doing so much within the jazz community and beyond that she's going to tell you her story about her beginnings and about this wonderful jazz bridge foundation that she's created so like to welcome you to welcome suzanne cloud  like everybody has such great backgrounds and what the how they got to dis point in their musical career and speaking of jazz right so what do you tell us your beginnings like where were you born where were you raised in  start there i was born in philadelphia and i grew up in south jersey as part of the development after world war two i was i'm a baby boomer and but i went to school in philadelphia and nursing school and i ended up getting my doctorate from university of pennsylvania but as far as the singing i was always came from musical family and went to pennsauken high school and i was the star of the scen musical mckay which musical was that if you're a carnival of course i remember that that's when i realized hey this is really fun i residue this and what age were you around that time frame i was sixteen because i was a year younger than everybody you know the people that i talk to it's around that time frame that you find something that really just you know you connect with i know i found dave brubeck in jazz when i was around fourteen and i know same thing i talked with jim riddle we were just talking about and some of the guests that are on it's around that time from that age range that you're formulating what you want to do right so that spoke to you that's it you had you had the you caught the bug so to speak well i always like theater and i and i sang at home in the basement too to musical theater records to old forty five to the philadelphia orchestra patrice months cell they used to actually put out forty five of eugene normandy and brothers and sisters yeah and my older sister was also sang and played piano i played piano and the whole family my dad played the ukulele and the bad things all over the place so great so after after high school i wanted a nursing school but at the same time i was doing  regional theater so i did i did a lot of musical theater touring shows so i really wasn't into jazz that much and it wasn't until i was married and i had my third child that i heard anyway in fact eddie was one of the reasons why we started jazz bridge because wendy and i went to simon is a singer who's from newark new jersey rich ok we have both been working in the in the city and the surrounding areas for oh god twenty twenty twenty five year tell us a bit and tell us we're going to get to that we're going to get to the jazz bridge which is this wonderful organization so and you're now what timeframe we talking about you know when when was this first formulated would you say well it's something that we knew was going on through our working lives because over the years we had seen people like the great johnny coles trumpeter he had cancer and he basically died all by himself in this room without any kind of resources and we were always bumping up into these people that we have benefits for and usually the benefits would get you about two three grand and that was it and then you send them often whatever happens happens and so it was something that i knew that would have to be addressed as sometime by the end of the ninety's i was in grad school at penn doing my dissertation on the philadelphia chess community doing oral histories so again i was tuned in to the troubles and tribulations of being a working musician but when eddie got sick with pancreatic cancer which takes a pretty fast and he had no resources and it was so i went and i called up but wendy i said let's have lunch and i said you want to you want to stop this from happening let's let's form some kind of a organization the organization so we could raise money for eddie because he was just completing his last album while he got to gap and finished maybe a week before he died and so anyway so she said sure people on it bob perkins sue for it was all original board and it just went on from there that's great and and we just built it up slowly so now you started that foundation so what for people that don't know how a nonprofit works maybe it would be nice just to you know just a brief tour short of what we get we get our funding from grants from foundations we also get funding from individual donors in fact the money from individual donors all goes to helping musicians in crisis now what makes us very different in fact we freaked out the entire nonprofit community because we're a hybrid we not only help musicians in times we go for grants they wouldn't know what kind of pigeon hole to put us in but because we believe that supporting the artists is not just putting on shows it's also if they get in trouble or if something happens where they need help because we believe supporting the art is supporting the artists as well when they when they face hard times so but a little extra bit of time people start realizing hey this is kind of a hip concept you know and it was it's different than the other kinds of nonprofits that help these issues in different parts of the country which are all social services they don't they do a fundraiser present but they don't do neighborhood concerts like you guys are doing a lot of mean you did like you're not only doing concerts but now you're also you were also founder of cd company dreambox media well that came before we ever did that that yeah that was founded in eighty six so i was part of that was me and jim miller started that and there's been over one hundred  y projects that have been that came through that and that was a local philadelphia based record label now that's that's now being wound down because the music business nobody's buying c d s anymore yeah i mean the industry's changed that way but now i find it interesting that you are not only starting your so you're basically an entrepreneur in music you know and it's beyond you know and we have talks when i go into colleges and universities you know the kids will know musically what there is to know when they take use it and what not but they'll have no idea what they do to get out to get a gig you know what to do right so in order to do that you've got to have your your head so to speak in so many different areas and it sounds like you're doing the same thing you've got so many had to do it back then you had yeah you had to what i found that was the most helpful to me was  that eddie green because once i once eddie green and i met and there was a synergy there i was plugged into the entire jazz community almost immediately and working yeah and it was like he would say you gotta go here  and fit in you gotta go here you gotta go here to get a gig so i was i was one of the few white girls who played every little bar in on ridge avenue and black communities and i play all the hotels and i was very very lucky but mentorship is something that is not as prominent as it used to be but it's i think that the chess community's finding out that it's something that needs to be sustained and retained absolutely because a lot of the historical figures in the jazz community in philly are not with us anymore i mean most in their gut they're leading us but and you're right mentorship and having a mentor is you're right there is like a lot of the kids don't have anything really to look at i mean it's a fourteen year old you know i found dave brubeck and he and then all of a sudden i met him in one nine hundred ninety but i first met and knew of him in eighty two so that was kind of like my musical hero you know and all these other guys you know oscar peterson and  little guys and unfortunately you don't see a lot of youth looking up to a mentor i don't know if it's because of the social media or what or they quote unquote pop music which is in my opinion isn't using it but it's you know it's all about perceptions right it's right about like it's it's all about so hopefully one of the things with the show is to get that word out there that hey you know what try something new we go to colleges universities elementary school middle schools and the kids are sponges for the music that they have no idea sometimes this music exists right but then they're all of a sudden the light goes off and they're like wow and that's what you want to that's who you want to inspire that's right and right now i think the college programs are plugged into the local jazz community as they should be now the u of arts is growing university not so much temple of course as a radio station but it really is important for people this is your like going above and beyond for the music you know and a lot of people when they hear jazz or hear jazz musician they don't realize what goes behind what goes on behind the scene right behind the music it's not just playing notes it's like years and years of trying to you know education and listening and i always like to say back in the day you know when you want to hear what was going on in the world you wouldn't hurt your jazz musicians much as they were kind of through music you know the sign of the times were you know and that's why people really enjoy that because it's like it's a thinking music you know you have to kind of take a look yet but the smartphone away and like sit there and listen and it's a beautiful experience so i'm well i love to hear that because you're not only presenting concerts you have this nonprofit you're helping musicians with medical expenses now with dental too you were tell me right with that we actually help with any kind of crisis like we we have and i could talk about sam rita saxophonists who did did the band at the uptown theater he's dealing with some legal problems with some songs that he wrote and he's not getting some money for what he had written so we set him up with an entertainment lawyer that's part of with mortgage payments and that's ok so it it really runs the gamut of some people say i can't pay my water bill ok well we'll do it but it's that's unheard of for somebody that is a really great thing i mean that's like real philanthropic well most musicians who are working and we we cater to people who are professional working musicians because those are the people who've made a very difficult and very difficult choice to pursue music full time it's a valid poverty actually you're really taking a chance you're leaping off the diving board into the abyss and some people land great and other people you're going to you're going to have problems so  we're there to catch them yeah yeah you know with anything music wise you've always i would say it's people places and things you know you've got to you can have all the talent in the world and if you're not seen or heard by that particular person or out in that particular environment it's not you know something it's just a hard road to hoe it is especially high in jazz or you have people like my section player nelson hill who right out of eastman university went on the road with maynard ferguson you hear stories like that so that's and you're lucky with those kind of things but again but even that doesn't protect you know not at all doesn't what it's like mentorship is the main thing you really want to be and that's what i love to hear too because you're kind of like you're going down a road that you're  of redefining yourself so to speak you know you don't want to really go down the same road you want to be inspired but you want to do it in a different a smart way and so no you also now you just released a new album  really this is suzanne cloud with a little help from my friends and the reason why i could call it that was because i have some of the best jazz musicians in the world that we recorded this as a political  in ninety six political album with jeff lee johnson we wrote some tunes together guitarist the late jeffrey johnson on fortunately wonderful reviews and because the political times were kind of iffy and ninety six you know we took a look at and said you know these songs are still relevant because it's gotten worse so twenty two years ago already  you know and that's that's why i love the music too because right it's like what it what kind of what a great environment nothing is like being in the in the middle of a jazz improvisation you're in the moment when you're you look around the room and people are like intently listening to music what a beautiful environment to be and that's and that's one of the reasons why i love it to dance and i've met so many great pure you have to obviously but so many great interesting people who have got great stories who have you know good stories bad stories but they're there and that that music is just the driving force that keeps them going you know well i think jazz players tend to stay younger longer because of that i call what you're describing that improvisational collective improvisation i used to i still call it the bubble yeah a whole band or or just a duo thing is you're just jelly you're on the same internal pulse at the same time and you're both improvising and it's it's a wonderful thing  some people never learn how to do that let themselves go enough and that's one thing that eddie taught because i came from the theater where everything had to be perfect right or play classical music you've got to look at the every right and so when i first started sing making mistakes sure you know and i made a lot of them like most people do that's right jazz right i heard i just heard this quote jazz is a series of recovery yeah that's right that's right that's the beautiful thing about it and you know so what's going on now what's what's the next now you have you always have concerts going on i know i know i've been involved in a couple of the concerts which i'm a great right and we just did one down in down at your boathouse road last year with a welcome america festival right at the mansion down there i can see what put that up on the screen you can see interviews of our musicians in there us talking about their regional music and the concert itself so that all came off of the pew grants that we did and so we'll be doing that  we do that from october through may and then in the summer we do the whole farm park concerts which are for free outdoor concerts that hold their park in philadelphia and i did want to depending on when this is going to be airing and we do have our  annual fundraiser on june third at the seaport museum in philadelphia so check our website at as bridge dot org and you know and you can buy a ticket to help support the musicians absolutely 're c d s are available on the cd baby and i think many amazon amazon and i think we may even have a clip of some video of some of the bands playing in your jazz series will clip will go to that  i love it and the new cd right here and your organization jazz bridge go check it out jazz bridge dot org you guys are doing some phenomenal stuff so thank you so much for being here thank you larry for estimate you're welcome or welcome thank you and we'll see you soon  latest general thank you so much tune in next time always got some great interesting guests on here always talking jazz and jazz is just the glue that holds the community together so thank you very much everybody god bless them