There aren’t many career paths that include studying at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and working for a boss in a meat dress. Trumpeter Brian Newman has traveled that stretch over the past decade and a half, from his truncated CCM history to sessioning and performing with Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett and many others.
Those points are just a portion of his journey, which began in Mentor, Ohio, outside of Cleveland, and ultimately led to his incredibly successful Jazz career in New York City, which currently includes a weekly residency at the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Rose Bar and appearances at the iconic Rainbow Room.
Newman’s musical course began charting at age 9 when his school assembled a band by assigning instruments, as Newman notes, “so they don’t have 18 guitar players.” He got the luckiest assignment of his life.
“They said I would be good for trumpet. I liked it because it only had three buttons,” he says. “I saw the sax and was like, ‘That one’s hard,’ not knowing that trumpet is one of the most demanding band instruments because you only have three buttons.”
In seventh grade, Newman became slightly disenchanted with band-class structure and began clowning around to circumvent his boredom. That inspired the next leg of his trip.
“The band director said, ‘I’ve got this Jazz program in the summer, maybe you should try it,’ ” Newman says. “That was the best thing I ever did. It was cool; I could play stuff that wasn’t on the page. When those six weeks were over, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.”
Newman announced to his mother that he was going to move to New York City and become a Jazz musician. To prove it wasn’t an empty pipe dream, he booked his own shows, eventually joining a band of older musicians called The Swagger Kings.
“None of these guys could read music, so it was great ear training, and I learned a ton just playing in front of people,” Newman says. He credits his parents for nurturing his ambitions throughout his development.
“I’d walk or ride my bike to the coffeehouse and play for chai tea and $20 in the tip jar,” he says. “My dad would come and he probably paid the most of anyone. My parents were always so supportive. My dad would drive me to Youngstown to play places that were hole-in-the-wall, Rock & Roll dive bars. That’s what I ended up gravitating to when I moved to New York.”
But before NYC came CCM. While sitting last chair in the last of three Jazz bands at his high school, Newman asked his band director how he could get into the top band and was told he’d never make it. When he went home, naturally upset, his parents responded by transferring him to another school. His attendance at summer Jazz camps introduced him to trumpeter Brad Goode, a CCM professor who actively recruited Newman. He chose CCM, sparking a huge leap in his musical development… when he showed up.
“You mean the classes I made it to?” Newman says, laughing. “I was there four or five years, and I was playing almost every night at Cody’s Cafe. We won a (Cincinnati Entertainment Award) in 2003 for Best Jazz for that gig. Cincinnati is still my favorite city because there are so many great Jazz guys there, like John Von Ohlen. He was so influential to me. I would walk down the halls at CCM and V.O. would be like, ‘Hey, baby, you still here?’ I knew what he meant. I would see him at the Blue Wisp and we would talk and have drinks and, many nights, I left almost in tears, because V.O.’s that deep that he can make you feel something about music and about life. Cincinnati is so important; a very cool spot.”
Newman left school 20 credits short of graduation, and after dropping out, his parents rightly withdrew their financial support. So Newman packed a U-Haul and moved to New York without knowing a soul there, working a succession of ball-busting jobs and playing as many gigs as possible before scoring a bartending job at St. Jerome’s on the Lower East Side. There he befriended a go-go dancer named Stefani Germanotta, the future Lady Gaga.
“She was doing her thing, I was doing my thing; we were all playing. All of a sudden she moves to L.A., but we kept in touch for years,” Newman says. “She’s always been a cool chick and a really great musician so we hit it off in that sense. We still do every time we play. Gaga really helped by coming to a lot of the gigs; when she started playing Jazz with us, it put us at a national level. But we were making $350 for the whole band. It wasn’t like she came to gigs and we’re millionaires. It’s still not the case.”
Five years ago, Newman was visiting his parents in Cleveland and Gaga called, imploring him to return to New York to play a song with her at the city’s Robin Hood Gala. By then, Newman had played with Gaga in the studio, on stage and on television, so he headed back for the gig. Tony Bennett also attended the gala and suggested that he and Gaga do a song together, resulting in “The Lady is a Tramp” for Bennett’s Duets II and ultimately Cheek to Cheek, the full Bennett/Gaga album. When that album was being planned, Gaga contacted Newman again.
“She was like, ‘I would love for you guys to do some songs on this album,’” he says. “We ended up doing seven songs and going on the road and working with Tony’s band and my band. It was exceptional stuff.”
Dae Bennett, Tony’s son and engineer, was so impressed with Newman and his quintet that he took them into the studio to make a new album, which is on the verge of release. He and his band will do selections from the album at their upcoming Xavier Jazz Series performance this week, along with obscure standards and other surprises. His opening act is The ’Nati Six, featuring Dan Karlsberg, Newman’s CCM friend and self-described favorite piano player. Newman’s equally excited about doing a master class at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, seeing music at Northside Tavern and grabbing some Skyline chili.
“That’s definitely on the docket,” Newman says.
What Newman likes most, though, is the work. Now the father of a 4-month-old daughter with his wife, burlesque dancer Angie Pontani, he continues to hustle for gigs as both performer and bandleader.
“I love the working for it,” he says. “In my career, I’ve always tried to have a weekly thing somewhere. And every time someone told me ‘no,’ it just made me want it even more, to be the person I knew I wanted to be. I’m still working that. Everybody should. Once you settle, you die.”
BRIAN NEWMAN QUINTET plays a 3 p.m. show Sunday at Xavier University’s Gallagher Student Center Theater. Tickets/more info: xavier.edu/musicseries.
This article appears in Jan 20-27, 2016.