PREVIOUS GUESTS

BRIAN CULBERTSON

A prolific keyboardist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Brian Culbertson is known for his many crossover albums, which find him touching upon jazz, funk, pop, and new age. Culbertson first broke through with 1997's Secrets, which reached number 15 on the contemporary jazz chart. He has released a series of Top Five jazz albums, including 1999's Somethin' Bout Love, for Warner Bros. and 2001's Nice & Slow for Atlantic. He also topped the same chart with 2005's It's on Tonight, 2008's Bringing Back the Funk, and 2010's XII.

Culbertson has written and produced over 28 #1 contemporary smooth singles on the R&R, Gavin and Billboard Radio charts. Singles include "So Good" and "On My Mind" from Secrets, "Get It On" and "All About You" from Nice & Slow, "Hookin' Up" and "Let's Get Started" from It's on Tonight, "Always Remember" from Bringing Back The Funk, "That's Life" from XII, "Your Smile" from Dreams, "Think Free" from LIVE - 20th Anniversary Tour, "Been Around The World" from Funk! in addition to many more with other artists such as Norman Brown, Bob James, Dave Koz, Eric Marienthal, Rick Braun, Steve Cole, Eric Darius and Michael Lington on 2020's Winter Stories.

Born in 1973, Culbertson grew up in Decatur, Illinois where his father, a respected high-school jazz band director and trumpeter, cultivated his love of music. Their home would be alive with the recorded sounds of Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, the Brecker Brothers, and David Sanborn. Growing up, Culbertson also listened to '70s R&B/pop/funk bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire.
You began your musical training at the age of eight with piano lessons; at nine you moved to drums, at ten trombone, and at 12 bass. You were seven when you began to study the piano. He described his first piano teacher on his website as “a typical ‘old school’ classical piano teacher that would press her fingers down on top of our fingers if we didn’t play something right.” Culbertson’s parents strongly supported his musical pursuits, and this early start was no exception. “My mom,” Culbertson continued, “had taken piano lessons when she was young and helped me out a lot with my lessons.”
Moving from group to private lessons in 1981, Culbertson’s new teacher, Rose Marie Thompson, was to have a profound influence on his development as a musician. “I’ve always thanked her in the liner notes of all my records,” he said, “because she really inspired me to play.” When he was nine, Culbertson began to study drums, then picked up the trombone when he was ten so that he could play in his school band—there are no pianos in a band, and the drum parts weren’t enough of a challenge.
Looking to do even more, Culbertson began to compose his own music when he was in junior high school. During his first year in high school he began to make his own recordings in his parents’ basement using the new Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer, one of the first on the market, and a four-track tape machine. He also played in the high school band, which his father directed. In 1988, while still a freshman in high school, Culbertson made his professional debut, as a trombonist in the orchestra for his high school’s production of the musical Mame.

You continued to compose, but his pieces soon exceeded the ability of his schoolmate musicians to play them, so out of necessity he learned to play all the parts himself, blending them on his four-track. He remained fascinated by synthesizers, and learned how to use Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sequencing, a technology that allows multiple electronic instruments and synthesizers to be played simultaneously. By the time he graduated from high school and moved on to college, Culbertson had won eleven student awards from Down Beat magazine—six as a soloist, and five as part of a group.

By his freshman year in high school, he was experimenting with the then-new Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and an old four-track recorder in his basement. His dedication earned him six individual and five group Down Beat student awards. Also during his high-school years, he started getting into MIDI sequencing and synthesizers. He couldn't find musicians who were able to play his songs on the level he wanted, as most of his peers were into heavy metal, so Culbertson, who cites pop producer/songwriter David Foster as one of his strongest influences, learned how to play all the parts himself.

After graduation, he headed to Chicago to begin studies in the music program at DePaul University. On campus, he began to run into high-level musicians and started playing in a band. In 1994, Culbertson inked a deal with the Mesa/Blue Moon label. In the bedroom of the apartment he shared with three college buddies, he recorded his debut album, Long Night Out, playing most of the instruments himself but also enlisting a small backing group. The LP spent ten consecutive weeks in the Top Five of the adult contemporary charts. On his follow-up album, Modern Life, Culbertson eschewed the one-man band approach in favor of a live band made up of some of the best musicians in Chicago, plus stellar saxophonist Gerald Albright.

In 1993, at the age of 20, Culbertson landed a six-album recording contract with the Mesa/Blue Moon label. He recorded his debut album in the Chicago apartment that he was then sharing with three college friends. On his website, Culbertson said, “I always tell the story of having to stop recording so that the large truck could go past, or the ambulance siren would subside.” The album, released in 1994, was called Long Night Out; it hit the charts immediately, and stayed in the adult contemporary top five for ten straight weeks. During that same year Culbertson met Michelle, the woman who was to become his wife; the two were married in 1997.

You put out several other albums in the '90s, including After Hours (1995), Secrets (1997), and Somethin' Bout Love (1999). Culbertson's productions include albums by Bob Mamet and Steve Cole. Having gotten into composing advertising jingles, you set his sights on soundtracks. In 2001, the pianist (who could play the trombone, trumpet, and percussion as well) released Nice & Slow, followed by Come on Up in 2003. Two years later, you issued It's on Tonight, and in 2006 Soulful Christmas, a collection of holiday favorites as well as an original.

In 2008, Culbertson released Bringing Back the Funk, an acclaimed album that is credited with bringing new life to the urban jazz genre. It featured a sizable list of collaborators including Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Ray Parker, Jr., and David T. Walker. He followed it with a live album in 2009 and XII, a return to the studio, in 2010. In June 2012, Culbertson released Dreams, his 13th album, featuring a host of all-star contemporary jazz and R&B session players and vocalists. Later that year, he set about realizing a dream project.

Now an independent artist, Culbertson had long desired to revisit the music from his 1994 debut offering, Long Night Out, initially cut in his apartment on a very limited budget. In 2013, he re-recorded the same tracks with a large all-star lineup that included Nathan East, Russ Freeman, Steve Lukather, and Candy Dulfer, to name a few, plus a 33-piece orchestra. Entitled Another Long Night Out, it was issued on his own BCM label in February 2014. Two years later, he delivered the concert album Live: 20th Anniversary Tour, showcasing his band in concert at Yoshi's in San Francisco.

In late 2011, Culbertson announced he would be hosting the first annual Brian Culbertson Napa Valley Jazz Getaway at the Napa Valley Opera House on June 7–10, 2012. Brian along with his wife, Michelle Culbertson (Micaela Haley) began working on the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway together after having spent their 10th wedding anniversary in the region. The 4-day concert event would include live performances by comedian Sinbad, vocalists Oleta Adams and Kenny Lattimore, as well as artists Eric Marienthal, Eric Darius, and David Benoit. In addition to performances, Culbertson curated the weekend's events to include food and wine events at his favorite Napa establishments including: Cindy Pawlcyn's Brassica restaurant, Miner Family Vineyards, Silver Oak Cellars, Caldwell-Snyder Art Gallery, and Silo's Napa.

The inaugural event was a commercial and critical success, selling out within a week of the public announcement of ticket sales. At the 2012 event, Culbertson announced that the event would return for a second year, held June 5–9, 2013. The expanded 5-day 2013 event was held at the Napa Valley Opera House and the Lincoln Theater in addition to several wineries and featured Norman Brown, Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station, Take 6, Ray Parker Jr., Eric Darius, Nick Colionne, Michael Lington, DW3, Cecil Ramirez and returning special guest comedian Sinbad.

The 3rd annual grew even more and expanded to two outdoor days at Jamieson Ranch Vineyards in addition to two nights at the Lincoln Theater among other smaller events throughout Napa Valley. The 2014 event featured Morris Day & The Time, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Earl Klugh, The Ohio Players, Eric Benét, Average White Band, Eric Darius, Michael Lington, David Benoit, Jazz in Pink, Mavis Staples, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Cecil Ramirez and comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans. Plans are set for the 4th annual on June 10–14, 2015.

The full-length Colors of Love appeared in 2018, and reached the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. A trio album, Winter Stories, arrived the following year. In 2020, Culberston issued his 20th studio album, the aptly titled XX, featuring guest vocals from Bootsy Collins, Avery Sunshine, and Noel Gourdin.

An EP, Soundscapes, arrived in 2021 as did Red = Passion, the first in a trilogy of themed albums also including Blue = Melancholy and White = Hope.
(6 May 2022): The three-phase arc of a longtime relationship serves as the muse of R&B-jazz hitmaker Brian Culbertson’s trilogy of instrumental albums that he wrote, produced and performed with creative input from the 800-plus members of his Hang Club. On Friday (May 6), the third disc in the series, a collection of hopeful songs titled “The Trilogy, Part 3: White,” drops on the BCM Entertainment label. It’s Culbertson’s 25th album that to date has launched nearly forty singles to shoot to number one on the Billboard chart.

Culbertson composed the thirty songs that populate the three albums thematically along what he describes as the three-part arc of a long-term relationship: the hot and steamy “falling in love” phase, the rocky middle when perhaps they even break up for a bit, and the couple reunites to live “happily ever after” phase. The first album in the series, the sensual and romantic “Part 1: Red” was released last October and the second set, the melancholy “Part 2: Blue” streeted in January. “Part 3: White” is slightly more diverse stylistically with the uplifting urban grooves, nuanced contemporary jazz and shimmering pop songs fostering feelings of hope as the relationship thrives and endures.

All three albums in “The Trilogy” were crafted with input from the Hang Club, a tiered membership program via Patreon that Culbertson formed in 2020 tied to the weekly Friday night show that he streams live on YouTube. Hang Club members were granted exclusive behind-the-scenes access into every aspect of Culbertson’s creative process: from songwriting, arranging, recording, producing and mixing.

A prolific keyboardist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Brian Culbertson is known for his many crossover albums, which find him touching upon jazz, funk, pop, and new age. Culbertson first broke through with 1997's Secrets, which reached number 15 on the contemporary jazz chart. He has released a series of Top Five jazz albums, including 1999's Somethin' Bout Love, for Warner Bros. and 2001's Nice & Slow for Atlantic. He also topped the same chart with 2005's It's on Tonight, 2008's Bringing Back the Funk, and 2010's XII. Culbertson has written and produced over 28 #1 contemporary smooth singles on the R&R, Gavin and Billboard Radio charts. Singles include "So Good" and "On My Mind" from Secrets, "Get It On" and "All About You" from Nice & Slow, "Hookin' Up" and "Let's Get Started" from It's on Tonight, "Always Remember" from Bringing Back The Funk, "That's Life" from XII, "Your Smile" from Dreams, "Think Free" from LIVE - 20th Anniversary Tour, "Been Around The World" from Funk! in addition to many more with other artists such as Norman Brown, Bob James, Dave Koz, Eric Marienthal, Rick Braun, Steve Cole, Eric Darius and Michael Lington on 2020's Winter Stories. Born in 1973, Culbertson grew up in Decatur, Illinois where his father, a respected high-school jazz band director and trumpeter, cultivated his love of music. Their home would be alive with the recorded sounds of Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, the Brecker Brothers, and David Sanborn. Growing up, Culbertson also listened to '70s R&B/pop/funk bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire. You began your musical training at the age of eight with piano lessons; at nine you moved to drums, at ten trombone, and at 12 bass. You were seven when you began to study the piano. He described his first piano teacher on his website as “a typical ‘old school’ classical piano teacher that would press her fingers down on top of our fingers if we didn’t play something right.” Culbertson’s parents strongly supported his musical pursuits, and this early start was no exception. “My mom,” Culbertson continued, “had taken piano lessons when she was young and helped me out a lot with my lessons.” Moving from group to private lessons in 1981, Culbertson’s new teacher, Rose Marie Thompson, was to have a profound influence on his development as a musician. “I’ve always thanked her in the liner notes of all my records,” he said, “because she really inspired me to play.” When he was nine, Culbertson began to study drums, then picked up the trombone when he was ten so that he could play in his school band—there are no pianos in a band, and the drum parts weren’t enough of a challenge. Looking to do even more, Culbertson began to compose his own music when he was in junior high school. During his first year in high school he began to make his own recordings in his parents’ basement using the new Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer, one of the first on the market, and a four-track tape machine. He also played in the high school band, which his father directed. In 1988, while still a freshman in high school, Culbertson made his professional debut, as a trombonist in the orchestra for his high school’s production of the musical Mame. You continued to compose, but his pieces soon exceeded the ability of his schoolmate musicians to play them, so out of necessity he learned to play all the parts himself, blending them on his four-track. He remained fascinated by synthesizers, and learned how to use Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sequencing, a technology that allows multiple electronic instruments and synthesizers to be played simultaneously. By the time he graduated from high school and moved on to college, Culbertson had won eleven student awards from Down Beat magazine—six as a soloist, and five as part of a group. By his freshman year in high school, he was experimenting with the then-new Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and an old four-track recorder in his basement. His dedication earned him six individual and five group Down Beat student awards. Also during his high-school years, he started getting into MIDI sequencing and synthesizers. He couldn't find musicians who were able to play his songs on the level he wanted, as most of his peers were into heavy metal, so Culbertson, who cites pop producer/songwriter David Foster as one of his strongest influences, learned how to play all the parts himself. After graduation, he headed to Chicago to begin studies in the music program at DePaul University. On campus, he began to run into high-level musicians and started playing in a band. In 1994, Culbertson inked a deal with the Mesa/Blue Moon label. In the bedroom of the apartment he shared with three college buddies, he recorded his debut album, Long Night Out, playing most of the instruments himself but also enlisting a small backing group. The LP spent ten consecutive weeks in the Top Five of the adult contemporary charts. On his follow-up album, Modern Life, Culbertson eschewed the one-man band approach in favor of a live band made up of some of the best musicians in Chicago, plus stellar saxophonist Gerald Albright. In 1993, at the age of 20, Culbertson landed a six-album recording contract with the Mesa/Blue Moon label. He recorded his debut album in the Chicago apartment that he was then sharing with three college friends. On his website, Culbertson said, “I always tell the story of having to stop recording so that the large truck could go past, or the ambulance siren would subside.” The album, released in 1994, was called Long Night Out; it hit the charts immediately, and stayed in the adult contemporary top five for ten straight weeks. During that same year Culbertson met Michelle, the woman who was to become his wife; the two were married in 1997. You put out several other albums in the '90s, including After Hours (1995), Secrets (1997), and Somethin' Bout Love (1999). Culbertson's productions include albums by Bob Mamet and Steve Cole. Having gotten into composing advertising jingles, you set his sights on soundtracks. In 2001, the pianist (who could play the trombone, trumpet, and percussion as well) released Nice & Slow, followed by Come on Up in 2003. Two years later, you issued It's on Tonight, and in 2006 Soulful Christmas, a collection of holiday favorites as well as an original. In 2008, Culbertson released Bringing Back the Funk, an acclaimed album that is credited with bringing new life to the urban jazz genre. It featured a sizable list of collaborators including Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Ray Parker, Jr., and David T. Walker. He followed it with a live album in 2009 and XII, a return to the studio, in 2010. In June 2012, Culbertson released Dreams, his 13th album, featuring a host of all-star contemporary jazz and R&B session players and vocalists. Later that year, he set about realizing a dream project. Now an independent artist, Culbertson had long desired to revisit the music from his 1994 debut offering, Long Night Out, initially cut in his apartment on a very limited budget. In 2013, he re-recorded the same tracks with a large all-star lineup that included Nathan East, Russ Freeman, Steve Lukather, and Candy Dulfer, to name a few, plus a 33-piece orchestra. Entitled Another Long Night Out, it was issued on his own BCM label in February 2014. Two years later, he delivered the concert album Live: 20th Anniversary Tour, showcasing his band in concert at Yoshi's in San Francisco. In late 2011, Culbertson announced he would be hosting the first annual Brian Culbertson Napa Valley Jazz Getaway at the Napa Valley Opera House on June 7–10, 2012. Brian along with his wife, Michelle Culbertson (Micaela Haley) began working on the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway together after having spent their 10th wedding anniversary in the region. The 4-day concert event would include live performances by comedian Sinbad, vocalists Oleta Adams and Kenny Lattimore, as well as artists Eric Marienthal, Eric Darius, and David Benoit. In addition to performances, Culbertson curated the weekend's events to include food and wine events at his favorite Napa establishments including: Cindy Pawlcyn's Brassica restaurant, Miner Family Vineyards, Silver Oak Cellars, Caldwell-Snyder Art Gallery, and Silo's Napa. The inaugural event was a commercial and critical success, selling out within a week of the public announcement of ticket sales. At the 2012 event, Culbertson announced that the event would return for a second year, held June 5–9, 2013. The expanded 5-day 2013 event was held at the Napa Valley Opera House and the Lincoln Theater in addition to several wineries and featured Norman Brown, Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station, Take 6, Ray Parker Jr., Eric Darius, Nick Colionne, Michael Lington, DW3, Cecil Ramirez and returning special guest comedian Sinbad. The 3rd annual grew even more and expanded to two outdoor days at Jamieson Ranch Vineyards in addition to two nights at the Lincoln Theater among other smaller events throughout Napa Valley. The 2014 event featured Morris Day & The Time, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Earl Klugh, The Ohio Players, Eric Benét, Average White Band, Eric Darius, Michael Lington, David Benoit, Jazz in Pink, Mavis Staples, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Cecil Ramirez and comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans. Plans are set for the 4th annual on June 10–14, 2015. The full-length Colors of Love appeared in 2018, and reached the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. A trio album, Winter Stories, arrived the following year. In 2020, Culberston issued his 20th studio album, the aptly titled XX, featuring guest vocals from Bootsy Collins, Avery Sunshine, and Noel Gourdin. An EP, Soundscapes, arrived in 2021 as did Red = Passion, the first in a trilogy of themed albums also including Blue = Melancholy and White = Hope. (6 May 2022): The three-phase arc of a longtime relationship serves as the muse of R&B-jazz hitmaker Brian Culbertson’s trilogy of instrumental albums that he wrote, produced and performed with creative input from the 800-plus members of his Hang Club. On Friday (May 6), the third disc in the series, a collection of hopeful songs titled “The Trilogy, Part 3: White,” drops on the BCM Entertainment label. It’s Culbertson’s 25th album that to date has launched nearly forty singles to shoot to number one on the Billboard chart. Culbertson composed the thirty songs that populate the three albums thematically along what he describes as the three-part arc of a long-term relationship: the hot and steamy “falling in love” phase, the rocky middle when perhaps they even break up for a bit, and the couple reunites to live “happily ever after” phase. The first album in the series, the sensual and romantic “Part 1: Red” was released last October and the second set, the melancholy “Part 2: Blue” streeted in January. “Part 3: White” is slightly more diverse stylistically with the uplifting urban grooves, nuanced contemporary jazz and shimmering pop songs fostering feelings of hope as the relationship thrives and endures. All three albums in “The Trilogy” were crafted with input from the Hang Club, a tiered membership program via Patreon that Culbertson formed in 2020 tied to the weekly Friday night show that he streams live on YouTube. Hang Club members were granted exclusive behind-the-scenes access into every aspect of Culbertson’s creative process: from songwriting, arranging, recording, producing and mixing.