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our episode we have gospel and jazz pianist musical director of our holiday show he has
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performed with many famous people including bet midler donna summer paul newman whoopi goldberg
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alec baldwin and many others he also has been musical director of many choirs many quartets
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and he has been in every single show that i've been in with npt please help me in welcoming
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chris kuddy hi chris how are you i'm good so what was it like growing up as a musician
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Well, I love it. You're going to meet Carl a little bit later on today
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but I was just like Carl, going from this to that to the other thing
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The choirs, church choirs. I was involved with piano playing and different kind of rock bands
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and school bands and my own stuff, recording. I had a couple friends always come to the house writing songs
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so I was all over the place Did you always want to be a pianist yeah well I was always a pianist but did I always want to become a musician Yes No I didn want to become a musician because I was worried I wouldn make enough money
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So, um, the music that I write tends to be fused, and I like that, that, that word fusion
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because you're going to take the best of both worlds. So a lot of what I do, um, for choirs
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is gospel and orientation but not only i'll mix aspects of kind of white hymnody and pop music and
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broadway styles to create something that's uniquely my own but anyone who knows gospel
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will hear some of that for instance if we go oh come oh come emmanuel it might become
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Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel. Oh, okay, I see. Some of the music in this year's holiday show, of course, you wrote
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And how did you, did you take it from the original or did you just start from scratch
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I started from scratch on a lot of it. Like what I just played for you, Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel
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That's obviously a song that I arranged. And I love arranging stuff in different styles, not only gospel, but jazz styles and otherwise
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But some of the stuff I just wrote from scratch because I've been doing a Christmas concert for the last 20 years of my life
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And every year I try to write a couple of new songs. And over the years, some of them became hits, at least in my mind, that really work well
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And so we going to be doing the hits We already have a theme song but if you could write us another theme song what would it sound like Hmm Conversations with Kimi Yes
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Let's see. I got it. I got it. Conversations with Kimi. It's on my mind
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Conversations with Kimi. Gonna have a good time. What's he gonna ask
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What's he gonna do? What's he gonna make? I don't know. What are you gonna make
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Okay. Alright, can I try it? Can I try it? Yeah, yeah, yeah
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Conversations with Kimmy. That's what I'm talking about. Conversations with Kimmy
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We add stuff and make stuff from beginning to end. Conversations with Kimi
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Watch all day long This year's MPT holiday show, of course, as you know, is themed about jazz
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What advice would you give to young jazz artists who want to be like you
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I would say you have to find your passion. You have to find what really gets you through the night
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that you just love, that you can't help but do. So once you find that that forms you that your formation So most young jazz musicians are so busy learning different styles and different riffs and patterns different songs different repertoire that they don often become uniquely good at one thing So find that passion
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Oh how fun it'll be together. This Christmas, the fireside is blazing bright
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And we're caroling through the night. And this Christmas will be a very special Christmas for me
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Thank you guys so much for joining us here in Conversations with Kimi. I hope you enjoyed the episode
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Just remember, your voice is your power. So use it. Kimi out
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Conversations with Kimi is produced with support from the Department of Economic and Community
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Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National
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Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency
