphie moment. Unlike the movie where Ralphie sees the Red Ryder B.B. Gun in the window at Higbee’s, Bassett said he remembers clearly seeing one guitar he just had to have.

“I used to take a bus downtown after school and to Lomakin music shop in downtown Pittsburgh and a Les Paul gold top hung in that window and I literally (said) ‘One day you will be mine,’” Bassett said.

Working in a grocery store all summer the eager 17-year-old saved every penny he could. Bassett said his dad pitched in half of the money and he was able to buy his first great guitar.

Bassett’s first break into music happened after his friend Rob Parissi decided to disband a group called Wild Cherry, known now as the early version of the band, and decided to manage a few restaurants.

“I said, ‘Rob, if you ever get back in the music business, give me a call,’” Bassett said. “After about a couple of months, I guess he got sick of the restaurant business and he called me up and said ‘OK, Brian, you know what, I’m going to put together a new version of Wild Cherry and so we started.’”

It was that band that gave us the dance hit “Play that Funky Music” that’s still played for its feel-good vibrations today. You know that iconic opening riff that the song is known for? That’s right, Bassett is responsible for that!

Over the years, all roads led to Florida and eventually, Bassett decided to take a break as he embarked on this move. He started working odd jobs and even did television repair at a Radio Shack while living in Daytona Beach.

It was in Central Florida where Bassett met Dave Peverett, known as Lonesome Dave, who was the original lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Foghat. Bassett and Peverett became close friends and bandmates while Foghat had been on a brief hiatus. It was when they returned with all the original members that Bassett was out of a job and his friend Danny Joe Brown, who was the lead singer for the southern rock group Molly Hatchet, asked him if he wanted to join their band. Bassett recorded three albums with Molly Hatchet and toured not only in the States but abroad as well.

Bassett spent a little over seven years with Molly Hatchet, but one phone call from a dear friend changed his musical path and ultimately led him back to Foghat — where he’s been part of the family for over 23 years.

Bassett has so many amazing stories in this episode of Riff On This, that we can’t possibly cover them in this article. They range from the wild story about how the song “Play That Funky Music” was created to playing in two bands at one time and even walking into the wrong dressing room while on tour.

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For David “D1″ Grant, his musical journey started really young, playing piano at his father’s church in DeLand.

When Grant reached high school, a guidance counselor asked what he wanted to do with his life.

“I said ‘I want to be like Quincy Jones,’” Grant said. “I wanted to be a producer, so I kind of just dove all into the role of a producer, what they do, how they do it.”

Grant’s passion led him to Full Sail University where we sought out new artists to work with to build his musical resume.

“I would find new artists to work with people that were just starting in a journey just like me and they will let me record their song for them, you know, produce with them and some of them are Grammy Award winners now,” Grant said. “We just recorded in the apartment, and now they’re on the biggest stages of their career, you know, this amazing journey.”

Grant’s first major gig came during his time at Full Sail when his friend Trey Pierce, a Grammy-winning bassist, took Grant under his wing opening the door to tour on a big stage for the first time in his career.

“Music Director Jay Williams with The Blind Boys of Alabama gave me a call and gave me a chance to tour with them,” Grant said.

From the tour, everything changed.

“As a songwriter and producer I worked with VH1, the Show “Love and Hip Hop” on seasons one, two and three,” Grant said. “That’s when I figured out wait, I might be alright as a producer”.

Grant’s production resume grew adding artists like Erica Mina and Olivia. Their work reached the Billboard Top 20.

“Breaking the artists through television, and having records go through a reality show to you know, Billboard was the big thing,” Grant said. “That kind of gave me the confidence like ‘Yeah, I think I can. I can make a career out of this.’”

Grant decided to make a move. He left the Sunshine State for the Lonestar State finding a new life in Austin. The city’s official motto being the “Live Music Capital of the World.” Grant knew he had a chance to do big things. Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? This big move started from one call.

“I was called in to tape PBS Austin City Limits — legendary venue, legendary show — by my friend Jonathan Dees who is the music director for Gary Clark Jr,” Grant said.

Soon, Grant found himself playing piano on tour with artists like RayJ and Gary Clark Jr. A memorable moment for the musician was the last leg of Gary Clark Jr.’s tour where he was on stage performing at the Austin City Limits Festival performing in front of almost 100,000 people.

Grant said no matter where he performs, his DeLand roots and memories of playing in his father’s church keep his family close by, often calling his parents after big shows.

“When they say ‘We’re proud of you,’ those words right there... I mean, yeah, that’s almost like that’s, that’s just instant gratification,” Grant said.

Grant said it was his work with Dees that led to working with John Batiste.

“It was just for one show at that time,” he said.

Everyone part of the show, much like his church upbringing, had a spiritual connection. What the group didn’t know at the time was that connection would lead them to an even bigger performance.

“We had no idea months later we’d be playing the Grammys or anything like that. It was just you know, about the spiritual connection we made and such a great show. And then, months later, they gave me a call back to come to LA to start rehearsing,” Grant said.

Hear more on what it was like preparing for the Grammy’s behind the scenes along with Grant’s experience telling his parents of his Dove Award Nomination and then taking them to the red carpet all on episode 22 of Riff On This.

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In 1971, the English rock band Foghat formed in London, quickly becoming known for its use of electric slide guitar and it’s hard rocking blues hits.

Over the last 51 years, the band has attained eight gold records, one platinum record and one double platinum record for some of the greatest anthems in classic rock.

Roger Earl is one of the original founding members, and the only one to still rock on the drums and tour with the band.

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It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole known as Tik Tok. One minute you’re glancing at a video someone may have sent and the next thing you know it’s 2 a.m. It happens to the best of us.

For Sebastian Gabriel, the experience was different. Posting videos was a way to showcase Gabriel’s talent, playing the electric violin. Posts would include Gabriel playing a tune, and covering popular songs. His talent stems from the tender age of 5, playing the violin in Venezuela.

The classically trained musician even played in the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra before coming to the states. The move brought a lot of changes. Gabriel had to adjust and really sell his talent. That’s where Tik Tok came in. The platform would soon change his career.

“I was playing a Maluma song called Hawaii at a rooftop gig and when I played it, people started dancing, singing along,” Gabriel said.

Little did he know this video would have big impacts on his life.

“That video just went viral,” Gabriel said with a smile. “I was checking it and I was shocked it went from 2,000 views to 200,000 and then 600,000 views to a million and you’re like, ‘How does this even happen?’”

Video views went well above a million, but something else started happening.

“At the same time I was just receiving requests from people like come to New York and play this and come play that song at my wedding,” Gabriel said.

The next day Gabriel woke up to even more requests.

“My email was just completely crazy,” Gabriel said. “I have over 500 emails wanting to book me, I was like, ‘I can’t do all this alone.’”

Gabriel needed a team. With his brother and girlfriend’s help, they sorted through email requests for him to play at weddings and parties from California to Puerto Rico and even Mexico.

“I received requests for like MLS players saying, ‘Hey come to Cancun I want you to do my wedding,’” Gabriel said.

Hear more about Gabriel’s musical history including the brief pause he took from music and more by listening to the latest episode of Riff On This.

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With a guitar purchased from a garage sale down the street from his parents Chicago home, Mark Dawson learned the riff to the Beatles hit “Day Tripper.”

At the time the middle schooler, inspired by performances he saw on the Ed Sullivan show, was determined to be in the school talent show.

“I’ve been in three talent shows and I’m 3-0, that’s all I can really say about that,” Dawson said smiling. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just thought that was really fun and I want to do it more.”

Little did the aspiring musician know those talent shows would lead to the formation of his first band and eventually a career in music.

Dawson had gone from playing in his mother’s basement with his teen friends to ski resorts in Colorado with a cover band. His voice had even been featured in the 1991-1993 Coors Light radio campaign.

“That campaign was fun. It was a fun time in my musical career,” Dawson said.

Fast forward to 1995, Dawson relocates to Central Florida with his wife and daughter. By this time, Dawson had been in several bands and even recorded his own music when he joined a doo-wop group in Tampa. Dawson spent eight years with the group traveling all over Florida.

“I had just about reached that point where I didn’t think my career was going to be you know, going to elevate musically anymore,” Dawson said.

His age became a concern watching new talent appear left and right.

“There are so many young, talented people coming up these days,” Dawson said. “I listened to some of the people like, ‘Oh, they have way more talent than me at 20 than I do at my age.’”

An opportunity came knocking in the form of a phone call from an agent Dawson knew from the 80s.

“Out of the blue, he said, ‘Hey, how are you with your Grass Roots catalog?’ I said, ‘I don’t know what you mean by that,’” Dawson said with a chuckle.

The agent told Dawson, The Grass Roots needed a fill-in for an upcoming show to sing and play bass for about 6-7 hits.

“I absolutely agreed to it and thought ‘Oh, this will be fun,’” Dawson said smiling ear-to-ear. “To put on my resume that I was the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, at least for one day, how many people could say that ya know”?

Turns out Dawson needed to learn 19 songs before the show date in San Francisco and he had three days to do it.

“All I remember is being a little stressed out going to the hotel, meeting the band because I had not met them or spoken to them prior to that,” Dawson said. “We drove out to the show. I played it. And they asked me to come back and do it again.”

Now, 15 years later, Dawson is still rocking with one of his favorite bands. Of course, there have been ups and downs along the way.

The passing of long-time lead singer and bassist Rob Grill was a moment Dawson said he had to step up to help fulfill his friend’s vision for the group and its music.

“He kept telling me, ‘I want you to be the guy to take The Grass Roots music to the future.’ Those were his words exactly,” Dawson said.

As a musician and friend, it was challenging for Dawson as he faced many fans over the years that were not accepting of his new position, but he kept going. Dawson says he would never change what Grill and the group had made over the years that he loved and made him a fan too.

“These were nearly perfect pop songs. I’m proud to play them as they are,” Dawson said. “And my job, I’m a vehicle to bring them to you and that’s the way I look at it”.

Hear more about Dawson and Grill’s friendship and all the behind-the-scenes stories from traveling to performing on the latest podcast episode of Riff On This.

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From age 11, Slim started writing rhymes for birthdays — mimicking the patterns he heard from rap songs flowing out of the radio.

“I didn’t know what 16 bars was,” Slim said. “Whatever the length of the verse was from whatever artist I was listening to, I made mine similar and then I would count the lines and there would be 16, that’s how I learned to write.”

Little did Slim know this was the beginning of his musical journey. His path was not always clear or defined in music, but his heart drove his passion. It wasn’t easy.

“Nothing was really going together,” said Slim recalling when he was in elementary school and had to move to Atlanta.

“I was one of those kids, you know, came from a single mom, one of five kids, always in trouble getting kicked out of school going to juvenile detention. The only time I wasn’t in trouble is when I was writing music,” Slim said.

After his last trip to juvenile detention as a teen, the judge told Slim if he ended up back in that court, he would go to boot camp. Slim left detention and never looked back knowing that in order to be successful he had to stay out of trouble.

Fast forward, Slim, now 17 years old, is back in Central Florida. Opportunity was knocking at his door. Through mutual friends, Slim wrote his first R&B song for a group of producers and instrumentalists based in Tampa known as J.U.S.T.I.C.E League. After writing a song for Colione, Slim says he felt confident he could write songs for a living.

By 2019, Slim had written plenty of songs and caught the attention of one record executive he always wanted to work with.

‘Growing up in Atlanta, I always wanted to meet L.A. Reid,” Slim said. “He was signing everything from Outkast to T.I., TLC, all these people, so when I was young my dream was to meet and work with him.”

He ended up doing just that.

Hear more on his journey and what led him to writing for record executive L.A. Reid, the work he did with rapper Rubi Rose, and what he’s doing now on the latest episode of Riff On This.

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Anthony Wild is the founder of Kids Rock The Nation, a non-profit with the mission to share the power of music with children by giving aspiring young musicians in need instruments to ignite their passion for music and their passion for life.

Before dedicating all his time to kids, Wild was a full-time musician. His love for music started at a very young age in Wisconsin.

“When I was 5 years old, I got a shiny new drum set for Christmas,” Wild said.

His older brother Andrew, a musician in a band, had a hand in showing Wild how to play his new drum set.

“As time went on, I kind of moved into singing because I realized I was a better singer than I was a drummer,” Wild said laughing.

Inspired by the sounds of Luther Allison and Jimmy Reed, the blues was calling Wild’s name. By the time Wild was 15, the aspiring singer had met a producer named Mel Barlow in Leesburg while spending the winter here with his parents.

Wild recorded with Barlow, recalling it was a defining moment for him as a teen.

“It gave me an opportunity to really do something where I could kind of express myself because it’s tough being a child,” Wild said. “You’re trying to figure out who you are, what am I going to do with my life.”

Wild ended up making the Sunshine State his home. Here he was able to work alongside the members of The Kingsnake Blues Band, blues/rock singer and guitarist Ace Moreland, journeyman drummer Ronnie Byrd Foster and guitarist Warren King.

“I was able to perform one night with Robbie Krieger from The Doors,” Wild said with a smile. “That was a really big moment, but I was grateful to have worked with all these amazing musicians over the years.”

One day Wild’s career came to a screeching halt.

“Cancer. I was diagnosed with cancer,” Wild said with tears in his eyes.

Lacking a steady income, and unable to buy costly private insurance, Wild tried finding out other options with a doctor he had been seeing. Wild recalled the moment with the doctor vividly.

“He just looked at me and he said, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘Anthony, you know, you’re a musician, you don’t really have a lot of money per se.’ He said, ‘What is it that you think that anybody’s going to do for you?’”

In fact, there was not one, but two doctors that were willing to help Wild. Hear what the husband and wife doctor duo did for Wild and how their kindness led to starting a nonprofit that gives the gift of music to kids in need all over the nation, on the latest episode of Riff On This!

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During the pandemic, a lot of people did things like remodeling a room around the house or working from home, or perhaps the take in a new pet.

For Cameron Jimenez, aka Smoove J, it was a new start with a clear focus. The plan involved moving to Florida to advance his musical career both singing and knowing more of the business behind the music. So that’s what he did.

Inspired by the musical talents of his mother and grandmother, Smoove J found himself in Central Florida. Smoove J said his mother, Faith’s vocals and talents on the piano, help him stay focused during trying times. “She’s one of the best moms that you can ever ask for anybody,” said Smoove J, smiling.

“You have a lot of ups and downs, a lot of downs especially and you just got to, you got to keep pushing, you got to just keep pushing,” recalls the singer but knowing he came from a line of talented family members, like his grandmother the music teacher and his mom, Smoove J said that’s all the affirmation he needs to work even harder. “My mom is my biggest fan, but I have to say I am hers as well.”

Prior to moving to Florida, Smoove J and his friends would perform at different functions. The young artist realized at the time there was a lot more to singing than just singing. Smoove J now is focused on getting noticed as well as the business of music. There’s no manager, so he does everything alone.

Social media has been a great platform but has also brought its own set of complications.

“There’s someone over there putting in 10 hours a day on like TikTok or something going live on TikTok, and they’re trying to get noticed. And you just, it’s a bigger, bigger competition now,” said Smoove J, reflecting on trying to shine among the world wide web users. “It’s definitely a struggle, you can get down to your lows, but you just got to keep getting up, you got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. Because if not, then you’re not going to do what your dream is.”

Smoove J said he performs live on TikTok two to three days a week and even more some weeks, most of the time singing for hours. It’s a lot of work, but he continues to push forward in hopes of living out his dream of recording music.

When asked who he would love to record with, Smoove J didn’t hesitate.

“I would like to achieve making a hit with DJ Khaled. That’s what I would like,” the singer said, reflecting on the major record executives motivating personality and numerous award-winning hits and albums.

But, Smoove J says he’s not just focused on one genre.

“I love jazz. I love old school. Soul music, all of that stuff, Earth, Wind and Fire... I love that kind of music,” Smoove J said, inspired once again by his mothers love for great music.

It’s not just about singing for Smoove J, he does plenty more. Be sure to listen to the latest episode of Riff On This to hear more about what he does to stand out and what he has to say to others in the same boat.

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John Korbel is an Orlando jazz musician that just released a Christmas single you don't want to miss. He talks about what inspired him to make his song and why it's different from traditional holiday tunes. 

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