BF: What was that experience like, those formative years that moved you toward actually performing professionally? Because it’s important to note that you don’t just go to college and wind up with a set career.
CH: We were all babies. But these babies, some of them have become iconic—like Branford Marsalis and Diana Krall and Melissa Etheridge and Cyrus Chestnut and Donald Harrison, Kevin Eubanks. I can go on and on about these musicians who just became icons in culture. But we were just all kids playing and trying to figure it out, and it was the most amazing experience of my life. Not only growing musically, but growing personally, trying to put the pieces together, trying to connect the dots.
I was really good academically, but I had to still get a lot together in terms of being a musician, because I grew up playing classical. I was kind of thrust in the world of jazz, which was really interesting, but I was not prepared for it. So it was a lot to try to pull that together. And then when I moved back to New York, there was a lot of dance music. My older brother had a membership at a place called Paradise Garage, which was a very popular dance spot in New York, so I would go to Paradise Garage. I had a friend that would take me to the Danceteria. We would go to Shelter. We would go to Area. We’d go to the Limelight. We’d go to Bentley’s. We would just hit all these clubs. There was this amazing music and I knew that this is what I wanted to be. This world was so fascinating and unpredictable and it made me so happy, but I was kind of caught between these different chasms of jazz and Broadway.
I used to go to see a lot of musicals growing up and I was in musicals in high school. And then there was dance music. And because I’m from Mount Vernon, New York, there was a bit of a movement going on in hip hop. Dance music was transitioning. Rap was becoming a lot stronger than hip hop was taking over. Teddy Riley was the guy who was creating a lot of music, and I had friends that had connected with him. They connected with Andre Harrell at Uptown Records. And I would kind of hang out with them a lot and get to do some music with them. So there was a lot going on and I couldn’t figure out where to go.
BF: Eventually you make it out to Los Angeles. How did you get there?
CH: I had a friend that landed in L.A., literally. He took a cruise ship job and they gave him a one-way ticket. He didn’t realize it. So he ended up staying in L.A. and he said, “Hey, you know what? There’s a lot going out here with music.” Once he got on his feet, I would come out and visit, and I was like, “Wow, this is really cool.” Then I found out that there were so many bands that were beginning to play in Los Angeles. He would say, “You should come out here. You’re going to work, definitely, if you come out here.”
This was the turning point for me right here—I was coming home one night from a job and there was a steep hill to get to my house. I’m going up the hill and my car starts sliding down very slowly and then very quickly. It gets into the intersection and spins. And it’s the middle of the night, I’m by myself…And then I said, “You know what? What am I doing? Why am I carrying my equipment in the middle of the winter, the middle of the night?” I just decided, “I’m going to move.” So that’s what I did. I was working at Pepsi-Cola, had a very cushy job. I had benefits. I had a desk. I had an office. And I quit my job and I moved to Los Angeles. My dad came with me and then I’ve been here ever since.
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