#LA REID Cincinnati Man and Soul Brother
I had the honor of meeting music-mogul, #LAReid in Chicago Wednesday night at Morningstar- during Chicago Ideas Week.
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| "Sing To Me" |
There are Beautiful Miracles of Connection in This Story.
Wednesday's February 17, 2016 Chicago Ideas event was sold out, but I went anyway. A few friends tried to get tickets for me, but no luck. I heard he was in Chicago from friends Wednesday morning and on WGN TV. All I knew is I had to get there.
I did not know of LA. (My bad!). I caught him on the @KathieLGifford Today Show with Kathie Lee & Hoda 2-weeks ago. During the TV interview, I felt a deep connection. I stopped and acted, ordering his 390 page book from Amazon titled "Sing To Me". It came the next day.
Reading the book, I had learned he and I lived on the same street in Mount Auburn, Cincinnati when we were kids, a few years apart. He got his nickname "LA" when he wore a Los Angeles t-shirt at a music production meeting during the Reds vs LA World Series games in '75. Such an amazing time in Cincinnati. I lived there back then.
I read his book in one day. I did not have that planned. I kept personal Cliff Notes during the 15+ hour read--amazed to find he was from my home town, lived on the same block as young kids; and that during my adult life, I had met so many of the artists/managers he represents today, as one of the top music producers/record Executives in the world
(I have met Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Russell Simons, Snoop Dog, Justin Timberland & Lionel Richie's managers, Avril Lavigne, Michael Jackson, some members of the Wu Tang Clan).
LA also had attended Hughes High School where my Portuguese mom studied to become an American Citizen way back then. I bet they were crossing paths in those halls.
He worked on Johnson's Party Boat on the Ohio River as a kid. He wanted to be a drummer so he started by buying drum sticks because that's all he could afford. Years later he was given drums. He was a member of the band The Deele (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deele), performed at my fav venue, Bogarts in Clifton, and started the LaFace Record Label. He recorded at CGA Studios' old location where I produced a short video for my son's wedding with music, and he opened for Luther Vandros on tour (a friend of mine, Ava Cherry, was Luther's amazing back up singer and lived with and toured with David Bowie).
@LA_Reid has an amazing story about working with Michael Jackson & Jermaine and letting Lady Gaga go from Epic Records. He was a judge on the X-Factor too. I heard randomly last weekend at a dance event our granddaughter attended through a friend of my daughter's, that LA just received keys to the City in Cincy a week ago and that her hubby, a Cincy radio Exec, was at the event. More & more miracle info threading this story through so many people and over so many years.
@LA Reid writes, "Passion is my superpower. I wanted my work to be cultural." I got to tell him that "Passion, peace and culture are my superpowers". We laughed. I gave him my book to read "Peace Journey, Seven Paths To A Charmed Life". He said he would read it.
Last Sunday while watching the Grammys, Meghan Trainor @Meghan_Trainor won artist of the year. She thanked LA Reid: she cried, and so did I. To know he brings so much joy to artists & musicians got to me.
Wednesday night, in an audience of hundreds I felt his true spirit. I told him I lived in Mount Auburn till I was 6. I broke my arm in that yard! He looked at me and reached out to hold my hand--knowing what I knew too, that I am white and lived there when it was pristine, he lived there when it was nice and turned ghetto. This is where race riots destroyed part of our innocence in Cincy in '69. Yet we were right here, right now, and it felt as if time stood still.
Everything seemed to be in slow motion. When all was said and done, it was the memories we shared as little kids, when life was innocent, full of music and light, and now as adults, for a heartbeat or two, strangers; a brother I never knew, shared a precious moment from another time. They say everything you are is formed by age 5. Today, I believe that more than ever.
I have loved this series of small and important acts of connection, to remind me that God is here, in the room and it pays to trust that, no matter what.
Now, I hope to connect on the business of PeaceJourney and bringing the world to peace through youth and music!
Jeannette Barcelos Kravitz
Executive Director
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