GRAMMY Winner, Davidson Fine Arts alum Robert Boone, Jr. talks musical family and importance of education

WJBF – Musician and Davidson Fine Arts School alum Robert Boone, Jr. comes from a musical family and that influence has pushed him into following his dreams in pursing music.

Now a GRAMMY Award Winner, Boone sits down with WJBF to discuss his love for music and how education played a big role in the advancement of his musical career.

Thank you for joining us here on Celebrating Black Excellence. How did you get started with music?

I grew up in Augusta, Georgia, and my father, Robert Boone, Sr., was minister music at pretty much every church we went to growing up. So, I really got my start, just kind of following him around to different rehearsals, and I guess after being annoying and begging enough, they actually let me get up there and actually start to play too. So, I kind of grew up in the family. It’s a very family tradition, and then from there, I just kind of started playing in church, and the rest is history, I have to say.

As we mentioned, you are a Davidson Fine Arts School alum. How did that influence you musically?

Oh, it was a huge influence. My time at Davidson was great. I was reflecting on it the other day after the Grammy ceremony with a couple of friends. Just to go somewhere and like have a really focused concentration on music… I mean, we did obviously have academics as well, but to be able to have specialized training in music at such a young age really kind of set you up for anything you want to do post-school. So, it was a great opportunity for me.

As we also mentioned, you are a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. How did you get involved with that?

So, I joined the Basie Orchestra around 2006 when I finished my master’s degree down at Florida State. The director also just happened to teach there, and so, I had a really great relationship with him. His name was Scotty Barnhart, and right after I graduated, about six months after, he called me to audition. The audition was like a week in New York, and two and a half weeks in Japan. That month was my audition for the group, and luckily, things went well, and I’m still hanging around with them. It’s been great.

How was that experience going overseas and doing your music?

It was great. That was actually my first time on a plane was headed over there internationally speaking, at least. That was my first time going. The music is so well received over there, and it’s hard not to have a great time. Japan is one of my favorite places in the world to go visit.

Now, let’s talk about GRAMMY night. First of all, it is an honor to be nominated, but to actually be a winner? What was that moment for you when you found out that you actually won the GRAMMY that night?

Like you said, it’s a totally different thing from being nominated and winning because we were nominated a couple of years ago. There was a kind of a – I guess – letdown to not win it because you always want to win, but this time, we weren’t able to go to the ceremony because we were actually on tour in Louisville, Kentucky. So, we just happened to have this particular night off, and we were all kind of gathered around the dinner table eating. Then, we got the notification that our award was being announced. So, you know, I got my little phone, and I held it up at the end of the table and let the whole band watch. It was just really special and really cool to share that moment with everyone in the band. So, we had a great time, and we celebrated afterwards appropriately. It was great.

So, for people who don’t know, The Count Basie Orchestra won Best Large Jazz Ensemble album, and you recorded Basie Swings The Blues, where you played drums for that recording. Can tell us about the album, and why people should listen to it?

So, this album for us was a little bit different than what we typically do. We typically do more straight-ahead jazz. This has more of a blues element to it. So, we’ve got a ton of great guests: Carmen Bradford, George Benson, Keb’ Mo’, Ledisi. There’s a great long list of instrumentalists and also vocalists that helped us with this record. So, it’s a really great, fresh, unique take on a band that’s been winning GRAMMYs since the very first GRAMMY Award show. So, for me to be a part of the continuing legacy of that band is really special, and I don’t take it for granted at all.

As you mentioned, you are a Florida State University alum. How important is education for you?

Education is really important. I went to Kennesaw State and Florida State, and now, I teach at Georgia State. So, I’m trying to give back in some of the same ways that people poured into me as I was growing up. A lot of the connections you make at school… a lot of the obviously the instruction is great and topnotch. However, really the biggest thing you want to do at school… or the biggest thing I took away from it was the connections I made with my peers and people that are also a little bit older than me that are doing kind of the things that I want to do. [It’s good to] just have people to reach out to and kind of rely on that network whenever you have issues in your career. It’s great to have that to fall back on.

So, how important is music to your family, and how important was this moment for your family?

This was great. I think I’m pretty sure my parents were more excited than I was. They’ve always been super supportive. So, of course, that was one of the first phone calls I got as soon as we won. I was talking to them. They just kept saying how proud they were. But I mean, even growing up in church… my aunt played drums, and my other aunt Bridget directs the choir. So, everybody in our family has sung in the choir at one point in time or another. So, music is just really important. At every family gathering, we have music playing where we’re talking about music and showing each other new things. It just makes a makes a big difference, and that’s one of the things that makes our family so close together, which is our connection through music.

So, now, we’re going to put you on the spot. When are you, your brother, and your father blessing us with a project? Because we need that.

We need it too, honestly, and we need to stop messing around and go ahead and knock it out. You know, every time we come home, we talk about it, and we may dabble and jam a little bit, but we really need to sit down and do it. So, I’m going to just put it out there that it is going to be out by the end of this year. Let’s hope this kind of kickstarted that emotion and get that moving a little bit quicker.

What words of encouragement can you give someone who wants to get into music or just someone who’s watching this interview as far as life in general?

My advice is just to go for it, if you work hard at it, the rest will take care of itself. A lot of the opportunities I have been afforded, I can’t really describe where they came from, but I do know that I was ready when that came along, and that’s part of it too. So, you got to have opportunity, but then, you also got to be able to step up to the plate and take care of the responsibility. Having one without the other is kind of meaningless. So, just always take care of what it is on your end: working hard, showing up on time, being prompt, having everything ready to go. Then, people can rely on you and trust you. Then, you’ll start getting opportunities that you may not even see coming.

If people want to know more about your journey or follow you, how can they do so?

So you can go to Instagram @RobertBooneMusic or my website, RobertBooneMusic.com. I have all of my information on there: any type of tours, clinic information, my next few albums that are coming out, all kind of information. So, anything you want to know is on either one of those two platforms.

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