Jazz Monthly: Yeah.
DR: And I had a couple key experiences like that that changed me. I also remember later that same year the same band director had encouraged me to try out for All State Jazz Band. I tried out and I was accepted and I was playing lead tenor in the All State Jazz Band here in Colorado. It was the day of the performance and the whole week we had been rehearsing and I had learned the chord changes and I had the chord changes in front of me, but I had kind of created this little solo that was working for me. The All State Jazz Band director was frustrated with me because my head was still in the page.
I had kind of created a solo and had started to improvise a little, but it turned out being kind of a pre-planned thing, and all week the director said “Get away from the music. I don’t want you looking at the music,” and I resisted and I resisted and I resisted…. It came time for the concert and there was about a thousand or more people out there—up to that point it was the biggest concert of my life—and I stood up and I went to reach for my music stand to raise it and it broke and my music flew onto the ground, and at that point I had no choice. I had to get my head out of the music and it was a life changing experience for me. It was another moment of terror that led to another moment of exhilaration, and after that experience I understood. I don’t know that my music stand breaking was an accident. I think maybe it was a divine intervention.
Jazz Monthly: Either that or a setup.
DR: Right, right, right. It very well could have been a setup!
Jazz Monthly: Well, it just sounds like your training wheels came off.
DR: Yup, you got it.
Jazz Monthly: Well, that’s a very cool thing. I can just imagine some music instructors reading this and saying “Hmm, think I’ll try that.”
DR: Yeah, that’s a good idea. The director may have done it or maybe not, but it worked.
Jazz Monthly: Well, that’s very cool. All of that has led to some very cool accomplishments by yourself and some very cool experiences. The music has taken you places that you never dreamed of before.
DR: Mm-hmm, absolutely.
Jazz Monthly: And that’s always a very cool thing and I have to say starting with your latest CD, which is Once In A Lifetime, has a lot of those memories deeply entrenched in it because I can hear the great improvisational vibe of Darren Rahn in this great record. Yeah, man. And I gotta tell ya, I’ve been totally diggin’ on “Groove Du Jour.”
DR: Oh, cool! Thank you. That’s one of my personal favorites on the record.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and “Simple Song.” I’m sort of a rebel when it comes to what’s on the record, so if I like something really cool, it may not be what everybody else likes but, see, I’m feeling something different.
DR: Right, sure.
Jazz Monthly: I gotta feel it, man, you know?
DR: Yeah, when I did that record, that was a lot of what I was going for. I have a very diverse musical background and so on that particular record it was kind of my national debut. It wasn’t my first record—I had already done a record a few years before that—but this was the first time that it was really gonna be out there on a large scale and so I wanted to kind of bring a lot of those diverse influences into the record and not just have the same kind of song all through the record. I wanted some variety and some different vibes, different styles on the different saxophones, so I really appreciate that. That’s a great compliment.
Jazz Monthly: Well, yes indeed, my friend. And I guess that’s sort of the import of Track No. 1, “Breakin’ Out.”
DR: Absolutely. That was the first single and kinda “Hello, here I am” and it’s where it all started for me as an artist on a larger scale.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and I gotta tell ya that I really love the cover track, “Take My Breath Away.”
DR: Oh, thank you.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, that song brings back some very cool memories and to hear your groove on this is really cool. I mean, it’s a great production and it’s the kind of song, and the way you did it, it’s like it creates the memories of that time but this is truly Darren Rahn.
DR: Thanks a lot.
Jazz Monthly: You know what I mean?
DR: Yeah, and of course I was thinking back to my high school days. I remember when Top Gun came out, the movie, and I was trying to find a cover that would appeal to kind of a broad audience, and I always liked that ballad and just kinda wanted to put my own spin on it and I’ve had a really good reaction to that track.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and I don’t think I’ve heard too many versions of this, at least from a jazz point of view, of this song, so I thought that was a really cool selection.
DR: Oh, thank you. I know it’s definitely more on the pop tip and I think sometimes jazz artists refrain from getting too far into the pop world, but my musical background is pretty diverse. I really love it all, anything from straight ahead jazz to pop music, R&B, gospel, soul, all of it.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and tell Jason [Rahn] I said he’s a bad boy with the acoustic guitar on that track.
DR: Oh, I will, I will. That’s my twin brother, he’s really mainly a trumpet player, but he cut some really nice guitar tracks on there and he’s actually gonna be featured on trumpet on my new record that’s coming out next year.
Jazz Monthly: I can’t wait to hear it. That’s gotta be a seriously ridiculous groove, man. That’s nice. And “Sax a la Funk,” man, you know, I’m listening to these really deep percussive grooves that you’re doing on this project and then we come to “Sax a la Funk” and it’s like okay, this is a whole different world.
DR: Thanks Smitty. An interesting note about that song - everything on that song is saxophone except for the bass guitar.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, right.
DR: There’s no drums, there’s no keyboards, there’s nothing except my sax and bass guitar. Some of them are samples of different sounds on my horn and some of them were performed, but everything in that song is just pure saxophone except for the bass. I couldn’t really find a hip way to incorporate bass on the sax. I tried playing bari sax but it kinda took it out of the zone that I was looking for, so I had Mel throw down some electric bass on that and he took it to a whole ‘nother level.
Jazz Monthly: And besides, we can’t sample or duplicate Mel anyway.
DR: No, no, you can’t imitate that.
Jazz Monthly: I hope he hears us.
DR: Indeed.: Well, you know, Mel has really been an important part of my career, both as a player and as a friend. We’ve been friends for years and when we started out in this crazy business we decided that we were gonna stick together and see where it took us, and it has taken us a long way. We’ve had so many incredible opportunities together and individually, and we still get to do music together this many years later. I feel so very, very blessed.
Jazz Monthly: Well, it’s funny you mentioned that because when I talked to Mel on the show, he basically word for word said what you just did.
DR: Very cool.
