Fresh Coast Jazz Festival w/ Carl Brown
When Carl Brown’s late father was dying, he challenged his son to think about putting others "before" himself. Brown, a retired advertising executive, was always a jazz lover—like his late father—often traveling far and wide to experience contemporary jazz performances with his wife. One day, while experiencing a jazz festival, his wife posed the idea of launching a jazz festival in their home city of Milwaukee with the proceeds going to charity.
Now in its fifth season, the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival has been delighting Milwaukee audiences and attracting travelers from all over the world to experience the joy and creativity of jazz music from some of the most preeminent jazz musicians. But it’s also “a party with a purpose.” At the heart of the festival model is a philanthropic focus. The festival supports college scholarships, grants to support music programs in area schools, as well as financial literacy and healthcare initiatives benefiting Milwaukee youth.
In the conversation, Brown touches on the power of music “to lift, to move, to guide...”and to bring diverse communities together. Brown talks about the impact of COVID on the jazz music scene, jazz as a “group sport,” and the changes that have come about within the musical landscape since lockdown. He also touches on the history and present of jazz music in Milwaukee, and how this festival is helping to put Milwaukee on the map globally for contemporary Jazz and contributing to Milwaukee's creative economy.
Learn more about Fresh Coast Jazz Festival, including the artists who will be performing, the organizations it supports, and purchase tickets at their website.
Read/Listen:
Full Interview Transcript (Click to Expand):
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Welcome to Creative MKE, a conversation show from Imagine MKE, where we talk to creative leaders in Milwaukee to highlight all the incredible transformative power of their work in our region. We hope that after listening, you'll be able to imagine our city's arts and culture ecosystem, and all the awesome artists, organizations, and creative assets within it in a new way. I'm your host, Elizabeth Gasparka.
Hey there. Welcome to Creative MKE. My guest today is Carl Brown, CEO and producer of Fresh Coast Jazz Festival, a contemporary jazz music festival in Milwaukee, featuring artists from around the world. Brown is a native Milwaukeean, a former advertising executive, and a passionate music lover. After his ailing father urged him in one of their last conversations to orient his life in service to others. Brown wondered what that advice was meant to spark. Some years later, while attending a concert, Brown's wife suggested that they start a jazz festival in their home city of Milwaukee and have the proceeds go to charity to honor his dad's advice. What developed from there was a quote party with a purpose, the festival's, philanthropic efforts, support college scholarships, grants to support music programs and area schools, as well as financial literacy and health healthcare initiatives benefiting Milwaukee youth.
If you enjoy today's conversation and wanna hear more like this, please find creative MKE wherever you stream podcasts. While you're there, I hope you'll subscribe, leave a rating and review or like and share an episode. Thank you. Creative MKE is supported through a partnership with Shepherd Express. For more than 40 years, shepherd Express has proudly advocated for arts and culture in the Milwaukee area. You can hear more podcasts like this one at shepherdexpress.com. Today's featured music is from artist Rick Braun, who will be playing as part of the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival at the end of August. Now, stick around for my conversation with Carl Brown of Fresh Coast Jazz Festival.
Welcome, Carl.
Carl Brown:
Thank you for having me, Elizabeth.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
So excited to speak with you about the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival here in Milwaukee. But to start us off, I'd like to invite you to tell, tell me about an arts experience from your life that left a strong imprint on you.
Carl Brown:
Wow. There have been a lot of those experiences, but I would probably say the very first concert that I attended was really kind of a life-changing experience for me, because, you know, it was the first time that I had ever experienced a production at that level. And I just remember sitting in, what was it, then, the old Mecca Arena, right. Which is now UW Panther Arena. Wow. And just looking all around the arena and seeing how the people were responding, how the musicians were responding, I felt like I was being transported to another dimension. It was cool.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Amazing. Yeah. What was the musical act?
Carl Brown:
It was actually Par and Funkadelic and George Clinton. Oh, <laugh>. Yeah. I was in high school back in the day, and that was my, that was my first concert experience, and it was the Mothership Connection tour. So you had this, this fake spaceship suspended from the arena and all this kind of stuff. So it was just, it was like, you wanna talk about sensory overload, but in such a cool way. That was it.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
That's incredible. What a first concert to have. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Did you ever top that?
Carl Brown:
You know, I will say yes, but in a different way. You know, seeing Stevie Wonder play a few times, seeing Sting play. And then one of my other favorites concerts was a UB 40 concert back when I was in co in college at UW Madison. So, yeah.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Aw. So how did you come to form the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival from a, a young person who was Yeah. Obviously a music lover. Yeah,
Carl Brown:
So it's a very personal story. I, several years ago, I owned an ad agency in town. When I started that company, my parents invested in the company, and so I wanted to do something to honor them. So I started a scholarship fund in their name, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And shortly after I started that scholarship fund, unfortunately, my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and in one of the last conversations he and I had, he said to me, son, as you go through life, I want you to always remember to think of others more highly than yourself. Right. And I was like, whoa, that's heavy. You know? And that ended up being like the second last conversation I had with my dad, and it was heavy. And I would for years thought about, what does that mean? How do we do that? My mom passed away about a year to the date after my dad.
So that took on even more meaning then. Right. And my dad's favorite pastime was to sit on his patio, listen to his jazz music, and drink his lemonade, and just enjoy the weather. Right. And my brother and my dad introduced me to Jazz. And after a couple of years of trying to figure out what that challenge that my dad left me with meant, my wife and I were sitting at the Indianapolis Jazz Festival listening to my favorite artist, Kirk Emm. And my wife leans over and whispers in my ear and says, this is what we should do to honor what your dad said. We should start a jazz festival in Milwaukee and have the proceeds go to charity. And that's how I was born.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And how many years has it been?
Carl Brown:
Yeah, this will be our fifth year in operation, but our fourth event because of Covid. Right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, we started in 2019. We had our first event in 2019, did not have an event in 2020 due to Covid. Sure. And so this year will be our fourth event, so
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. So, Carl, I'd love if you could speak a little bit to the environment of Milwaukee. What's the history of jazz music in this community, and what's the state of jazz music in Milwaukee today?
Carl Brown:
Yeah. I mean, the history is rich, and I don't think a lot of people know about it. A local writer published a book about the jazz community about about two years ago. But there is a very, very rich history. The old Bronzeville district, like some of the best jazz musicians in the world, the Dizzy Gillespie of the world, and people like that played Milwaukee and played, and they were, they were regulars here. And then we have a local element, people like Manti Ellis, who have those guys have played Mantis, played all over the world, but played with the best jazz musicians in the world. Right? So, Milwaukee has a real rich history of jazz. It has ebbed and flowed somewhat over the years. When we started the jazz, the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival, we really, really didn't have a, a multi-day jazz festival in Milwaukee that was bringing in the top talent in the world. Right. And that was what we have continued to endeavor to do. And so I do think that with that, with things like the Milwaukee Jazz Institute, the work that the Conservatory is doing, Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> I just heard of a new jazz club opening here called, I think it's called Gibraltar, and the growth that we've had with the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival. I really do think the future is bright for jazz in Milwaukee.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Amazing. And you brought up Manti Ellis, and of course, he's still a musical fixture.
Carl Brown:
He sure is. He sure is
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Performing and yeah. I know that there's gonna be a new jazz music series that starts at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, which of course has a, a deep history in in jazz music Yeah, yeah. Performances that's in his name. So yeah. That's
Carl Brown:
Exciting. Yeah. And a great guy. We serve on a board together, and he's still doing his thing and just I mean a, a living legend, really.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
So you mentioned the pandemic before and how it put the gache on the iteration of the 2020 Festival. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> from your perspective, I'm just curious, how are jazz musicians doing after the pandemic? Yeah. Are they regrouping, are they playing at the same level that they were before? Yeah. What are you seeing?
Carl Brown:
You know, I'm seeing a couple of different things. One, that was devastating for those musicians. You think about it, jazz musicians, perhaps more than musicians in any other genre, they make their life on the road. They're constantly touring. Right. So that completely went away. Right. What I will say happened, and I have a lot of conversations with artists about this, is that it kind of revolutionized the way they did what they did. Hmm. You know, jazz is a, is a, I'll say it's a group sport, right? <Laugh>, and a big part of jazz is improvisation and things like that. So coming together was a big part of how jazz, jazz artists wanted to operate. But now most of 'em have learned how to, they do their work from their studios, they do work remotely, and they'll have people patch in from anywhere around the world.
Right. So, in some ways, I think it maybe streamlined the process of making music. Right. It certainly hurt them from the ability to be able to get out on the road and tour. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, but now they're back and they're back with a vengeance. I look at some of the jazz festivals around the world, and, you know, artists are really, really getting back. For me as a promoter, it changed the dynamic of the cost structure because artists lost a lot of money. Right. And so, talent costs have gone up quite a bit because artists need to kind of recoup some of what they lost. Right. So it's changed the landscape, but I do think in a positive way, because necessity's a mother of invention. Right. When something happens, it forces you to figure out a way to re-engineer what you do. And I think that's what happened with a lot of the artists.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Absolutely. Right. I can say from my own personal experience that I took drumming lessons Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> over Zoom Yeah. During the pandemic. And I'm sure that when musicians were forced to hunker down and, and be in lockdown, you know, they had to continue to make a living in some ways. Yeah. So they've had to learn how to use technology
Carl Brown:
Absolutely.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Share their gifts and share their knowledge with other people.
Carl Brown:
No doubt. And I know so many jazz musicians that have, you know, they, they, they created so much music during the Pandemic Mm-Hmm. I was talking to one artist a couple weeks ago, and he said, I was in my studio all the time during The Pandemic, so I just got, I have all kinds of music that I've created, and so now he's got all kinds of music that he'll be releasing over the next couple of years, probably that he created during the Pandemic.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Yeah. It'll be interesting to look back at this time period and see what the mood of the music that was generated during that moment. Yeah. what it conveys and, and how it speaks to us as, as the lockdown phase kind of becomes more and more in the distant past.
Carl Brown:
Yeah. I think what I heard, I've heard from more musicians is that there was more of a, there was an appreciation for what, what they used to have Mm-Hmm. What, what got taken away during the pandemic. Right. Mm-Hmm. There was, there was also a, a common theme that I've heard from several musicians that they sought to find what they can take positively out of the pandemic and put that in their music because they knew so many people were going through really tough times. Right. Mm-Hmm. And I do hear that reflect in some of the music that was created during that time.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Hmm. Like a sense of gratitude. Mm-Hmm.
Carl Brown:
<Affirmative>. Absolutely. Absolutely. Beautiful.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Beautiful. So the story you shared about your parents Yeah. And their passing is so powerful. I just wanna double back to that Sure. And talk about what you did with, with that challenge. Yeah. You know, when they confronted you and said, you gotta do something purposeful here. Yeah.
Carl Brown:
Yeah.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
You talked about setting up the scholarship Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, but the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival is, is promoted as a party with a purpose. Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about which communities and organizations benefit from the revenue that's generated.
Carl Brown:
That's a great question. And I tell you, you know, I tell people all the time, I won the parent lottery, right? Mm-Hmm. Because I, I happened to be born to two just wonderful people. And growing up I saw my parents always doing for others and giving, and so giving was something that was normal for our household. And when we decided, when my wife and I decided that we wanted the proceeds to go to charity, we really thought about three key areas that we wanted to support. One area was music for area youth. One area was medical research. Another area was education, both from a music standpoint, not always from a music standpoint. Right. So the organizations that we support through Fresh Coast Jazz Festival are we, by the end of this year's festival, we will have awarded eight college scholarships. Wow. Right. We will have sent about 50 disadvantaged kids to music camps and paid for their meals while they're at music camps.
We will have given grants to seven area schools to support their music programs. Those are grants. They can do whatever they wish with, as long as it's supporting their music program. Hmm. We will have given backpacks full of school supplies to the entire kindergarten class of cast street school, as well as backpacks for the entire school at St. Margaret Mary School locally. Wow. We donate to financial literacy through junior achievement that's aimed at young people. We support the foundation for heart science, which is an organization led by Dr. John Baker at the Medical College. A lot of kids who have childhood cancer end up developing heart disease later in life because of the impact of chemotherapy and radiation. Wow. And Dr. Baker's doing some awesome research to mitigate those effects. Hmm. We are this year partnering with the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music on an instrument drive to get instruments in the hands of kids who want to play, but whose families can't afford those instruments.
And then another really cool thing that we're doing for the first time this year is we're doing an event, it's called Jazz on the Plaza, a concert for the kids at Children's Hospital. Two of the international artists that are coming to town have graciously agreed to come in early, and they're gonna do a free concert at Children's Hospital for Kids and families receiving treatment there. So those are some of the organizations we support. Don't get me wrong, I love the music, and the music is really cool, and that's a big part of it, but being able to see lives change and impact it. Like I was talking to folks at Children's and I said, you know, they asked me what my desired outcome was, and I said, if I can look out during that event and just see some kids, there's some families smiling and see that their mind's being taken off of what they're going through with their health condition at that time, then that's a big win for me.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Yeah. That brings to mind the notion of how music holistically uplifts individuals. I, whether it's the, you know, pursuit of music and learning an instrument, or learning how to sing, or just learning about music theories.
Carl Brown:
It's so true. I mean, I, I go back to when I went through the loss of my parents. I remember the day that my dad told us all that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. I remember going home and putting on a song by my favorite artist, Kirk alum, and standing there and just listening to that music and letting that music kind of overwhelm me. Tears were shed lots of thoughts going on, but that music supported me. Then when my mom passed away a year later, Kirk had released a new album in his gospel according to jazz series, and there was another song and a tribute to somebody that he'd lost, and the song is called There. And I listened to that song and it made me think about my mom, and it gave me comfort. It gave me peace. Then the other side of that though too, is that there's so many studies out there that say that, you know, when kids have exposure to the arts, they do so much better in life. They do so much better in school, they have better relationships and all those things. And so music just has a huge ability to lift, to move, to guide, to make people feel, to uplift people. And like I look at when I go to our event and I see people just sitting in their chair bobbing their head and tapping their feet, <laugh>, you never know. You see them having fun, but you never know what that's giving them a respite from. Mm-Hmm. So that's important. Mm-Hmm.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
<Affirmative>. Yeah. That's, that's so true. I mean, not only uplifting the person, but also uplifting the community. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> because it's a shared experience Yeah. When you're going to experience live music, no doubt about it. So, I'd love to invite you to speak to a little bit beyond the impact on individuals, how do you see jazz music in particular impacting communities?
Carl Brown:
Yeah, that's a great, that's a very, very good question. I think the thing that I like about jazz music and what we're doing with Fresh Coast Jazz, particularly in our community, the best compliment I've been paid about this festival, and it happened at our very first event in 2019, is I had multiple people come up to me and say, this is the most diverse social event I've ever attended in Milwaukee. And that has happened every year since we've had this festival. The thing I love about what jazz does is like, it brings together people from all different walks of life, all different backgrounds, all different ethnicities, and they come together over something that they love, that they have in common. And you may end up sitting next to somebody at the show that you may not have otherwise ever met, and you might strike up a conversation, and that conversation can lead to a friendship. And that's what can change some of the challenges that we have in the world today. Right. So I think jazz in and of itself, because it is, it's meant to be free, it's meant to be expressive, it's meant to pull in influences from different genres of music. I think that does the same thing with people, and that makes us richer and better and allows us to build better relationships, I hope.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Hmm. I love that. Yeah. Music is bridge building. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So beyond the amazing impact of music on individuals and on communities, I wanna dig in a little bit to the impact of the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival itself on Milwaukee's creative economy. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, can you discuss some of the ripple effects that you see Yeah. From this series of events that are organized every tear?
Carl Brown:
So we bring in the top contemporary jazz acts from around the world, right. But we always make sure we include local artists in that mix. This year for the first time we did an event, we called it the Hometown All Star Showcase, where we had four local jazz acts compete for an opportunity to open the festival and share the stage with 19 time Grammy winner, Larry Carlton, and things like that. Right. And the impact of that is considerable. For example, the band that's gonna be opening this year is a group called Cosmic Endeavors. Those young men are amazing musicians, but they really have the opportunity to become national a national act. Right. And really have that opportunity. What happens is, is like they will soon be recording an ep, right? So that's gonna be feeding the local economy. When they begin to sell that EP that's going to feed them, which will hopefully feed a local economy, right.
Having them at our show, they're young guys. That's gonna bring out a different audience, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So that's gonna help us with ticket sales and things like that. We've also had artists, you know, local artists that have played our event, that have gone on to tour globally with other big jazz acts, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, it's kind of like opened up a door for them. But then, then of course, you know, we are expecting 2000 people or so at our events this summer, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> and last year we had about 20% of our audience come from Illinois, and about another 15% of our audience come from some 20 states in Canada. Wow. This year we're expecting that to is to even grow. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So there's hotel nights, there's, there's restaurant purchases, there's purchases of people going into stores and shops and buying things. Right? So I have estimated that our event this year will have probably somewhere in the neighborhood of six to $700,000 in economic impact, right? Wow. Between the cost to put on the event Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> and the ticket sales, and then what happens when people come and spend money here. And that's, that's pretty significant for one event.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
That's fantastic. Thanks for breaking that down for me. Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned about this opportunity for the young fellows. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> and, I'm sorry, what's their group called?
Carl Brown:
Cosmic Endeavors.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Cosmic Endeavors, and how this opportunity may open doors for them Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> to glom onto the tour of a Global Act, or absolutely find another pathway to touring as professional musicians. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> beyond Milwaukee. Can you speak to how this festival helps to put Milwaukee on the map on a global sense?
Carl Brown:
Absolutely. Absolutely. It's interesting. I was looking at our website analytics the other day, and we have had people from all 50 states and 37 countries go and go to our website and look for information about our festival. This year we've been marketing on a platform that's a global platform called Smooth Jazz Global, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so we're marketing to people all over the world, and people who like this music, they are big travelers, just like we had a lot of people come in from Harley Davidson. I look forward to a time where it is like some of the other more well established jazz vessel where people are coming in from all over the world, you know, this type of music. People who are fans of this music really are people who like to travel and spend their dollars and support the local creative economies.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
It would be great if you could walk us through exactly what folks can expect from the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival in terms of performances.
Carl Brown:
Absolutely. So, there's a lot of good stuff going on. So I'm, of course I'm biased, but the festival itself starts on Thursday, August 24th, where we have a reception for our sponsors, and we are gonna have performing at that sponsor reception, the Bronzeville Jazz Collective from the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. Really, really good young musicians at, with, with really bright futures. Friday kicks off the festival itself, and we always ask the artists to come who come to this festival to do something to give back to the community. Right? Friday morning at 10:00 AM at No Studios, Larry Carlton, who is a 19 time Grammy nominee, four time Grammy winner Larry, along with Paul Brown, who is known as the most prolific producer in contemporary jazz, who has 75 number one hits to his credit, Larry and Paul are gonna be doing AQ and a for area music students, area music, teachers area musicians, and our VIP patrons.
Right. Then the concerts kick off at 5:00 PM at the Pap Theater on Friday, August 25th. Cosmic Endeavors, the group that I mentioned before, we'll be opening the show, really, really cool group, high Energy, their music is a fusion of jazz with a little hip hop, with a little bit of funk and r and b, and they're just gonna be a lot of fun. So if you haven't heard them, people need to come out and check them out. Then we have trumpeter Lynn Roundtree, who will open, who will come on after cosmic endeavors. Lynn is a consummate pro. He lives for the stage and he puts on such great shows, and so he's gonna be a lot of fun after Lynn. We have Lindsay Webster, it was said once in the Preciate, Sade and Carol King had a child. It would be Lindsay Webster. Wow. Beautiful vocalist, just amazing.
She's, she, she wows crowds. And, and then after Lindsay, on Friday night, we have Paul Brown and Larry Carlton together, and Paul and Larry will play songs together. Larry was one of the guitar players for Steely Dan for many years for the Crusaders, and so, and for Foreplay, all of which were very, very huge groups, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So Larry will play some of those hits, but play some of this stuff with Paul, and Paul goes on and plays some of his, and Paul, a lot of people don't know this. Paul was responsible really for, I'd say, pretty much discovering and producing the first 10 albums for Bony James, who's one of the top contemporary jazz cellar. So Paul has a lot of great music as well. Saturday we do it again, starting at 10:00 AM at No Studios with AQ and A by Rick Braun, who's the Saturday Night Headliner.
Okay. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So we'll have that q and a at no studios at 10:00 AM Then at one o'clock we do this event, we call it the Fresh Coast Cruise. Hmm. Where we run out the largest boat, the eight oh Weiss has, and we do a lunch cruise on the river and on Lake Michigan, we have a great national artist named DS Wilson, who's a Chicago guy coming up and who's playing on the boat and people have lunch, can have cocktails on a beautiful day out on Lake Michigan. And then the concerts start at six o'clock on Saturday evening. Ali Silk and Jeff Ryan will be playing. Ali is a great keyboard player from the UK who's coming over, and Jeff is a saxophone player. They're just great together. I saw them at the Berks Chas Festival in Pennsylvania together. They were awesome. After those guys, we will have Julian Vaughn, who's a fantastic bass player who's become a friend of the festival.
He played our event in 2020. He's the first person we brought back twice, you know, <laugh>. And he had at his show in not 2020, but 2021 at his show in 2021. I mean, literally the whole crowd was just standing up, dancing, having a great time. And then great trumpeter Rick Braun, who's got, Rick's got like 25 number one hits. To his credit, Rick's kind of close out this show. So amazing each night, Friday and Saturday night at the host hotel, which is the highest place downtown. We have an after set that we call the Night Cap. So from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM we have a local jazz band. Peter Mack is gonna be one of those bands, and then a ba, a group called the Jazz will be playing there as well.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
That's a lot. Yes. Wow. And a music lover could really just spend the whole day.
Carl Brown:
They sure can <laugh> the, the whole weekend. Yep. So that's what we want 'em to do, come spend the whole weekend with us.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Cool. So how can folks learn more about the Fresh Coast Jazz Festival and explore purchasing tickets?
Carl Brown:
Absolutely. So the best way to do that is to go to our website, which is fresh coast jazz.com. There you'll find out all kinds of information about ticketing, lodging, the acts themselves, get to sample some of the music of the artists if you'd like. So that's really the best place to get information.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Excellent. Well, I know what I'm doing <laugh>
Carl Brown:
The end of August. Good. We look forward to seeing you there.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Carl, before I let you go, I wanna just take a moment to invite you to do some imagining with me. Yeah, yeah. So currently Wisconsin unfortunately ranks last in the nation in terms of per capita investment in the arts. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I wanna invite you to imagine a little bit of a different future. Yeah. What would it be like here in Milwaukee? What would ha what would it mean for our community if there was more investment in arts and culture and music?
Carl Brown:
It would mean a lot for our community. I, I really do believe that in investment in the arts is critical for cities, for communities that believe in the power of having a people having a full life and a rich life. Right. You can't have strong communities without the people in those community have communities having outlets that are important to them, and that's what the arts provides. You know, like, I, I hate to say this, but for so many years, I would travel elsewhere to get an event like our festival. Right. And that's one of the reasons why my wife and I decided, you know, we're gonna invest in doing this. We're gonna take our money and we're gonna put this together and we're gonna do this. Right? Mm-Hmm. Because we got tired of going to Napa Valley or to, or going to, not to Napa Valley's a bad place to go <laugh>, but or Chicago all the time, and felt like we really need to have these things at home because it does add to the quality of life for people. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. But again, let's not forget the impact that it has socially big believer that the arts fuel positivity in communities and our community with the divides that we have and the issues that we have. Boy, I think the arts go a long way to helping bring us together.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
Carl Brown:
It is absolutely my pleasure.
Elisabeth Gasparka:
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the show, please share it with others, post about it, leave a rating or review or contact us. Creative. MKE is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Elizabeth Gaska. It is recorded in beautiful downtown Milwaukee with engineering support from the good folks at Podcamp Media Creative MKE's theme music was written and produced by Bobby Drake. To get involved or learn more about the work of Imagine MKE, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or visit us on the web.
Mentioned in the Show:
Milwaukee Jazz by Joey Grihalva
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music