Meet Brett Cahoon | Jazz Bandleader & Vocalist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brett Cahoon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brett, why did you pursue a creative career?
I grew up like many other teenagers with Rock Stars for Idols and the one and a million dream to become one. This interest first started to become something tangible at 15 when I drug my dad’s old acoustic guitar that no one played out of his closet and began to teach myself guitar. Fast forward a few years and I spent almost all of my time chasing Rock N Roll stardom in bands playing original music where I had become a proficient rock guitarist and decent vocalist. When I wasn’t doing that I was working at the local Pizza Hut.

Time went by and in my mid twenties I started to realize that my friends and bandmates were getting married and having kids and had less interest in playing bars and nightclubs at 1am for gigs that neither paid well or were well attended. So I shifted gears and while I was still constantly working on music I began to get much more ambitious at Pizza Hut and as it turned out I was quite good at that as well. I spent 21 years working in the restaurant business, starting as a dishwasher and ending as an Area Manager that oversaw 10 restaurants. Then one day I got a new boss and he and I didn’t see eye to eye. Eventually he did me the favor of firing me and I was left speechless. After 21 years I believed I was untouchable. I worked very hard and had 21 years of amazing performance appraisals to prove it. How could this have happened?

Turns out getting fired was the single best thing that ever happened to me. I had been performing on piano and vocals in a jazz trio called Good Shot Judy just for fun on the weekends. It didn’t make much money but I believed I could turn it into more and it gave me the freedom to be my own boss and while I didn’t immediately see that my entire career could be music and entertaining it was a start.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started my current career as a hobby where I played piano and sang jazz standards in a jazz trio usually for $75 a guy and maybe dinner. I loved it though and from there I began to dream about what it would look like to do this music at a high level. What should the stage look like? What clothes should the players wear? What kind of production and equipment would be involved? These are the kinds of details that make a brand recognizable. From designing the first logos to building stage sets to spending the last of my savings and running up credit card debt into the $40,000 range I was all in all of the time and saw a pathway to taking this little jazz trio from nice background music to entertaining powerhouse. It had to work. I had no plan B at this point and had invested everything I had in it. It was scary at times but I always believed.

Then it did! The shows got better, the pay got better, we began drawing larger and larger crowds when we played publicly. I knew if was the right thing for me to be doing because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I had gone from working for someone else 80 hours a week building their business to operating my own and helping support 8 bandmates who also happened to be some of my closest friends.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My family and friends have been the most supportive people I could ever ask for.

Website: www.goodshotjudy.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/goodshotjudy

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodShotJudy/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9QhNS_v1o-yRgxC6Rc8KNw