Rod Stewart’s Sax Man and Beyond – Baron Raymonde

Janette (00:04)
Baron, welcome to Lost in Jersey. It’s so nice to have you on the show.

Baron Raymonde (00:08)
Thanks for having me. I appreciate this. Yes.

Janette (00:11)
is Rachel and Rachel, you’ve never met Baron, but I know Baron through my husband Roger. I think introduced us years ago when we first moved to New Jersey, And I remember he told me that you were a sax player and then we went to go see you at a show and blown away with what a great musician you are.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (00:15)
No.

Baron Raymonde (00:31)
Thank you.

Janette (00:31)
Now, Rachel

is also a musician too, so I don’t think I had told you that. She’s a classically trained violinist.

Baron Raymonde (00:39)
Nice, my father was and my great uncle was a violinist. Very cool.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (00:43)
Yes, I was gonna

ask you about that. I looked on your Instagram and I saw that wonderful older photo of extended family. And I was wondering about if you could tell us about that and why you did not pick the violin.

Baron Raymonde (00:56)
My great uncle played with Toscanini in the NBC Orchestra. And my father, at some point, I think when he was in high school, lived with Uncle Aladar. And he played violin. My mother was an opera singer. They started me on piano when I was very young. I was six years old when I started lessons. So they wanted me to play classical.

My parents definitely wanted me to play Glasgow. Yes. Which I kind of rebelled.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (01:16)
Yes.

Janette (01:20)
And did

Lost In Jersey Podcast (01:21)
I get that.

Janette (01:22)
Right, mean, Rachel, you also, started playing the violin when you were a toddler, I think, right?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (01:27)
Yeah,

I started Suzuki Method at three and a half.

Janette (01:31)
Barron, tell us about yourself. I think that you play several instruments, right? Like how many instruments do you play?

Baron Raymonde (01:38)
Well, I don’t know if I can count off and saxophones my primary. I play all the saxophones. I play flute, clarinet, piccolo, piano. I started piano. I also started when I was a toddler. There was a school in New York called Del Croze. My parents brought me to just to get me started with listening. What else do I play? I mean, I can kind of play some of the brass instruments, but I don’t consider myself a player.

You know, I can teach it if I want to, you know, to beginners.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (02:08)
What’s your favorite saxophone to play alto soprano? Do you have

Janette (02:08)
So you see, yeah.

Baron Raymonde (02:11)
I’m

known as an alto player, but I play tenor quite a lot too. I just did show in Edison, New Jersey. It plays in the park beautiful, the Carole King show and I had to play flute, clarinet, tenor sax, and baritone sax.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (02:27)
Wow.

Janette (02:27)
Wow. Wow.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (02:28)
So you were like, you were in the pit orchestra for Beautiful.

Baron Raymonde (02:30)
I was in the pit.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (02:31)
that’s so, it’s what a great musical.

Baron Raymonde (02:31)
Yeah.

It’s great place to see a show. They held up about 3,000 people can come. It’s outdoors. It’s really nice. I never knew about it. My friend Mark Barron, who lives in New Jersey, who is also Gloria Gaynor’s musical director, who I’ve worked he asked me if I would like to do a pit gig and I don’t do that much pit work. I thought, hey,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (02:42)
I-I-

Baron Raymonde (02:55)
Why not? It’ll be a challenge, I have done some Broadway. did ain’t nothing but the blues, but the band was on the stage and I did Off-Broadway Love Janis Joplin and that was, I was on stage too. It wasn’t in the pit, so.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (03:05)
yes.

Janette (03:06)
Ha

Lost In Jersey Podcast (03:09)
It’s

a very different kind of playing if you’re playing in a pit rather than with your band. Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (03:15)
Right,

absolutely.

I mean,

I play, I’m very versatile. I went to music school in Texas, which Jeanette, you’re from, it’s called University of North Texas. But I learned a lot. I learned jazz there, but I’m classically trained. And when I got out of school, I ended up playing with one of the Blues Brothers on the road. And I learned, played blues and R &B. And…

Lost In Jersey Podcast (03:35)
Ha!

Baron Raymonde (03:38)
I guess I’m kind of a jazz R &B. play rock. You know, played with Rod Stewart, who I met him through a friend in Nutley where I live. that’s how I, yeah. So was New Jersey. It went great because what happened was I was friends with Chuck Kentis who lived in New Jersey, but was playing with Rod Stewart. He used to have me come over to his house to

Janette (03:44)
bright.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (03:48)
Really? How did that go? Like he just introduced you? Yeah.

Mm.

Baron Raymonde (04:02)
record saxophone for him on tracks. And sometimes we co-wrote, we actually got something on Ricky Lake Show. And he used to ask me when Rod used to come to New York to do TV shows, do you know any musicians? So I was helping out and I had been the contractor for musicians in New York and I’m still am contracting things. I just contracted something at the Mahigan Sun with Wayne Newton.

contracted the whole band.

how I met Rod. And then eventually what happened was he needed a horn section

Lost In Jersey Podcast (04:33)
Mm.

Baron Raymonde (04:34)
a benefit for City of Hope,

So it was through somebody from New Jersey that I met Rod Stewart. I met a lot of people in New Jersey. mean, I was originally a New Yorker, New Jersey gave me a lot breaks that I’ve gotten in my music career. Absolutely.

Janette (04:53)
progression of when you were a New Yorker and then you went to Texas to get your degree. How did that transition go from New York and then going to Texas and then back to New York?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (04:59)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (05:07)
It was frightful at first because my first week down there in Denton, Texas, I was in the town square and I was going to buy school books or whatever. don’t remember stuff. A fan. I needed a fan because my dorm didn’t have a fan. It was so hot.

And ⁓ there was a Ku Klux Klan march going on and it really freaked me out. I because I’m from New York and I called my parents and they’re like,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (05:25)
⁓ my

Janette (05:27)
Really?

Baron Raymonde (05:31)
Don’t leave school, stay in school. They were just concerned that I didn’t drop out of school. I was like,

maybe, maybe I was telling maybe I could go to William Patterson because that was a good jazz school, which I eventually went to get my certification as a teacher, which does have a great jazz program. Well known around the world. Yes. William Patterson School of Music. Yes.

Janette (05:37)
like, don’t pay attention to those crazy people.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (05:37)
amazing.

But my goodness, what an introduction to Texas. my God. But yet you made it through, you did.

Baron Raymonde (05:57)
Yeah, and the South, yeah. Absolutely.

I made

Janette (06:02)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (06:02)
it

because you know what? The school was like its own entity and there were so many great musicians there. I met and we played and I got into the music and I kind of, that was just once I saw that, but it was my first week there. So it was just my God, you know?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (06:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yep.

Janette (06:19)
after college, how did you move into becoming a professional?

Baron Raymonde (06:22)
Well, first of all, my father was kind of pushing me to go to music school because he said, I don’t want you end up playing in bars and grills for the rest of your life. they emphasized reading and I started learning how to transcribe music off of solos from all the different instruments and learn, you know, my basics.

yeah, it set me up network wise because there were so many musicians in New York, in LA, in Chicago,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (06:44)
you

Baron Raymonde (06:49)
that went to North Texas State University. Still to this day, there’s guys on Broadway. One of my friends who lives in New Jersey played sax the Rolling Stones, Tim Reese.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (06:58)
you

Baron Raymonde (06:59)
my other friend, Matt Bissonnette was playing with bass with Elton John. and it just goes on and on.

just to prepare, it was fierce competition. honestly, was, stressed a lot because the competition was so stressful, but it did help me, auditions when I came to New York after school.

I went into a couple auditions where there was a cattle call, where there was a hundred sax players. I think one was with Chubby Checker and they called me because I got so good at auditioning

Lost In Jersey Podcast (07:29)
something good to know because I know a lot of kids here in our town, Montclair go to school for musical theater and all that and the competition, like you said, is fierce while you’re even in it, but I guess it really does prepare you for auditions.

Baron Raymonde (07:44)
Well, that’s what they said at the school. said, we’re preparing you. This is like the outside world because there’s so many great musicians here and it’s fierce competition. I, I remember when I first got there, it was like, Oh, I got to really step it up with my practice. would start practicing six to eight hours a day.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (07:48)
Mm.

Yeah.

Janette (08:00)
So you go into auditions, what was your big

Baron Raymonde (08:04)
I mean, I’ve had a lot of breaks in my career. I guess, you know, going on the road with Matt Qatar Murphy, I was pretty close to being, I just had done a stint with this guy in Atlantic City at the Sands Hotel, JT Bowen, who was a part of Clarence Clemens band from Bruce Springsteen’s sax player. And Matt Qatar Murphy asked me to go on the road. So

Janette (08:19)
Okay.

Baron Raymonde (08:24)
I got to play with Lester Chambers from the Chamber Brothers and Harvey Brooks, they had a band together and they were older than me. They

Hendrix and Jim Morrison and they took me in.

like when I was in my twenties and I let them school me. They liked my playing, but you know, they were teaching

Harvey played on Highway 61, Bob Dylan, the whole record. And with Miles, Bitches Brew and all these different famous records. And yeah, so.

Janette (08:50)
It’s incredible.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (08:51)
When you

say they schooled you, what kind of education are you getting there that’s different from when you’re getting it in music school? Just curious.

Baron Raymonde (08:59)
Well, when I’m in

music school, it’s all about scales and theory and

Lost In Jersey Podcast (09:03)
And precision.

Baron Raymonde (09:05)
precision, yes,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (09:05)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (09:07)
But Harvey was like play like a singer. When you record records, people don’t want to hear. Some people play like that. when you’re playing on a pop song, it doesn’t make any sense.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (09:10)
⁓

Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (09:20)
If you listen to some of the great pop songs, they were very simple parts and simple solos. I kind of had to unlearn some of that from North Texas, which that’s been an issue that musicians have talked about going to the music school and then having to simplify because like the Beatles, never went to music school and they put out beautiful

Lost In Jersey Podcast (09:35)
to unlearn.

I appreciate learning that from you. I’ve been learning that over this long journey of not playing classical, that I would bring in vibrato for everything and it just doesn’t need it in a lot of the rock songs, you know,

Janette (09:54)
is there a signature sound that you develop or is that something that you don’t want to have when you’re playing with many different

Baron Raymonde (10:03)
the more I played the more I found my voice on the instruments. And that takes a while to mature.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (10:06)
Yes.

Baron Raymonde (10:09)
I started developing my sound in school, because I was practicing six to eight hours a day and I

Janette (10:11)
Mm-hmm.

Baron Raymonde (10:14)
I did some themes for TV I had a friend from North Texas.

he was arguing with his wife because I hadn’t seen him for like 25 years. And he goes, that’s Baron on that theme on that TV show. And then he called me up because his wife said, how do you know 25 years? He goes, I know Baron sound, you know. And then I called him up and I said it was me. And he goes, I knew. Yeah. Yeah.

Janette (10:31)
It’s amazing.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (10:31)
Ugh.

Janette (10:35)
so impressive that

he was able to pick that out a person like myself who’s not like an expert in jazz or anything, it is a little hard to tell the difference, but I’m kind of old school Coltrane, Chet Baker, all of these older people. I don’t know the new ones, but I can tell when you hear their sound. You do

Lost In Jersey Podcast (10:56)
Yeah.

Janette (10:58)
had some things that I wanted to ask you about, about your influences Because I’m not up on all of the jazz of today and the blues of today,

are the people that you look to today that you think we should know

Baron Raymonde (11:12)
Well, I definitely like Joe Bonamassa, the blues guy out there. He’s great. I love Stevie Vanzana. I don’t know if you knew I played with him, filled in on tour with him, which was Influences. Chris Potter and sax, Joshua Redmond, those type of people are for jazz, are very influential.

Janette (11:21)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (11:31)
I kind of listened to more of the old school R &B guys, King Curtis. I also am a Coltrane guy. I love Coltrane. My parents are actually buried in the same grave lot as Coltrane in Long Island. And I didn’t, I actually walked by his grave, looking for my parents’ grave.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (11:43)
⁓

Baron Raymonde (11:49)
thought, I’d never seen another Coltrane, but it was

a good thing.

Janette (11:52)
there’s not like

a monument or something there? Is it just?

Baron Raymonde (11:55)
no, it’s just a

plaque like my parents.

so of course I wanted to find out if I could be buried there, but there’s no more plots left.

Janette (12:03)
There’s no more pots

Lost In Jersey Podcast (12:03)
You

Janette (12:05)
My mom is buried in the same graveyard as Buddy Holly. So yeah, so, because we’re from Texas, in Lubbock, Texas, and when you drive into the cemetery, you immediately drive past the Buddy Holly. But it’s, you know, they’ve done it up. It’s not like, you know, just a plaque. It’s like,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (12:05)
Hmm.

Baron Raymonde (12:09)
Wow, that’s, whoa.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (12:10)
⁓

Janette (12:24)
you know you’re passing Buddy Holly’s. So it’s kind of cool.

Baron Raymonde (12:26)
Well,

talking about Buddy Holly, I actually played the Surf Ballroom, his last gig in Iowa where he died, and the bus driver brought us where the plane went down. But there’s a booth that he made his last phone call to his wife there. So this was in the 80s. I think it’s still there. It’s called the Surf Ballroom, but it’s in the movie. Yeah. Go ahead.

Janette (12:32)
Mmm.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (12:41)
Ugh.

gosh.

Janette (12:46)
Okay,

And I’m gonna add you another story that I have to tell too about Buddy Holly is that my aunt’s mother was passing away when I went down to Texas a few years back and we were all hanging out in the kitchen, there was two people that were there with me. I didn’t know who they were. They were friends of her mother and we were talking and they’re like, this is Peggy. Hi Peggy. And it was Peggy Sue.

Baron Raymonde (12:51)
Okay, sure.

Janette (13:09)
that’s Peggy Sue from the Buddy Holly song. And I was like, my God.

so one thing that you did touch on earlier are your stories with Rod Stewart. Now, I think Roger has told me a little bit about a couple of stories about you going on the road with him. What was that

Baron Raymonde (13:24)
they were having all these other artists like Jewel they were going to do all Rod Stewart songs and surprise them at the end with Rod Stewart. So anyway, what happened was the night before I went to rehearsal, I went out to dinner with Rod and the band and they were going to have me play just one song. Some guys have all luck or something. I forgot what it was.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (13:29)
⁓

Yeah

Baron Raymonde (13:43)
He said, welcome to the orchestra. I’m looking for a blonde female sax player, And I said, well, let me think about it. I mean, I’m friends with Candy Daufer and her dad over in Holland. She was used to be Prince’s sax player. So anyway, the next day I went in there and they’re like, brandy and all these are, can you play flute on this and sax on this and rehearse on it? I was just supposed to do one song and they recorded this. Rod records all his rehearsals to hear them.

Janette (13:56)
yeah.

Baron Raymonde (14:09)
even though he wasn’t there. This was at SIR in New York, which used to be a big place. A lot of people used to go rehearse. And the next morning when I came in, were like, Rod really likes how you sounded on that ballad with Brandy. And when he came in, he goes, I want to hear Baron with Brandy. So I said, OK, I’ll play. And then afterwards, he walked by me and said, I want you. And I was like, blonde hair, blue eyes, that’s not me.

I thought, yeah, I’m like 41 years old and I’m not a blonde with blue eyes.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (14:39)
Ha ha ha!

Baron Raymonde (14:40)
but I guess he was serious because I had to renegotiate the money. Cause after that rehearsal, the musical director came over and said, can you play on Rosie O’Donnell tomorrow? And I said, sure. So I, but I got to go home and practice. I

to, I think it was NBC Studios. And he really liked my

the charity thing, he came over to me said, you’re really great. And I said, no, Rod, you are.

did the human tour and then 9 11. A lot of things fell apart and then eventually got the blonde anyway. So it was OK because I was not doing that much and I ended up getting into teaching because I did go back to when I moved out to New Jersey to William Paterson to get my certification as music teacher and I started teaching.

Janette (15:11)
He finally got the blonde sass.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (15:11)
He found the balloons. Yeah.

Mmm.

Baron Raymonde (15:26)
part-time in Bloomfield, then Nutley needed somebody and I really liked it and now I’ve been teaching for 23 years and I teach at the high school in Nutley and I love it and I love giving back to kids. at first when I started teaching, I thought, this is the end of my music career, but it really, the people I’ve played with since then, like Leavon Helm, the Blues Brothers, Gloria Gaynor.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (15:46)
⁓ yeah,

Baron Raymonde (15:49)
Also,

Stevie Van Zand, I’ve been so busy playing with all these, you know, I just found a picture of me playing with Daryl Jones with the bassist from Rolling Stones. This is all while I’m teaching and people can’t believe it.

Janette (16:01)
How is

that happening? Because as long as I’ve known you, Baron, you’re always having a weekend gig or something going, first of all, I don’t know how you have the energy

Baron Raymonde (16:11)
in the middle of doing a project, a record we’re just finishing with two guys from LA, Baron Von Freikampal, it’s a new band. I’ve wrote a bunch of the stuff with the guys. I guess just being in the business for 40 years, and I’m very good at networking. I’ve gotten very good at social media.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (16:28)
Mm-hmm.

Baron Raymonde (16:29)
cause I was self-employed before I taught. I became a hustler and I still hustle. Not that I want to do that all the time. I got to be choosy. What I want to spend my time like, you know, this record project, that’s a priority, versus playing a bar though. do like playing bars too, cause it’s more

Lost In Jersey Podcast (16:32)
Yeah.

Janette (16:32)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (16:46)
know. I have passion. I am driven by music. I am. I love music.

Janette (16:46)
so.

Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (16:51)
But another reason I think is because I lived on the road for so long that I got used to that pace of go, you know, when you’re doing 40 cities and two and a half months, that’s a lot of traveling and getting up and going and having to play in front of people.

Janette (16:58)
Yeah.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (16:58)
Yeah.

Yes.

Baron Raymonde (17:08)
being tired and

I never went for fame. I went for being a good musician, writer. I was not one to say, I’m going to be famous. I worked with some very famous people and I have to say being around that, there’s definitely a price they pay. It’s not free. Like I remember when I was Rod Stewart,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (17:24)
Mm.

Baron Raymonde (17:28)
going with his son to a couple of places because Rod couldn’t go there with his son. He’s not going to go into McDonald’s with his son. Otherwise everybody’s going to go chasing after him. As it was when we went out to restaurants, people would see him and then all of sudden there’d be a crowd at the

When I first started out with Matt Murphy, it was like the Blues Brothers. We had a van and a Cadillac. And we drove everywhere, up to Calgary, all over Texas. And I had to help move the equipment. And that was pretty rough.

Janette (17:49)
Mm-hmm.

Baron Raymonde (17:58)
Working with Rod Stewart, was staying at Ritz Carlton’s and Four Seasons and even Stevie Vint’s private chess. That’s nice, sure, I’ll take that.

Janette (18:08)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (18:09)
Being away from family is not easy. I’ve seen musicians, know, when their daughter or son’s having a birthday, they’re crying because daddy’s not home and all that. it’s not a

Janette (18:10)
Me too.

Baron Raymonde (18:20)
easy life, put it that way. Especially, you know, if you, you know, I’m not coming home for three months is not, you know, and you have family, that’s, that’s, that’s hard. That’s

Janette (18:21)
Mm-hmm.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (18:21)
Yeah, yep.

Yeah.

Janette (18:29)
Yeah,

You said that you have a record coming out

Baron Raymonde (18:32)
this record I’m doing now, it’s done.

with the band Baron von Franken Paul. I met these guys at the NAMM show, the big convention in Anaheim, California.

They asked me to play one of the booths there for gear. I can send you a story about it because I wrote that and we had fun. then Paul, the bass player was a record producer too. And he goes, let’s make a record. So we started collaborating over the internet. First they came to New York and they said, can you get a studio baron? So I went to my friend in the loft in Bronxville, Al Hamburger studio, and we recorded five songs. then

Lost In Jersey Podcast (18:49)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (19:10)
Paul had me come out and record LA and we’re going to do a release party at the Bitter End in December 11th. Yeah, the 930, December Steve Ferroni, I don’t know if you heard of him, playing drums.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (19:18)
Awesome.

Janette (19:25)
No,

Baron Raymonde (19:27)
Petty’s drummer.

We played with Eric Clapton, Durant, Durant. He’s really amazing. Will Lee from David Letterman is going to be playing a couple songs because we’re doing a song called Cactus that Will Lee played the original. So we said, why don’t we have Will and I’m friends with Will. And he said, sure, we’ll come. I’ll come down and play that in Miles Davis song. And then we have Lou Marini from the Blues Brothers is going to accompany me on a couple of songs.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (19:30)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (19:53)
So yeah, he’s been touring with James. Yeah, no, I feel really blessed.

Janette (19:53)
Wow, it’s an all-star group.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (19:57)
I come.

Baron Raymonde (20:00)
Emadine Rivera’s playing and this great pedal steel guy, Greg McMullen’s gonna be playing on it. But we’re excited about it. we were in the midst of copywriting and watermarking things and then making charts. And then we’re speaking to a publicist, but that’s where we are right now with the music. But I learned a lot from Paul as a record producer, I’ll have to say. And he was very open.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (20:15)
That’s so exciting.

Janette (20:16)
That’s very exciting.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (20:22)
Mmm.

Baron Raymonde (20:24)
And he’s taught me a lot about record producing, definitely. Paul Ill, like I-L-L, that’s his name. Yeah, he used to live in New York way

Janette (20:27)
Who is it that you said that taught you?

Mm-hmm.

Baron Raymonde (20:34)
yeah.

Janette (20:34)
The industry’s

changed so much. I mean, I guess you have to like get it out to all the different distribution channels just like you do with anything now.

Baron Raymonde (20:42)
If you’re sending it to radio station, they want a CD.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (20:43)
⁓

Janette (20:46)
What is the big jazz station in New Jersey

WBGO? Yeah, yeah.

Baron Raymonde (20:48)
WBGO.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (20:49)
BGEO.

Baron Raymonde (20:52)
I know Ross and Roland’s Kirk wife was working there volunteering, my friend from Texas, Eric Scorsia, organist who still lives in Texas, came up and I said, you want to see WBGO? Because they played some of his music. we right from the Newark airport, we went to WBGO and there was Ross and Roland Kirk’s wife right there. goes, wow. So but it really is the only jazz station. I mean,

the area

Excuse me.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (21:16)
Yeah, it’s a great station.

Baron Raymonde (21:18)
Yeah.

Janette (21:18)
Well, New

Jersey’s known to have an incredible depth of jazz players. That’s something that I’ve always heard is that you have no idea who lives around these parts, you know, and I don’t.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (21:28)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (21:29)
Absolutely.

Yeah, like in Montclair, Christian McBride and Bruce Williams, the alto player. Steve Turi lives in Montclair, think he used to. Billy Hart, famous drummer. I do this Ray Charles tribute, which we’re playing at the Blue Note in November on Thanksgiving weekend. But Billy lived right across the street.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (21:33)
Yep.

Baron Raymonde (21:50)
And he came in to see us play and it was like, wow, Billy Hart. And he was just like, he no, I just live across the street. So I heard you guys playing.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (21:59)
That’s so

Janette (21:59)
W-w-where?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (21:59)
wild, I love that.

Janette (22:01)
we usually wrap up these interviews with asking your favorite thing that you love about New Jersey, but I would like to twist that into what is your favorite jazz or club gig places to go to in New Jersey?

Baron Raymonde (22:16)
Well, I used to love Trumpets. Unfortunately, that’s not there. I play at the La Bamba’s Holiday Hurrah every year. It was at Stone Pony, which I love playing Stone Pony. Last year we did at the Vogel, it was really nice. I like the Wonder Bar. I like Asbury Park, it’s kind of cool. played at PNC. my favorite. Well, I guess Stone Pony’s kind of fun. It’s really…

Lost In Jersey Podcast (22:18)
Yeah.

Janette (22:25)
down for me.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (22:36)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (22:37)
When that place is crowded and people are going crazy, it’s a lot of fun. So I would say probably Stone Pony is, yes.

Janette (22:44)
Stone Pony. What about

in New York City? Is there still a jazz club that’s kind of the jazz club?

Baron Raymonde (22:51)
Well, there’s a lot, there’s still Village Vanguard, Dizzy’s, but I like, I’ve been playing at the Blue Note with Forever Ray and I love playing there. It’s so much fun, I have to say. I would go out of my way if I can’t, if I have something else going on to make sure I play there.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (22:52)
Yeah, that’s a lot.

Mm. That’s great.

Janette (23:07)
I don’t know, Rachel, if you’ve had, probably have done the crawl of the hidden jazz clubs there. I don’t know if they’re there, but sometimes you’ll just stumble upon a little room that’s playing jazz Is that still something that you see, Rachel? you have you seen that?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (23:23)
haven’t but I haven’t been in the city that much but I used to love going to the Village Vanguard a lot and then smoke up all the way up was ⁓ Upper West Side was really fun and then Smalls

Baron Raymonde (23:30)
Yeah, smoke’s great.

those are great places. There’s other places and Brooklyn and all the shaker lab. I, yeah, I love going there. Yeah. You know, that’s the amazing thing about New York. I, you know, back in the eighties when I lived there, I, I walked by a little place. It was a nothing place. And there was a sign there, Antonio Jobin. And I was like, are you kidding me? And there he was. I went in there and he was doing a duo with somebody else.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (23:41)
Yeah.

⁓

What?

Baron Raymonde (23:59)
You know, it’s like, in New York, something like that would

Lost In Jersey Podcast (23:59)
my.

Janette (24:03)
I mean, that’s the thing is that I wish I knew all the names that you know, But once you hear them play, once you hear it, you know, This is a great type of musician that you don’t see every day. And I think that you’re one of those people, Baron. when people…

Lost In Jersey Podcast (24:10)
Yeah.

Janette (24:20)
meet you, you’re very kind and very understated you’re really nice and friendly, when you see you pick up the sax and play, you’re just blown away.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (24:30)
You’re,

only, I’m now I’m gonna go down a journey of knowing your music, but I saw just some clips of you on Instagram from recent and you are phenomenal. I understand about your voice coming through that sax. It’s beautiful.

Baron Raymonde (24:45)
My mother was a singer. think I got some of that voice from my mother. Yes, used to always practice high notes. I can play high notes and I just hear that all day. going away up. And I could play in the Autism Registrar on this act. So, yeah.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (24:48)
Definitely, definitely.

Yes.

You

Janette (25:00)
Well, I

think that you did end up playing bars and, you know, places that your dad didn’t necessarily want you to be playing at. I hope that you feel that he would be impressed with what you’ve accomplished. Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (25:13)
I’m sure he would. yes,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (25:16)
thank you so much for coming on. This was really nice to get to know you a bit.

Janette (25:20)
do you have a Bon Jovi or a Bruce Springsteen story? We’ll take it.

Baron Raymonde (25:22)
Okay. Well,

okay. Well, I did play with Bruce Springsteen at the Paramount Theater for the Light of Day concert with La Bamba Big Band. That was so cool. And then being at Bon Jovi’s house, what happened was La Bamba from Conan, and he used to play with Springsteen, had a big band, I was playing with, which we do the holiday hurrah with, teamed up with Southside Johnny, a very known Jersey singer.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (25:32)
Mmm.

Baron Raymonde (25:48)
to make a tribute to Tom Waits album. since Southside knew his friends with Bon Jovi, we did it at his carriage house on his property in Middletown, which was really cool. yeah, and another thing that I did in New Jersey was, know, Stevie Wonder used to have a place in Alpine. And I got to play his daughter’s wedding, Aisha, that he wrote, Isn’t She Lovely? And get to play with her. And the first song

Janette (26:04)
Yeah.

Baron Raymonde (26:11)
He sang

his daughter, Aisha. He sang himself and I was about five feet away from him and he sung his heart out and everybody was crying. I mean, it was that emotional. But these are the things I’ve met, you know, people I’ve got to play with in Jersey. About a month ago, I end up in a recording studio in New Jersey and I don’t know who I’m recording for and the Phillip,

Lost In Jersey Podcast (26:21)
my God.

Janette (26:22)
wow.

Baron Raymonde (26:39)
Rose from the Indian from YMCA, it’s for him. It’s like, wow, he lives in New Jersey. He lives in New Jersey. know, these, don’t, it’s been good for me to live here. I’ve met many.

Janette (26:44)
I saw that video of yours.

I know,

I know. That’s the thing. I feel like it’s been good for me and I feel like it’s probably good for you too, Rachel. I mean, it’s a great place because you don’t have the pressure of New York City. It’s so much more casual, but everybody’s like toiling away at their, their pursuits, you know? It’s pretty, it’s pretty awesome. I love those stories. That’s pretty cool. I wonder who’s next. Who?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (26:58)
Yes.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Baron Raymonde (27:11)
Definitely.

I

Janette (27:20)
Well,

Baron, thank you so much for joining us and sharing with us your story about music, your music journey and your life here in New Jersey.

Baron Raymonde (27:29)
Thank you, I really appreciate it. ⁓

Lost In Jersey Podcast (27:31)
I want to

come see you live. So I hope you keep us posted so that, cause I really want. Okay.

Baron Raymonde (27:34)
I will do that. I posted on my website, saxbaron.com,

S-A-X-B-A-R-O-N.com. I post all my public showings, okay?

Janette (27:42)
Great. We’ll

Lost In Jersey Podcast (27:45)
Perfect.

Janette (27:45)
put those links in our website too.

Baron Raymonde (27:47)
⁓

Thank you so much. really appreciate it. Have a great day. Bye bye. Bye bye. See you.

Janette (27:49)
Thanks, Barron.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (27:50)
Thank you too.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (27:52)
Hey, Jeanette.

Janette (27:54)
Hi, Rachel. So we just got off a really great interview with Baron Raymond, who is a musician. As he tells me, I said, I asked him in the interview, what type of musician are you? said, well, or what do call yourself? says a musician. But he has also been inducted into the New York Hall of Blues Hall of Fame. And he is a active musician where he

Constantine plays gigs every weekend around the city and does recording. And he played for Rod Stewart and Gloria Gaynor and the Blues Brothers. He tells several stories about the people that he plays, that he’s played with.

Lost In Jersey Podcast (28:32)
Yes, he’s played with legends in the jazz and blues industry, but also he is also a legend because of all the amazing, he plays a million different instruments. He’ll explain his main instrument is the saxophone, but all of the saxophones and we’ll learn a lot. You’ll learn a lot in this interview about how he developed his voice, his signature sound that you asked him about.

and how musicians get that.

Janette (28:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, that is it’s fascinating to think, you know, that two sacks don’t sound alike. But yeah, they don’t. You can make them sound different, you know, with a little bit of experience. OK, so I think that that’s a good show. I shouldn’t just say that. I was like, that’s done. So enjoy this interview. Is that was that enough?

Lost In Jersey Podcast (29:03)
Mm-hmm.

That’s true.

Yes.

Yeah.

Janette (29:22)
I think so. All right.