the festival makes money now, it didn't in its 1st 10 or 12 years, *** family and Queen City tradition since 1962. The Cincinnati Music Festival returning after *** two year absence due to the pandemic, pumping millions of dollars into our local economy. We have over 80,000 people coming in from out of town and they all stay at hotels, they all eat at restaurants, they shop in our stores. It's going to be great for the local economy to see the bump that they haven't seen in the last couple of years. Plus the black music walk of fame celebrating the impact and legacy of Cincinnati black musicians at home and across the country. This is our first tourism infrastructure project that will create *** music corridor on the banks from WLWT. This is let's Talk Cincy presented by western and southern financial group. Put our financial strength behind you. Hello everyone. I'm Curtis fuller and welcome to let's talk cincy tens of thousands of people in town. For what we affectionately called the Jazz Festival, *** 60 year tradition by the sant Angelo family, bringing in some of the biggest names in music now, after *** two year hiatus, The 2022 music festival is expected to be *** record breaking year. Well, the first year the festival was Carthage fairgrounds in 62 and it was, you know, I guess you'd call it *** pure jazz festival back, then we had uh um we had Duke Ellington, we had count Basie, we had Miles Davis, you know, on and on. So, you know, it's been going on as the festival evolved Going from the 60s to the 70s, we got more into the R&B. Music, You know, there was *** lot of music in the late 60s that kind of started that crossover pattern and over the years, the festival kind of morphed into what it is today. So, You know, we've had *** lot of great memories from Carthage fairgrounds. Then in 71, we moved to Riverfront Stadium, we played there until 2001. And then When we started the festival back up in '05, we started at Paul Brown Stadium and we've been there ever since with the exception of the last two years because of the pandemic, I would do anything. But the thing that really caught on is that it's gotten to be like *** destination weekend, You know, and roughly 90% of our audiences from out of town, which makes this the biggest hotel, hotel weekend of the whole year. You know, we're number one and um, it's just people and I'm very thankful for it that people plan their little weekend getaway and they come back to come back to Cincinnati every year. It's *** tremendous project to think about, you know, I live in Chicago, but I'm gonna drive in *** car or come in *** bus to Cincinnati, I'm going to get in *** hotel room, I'm gonna walk at the stadium. I mean, you know, the fact that all those people are sitting in the stands, I mean it's *** tribute to their endurance as well as mine. See my very close friend and my brother, my brother Dino's partner was George ween. And George was producing *** festival in French lick indiana for three years from 59 to 61. And after the 61 event and my brother Dino was helping him out. and after the 61 event, the city of french lick said it's too disruptive for the city. We don't want you anymore. And my brother came up with *** wonderful idea. Well, why don't we move it to Cincinnati? And so we because, and, and you know, we called it the Ohio Valley Jazz Festival because then we drew from Dayton and columbus and Louisville and Lexington and areas like that, you know, And that was about the extent of it. But that's how we ended up how the festival ended up in Cincinnati. I should be very grateful to the people in french lick for saying that things were too disruptive, you know. Um and uh, so anyway, here we are, yeah, You talk, we talk about all the up points. I know 2002 might have been your, your lowest point. Well, well those were the years after we had the civil unrest in Cincinnati. And so for three years we couldn't do *** festival. Um, we uh, You know, we, we were, we were dark as they say, we came back in 2005. We had limited success. Um We kept doing the festival for the years after that and starting in about 2010 for some reason the festival just really took off. People. People love coming to Paul Brown Stadium. That's *** nice venue. And the sound is really good there. You know, it's tough when you're in *** bowl because you've got *** lot of echoes and everything, but when you're in *** facility like paul Brown, the sound just goes from one side to the other and you're done. So there's not all that echoing and all that stuff going on. So anyway, um you know, we've been very fortunate and the last two years have been hard on us because no festival, once again, we're fortunate that most of the acts we've been able, we were able to keep in line for that for that length of time. We're very grateful to Janet Jackson That you know, she's extended, she was going to play in 2021 until we canceled that and or postponed as the work. And then we hopefully she will, you know, put on *** fabulous show. I'm sure she will. I'm looking forward to it. You've had so many huge names. Is there anybody that you wanted that you were not able to give? Well, you know, there's there's some acts that financially are unavailable for me from *** financial point of view, I think I don't think I could afford Beyonce, I don't think I could afford Bruno mars, I'd love to have both of them, you know. Um, but most of the people, I mean I was always able to have my favorite singer I guess I shouldn't say favorites, but he was one of the great singers. If many people say the greatest was Luther Vandross and it was great how he started out as an opening act for us and we literally were paying him *** couple $1000 and then over the years he was the second act, then he was the third act and then eventually he was the closer, next celebrating Cincinnati music icons from idea to reality. The story behind Cincinnati's black music walk of Fame. When let's talk cincy returns. Yeah. This weekend there's another celebration of greater Cincinnati's music legacy. It's an idea that is fast becoming *** reality led by Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece, let's talk about the story behind the black music walk of fame just *** year ago, it was *** concept and it was just *** few of us standing saying, hey, we need to have *** black music walk of Fame, something that will be permanent. That would be *** tourist attraction, but will honor the legacy and it almost, I call it entertainment where you'll be educated but entertained with the walk of Fame. So when I go down and I see the guys with the hard hats and you know, we have our final, the final drawing is done now and all of the, you know behind the scenes that we had to do to get this done, we're getting the city and the county to work together on the land transfer and get that done in *** timely fashion and then all the partners that are around that area because it's next to paul Brown Stadium and it's in the monday night football shot. I really had *** chance to step back this week and has several pastors who came down and said, we just want to pray. Um it really sunk in and it sunk into the little girl with my mother who was *** singer and had sung internationally and on national tv and um I used to see her in the studio with my dad and they're writing jingles, he's writing and she's singing and then I think about the history that without black music I wouldn't be here because that's how they met my father, I was interning with Motown and my mother was *** singer and he produced the album they got married and here I am. So black music is at the foundation of the fabric. The thing for me is that she's not here to see it and I just think she, it just would be like most of the inductees, they all have said, you know, they came from here, they sold millions of records, they performed all over the world, many had to leave to try to, you know, Chase their dream, they invested their own money and some of them have won Grammys and they said there's nothing like the Grammy is great, but it's nothing like being recognized in this kind of way, in *** permanent way in their hometown. So when I hear those stories, it makes me, it warms my heart um but yeah, it's, you know, to have this moving forward in *** year and, you know, be it the phase that we're at with our second class of inductees and bringing the first class of inductees back with the second class to actually put the, the, the first stars in the ground and see them unveil those, it's just been, it's been amazing, it's been *** lot of work, you know, when I was Deputy Director of Tourism, I had to promote the whole state, so I had to also promote the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I started seeing that it's great, we have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but what about the rich history of music from Southwest Ohio and its impact, but at the time just, you know, held the idea wasn't sure how it would be implemented. So we're looking at, you know, almost *** decade later, And what happened was I was at an event and Otis Williams who was 85 years young who created the Doo Wop Sound and is in the Hall of Fame and he had pointed over at the new music center of the Andrew brady Music center and he pointed, he said, how can we be included? And when I looked at the Ohio Banks and looked at the history of, that's the first place that our ancestors hit to freedom and lived there because it was *** flood plain area. And then they were moved from there to the west end and I started to look at, yes, we have our Freedom Center, which is fabulous. But we also have two different, we have *** baseball stadium and *** football stadium. We have *** music venue and we have several businesses. But when you ride up and down there, there's no black owned businesses, there's no history of the music side. And I thought, wow, why don't we create *** corridor that brings the paul Brown Stadium that hosts the largest, oldest african american music festival in the midwest and the oldest in the country and then connected with the Andrew brady center that's hosting *** lot of new concert in our newest venue and is winning awards. Why don't we take that corner? That was empty and nothing but rocks. I said, let's take that corner and make that the black music walk of fame. Now we have *** whole tourism corridor. Music corridor on the banks and everybody's included. Uh, and people can come from all over the world to see what we've done from here. And the other thing is *** lot of these stories growing up in music with my parents, my mother singing, and my father being *** writer and producer, I had heard these stories, I had been around. Do you see as *** little girl, I've been around the music festival since I was seven years old. Just I said, man, I got all these stories, but these stories cannot leave when I leave the earth. These stories belong out there to the next generation so they can build on it. And so, um, after Otis Williams pointed across the street at 85 years young and knowing that he had had nothing permanent, uh, he's won some awards, but nothing permanent that tells his story when it's over. And the tear came down. I said, we gotta do it next from football to opera, meet world renowned opera singer Morris Robinson and his upcoming Cincinnati project with *** few of his friends when let's talk since he continues welcome back everyone! Another big musical event is taking place here in town. Morris Robinson is one of the most sought after opera singers in the world. He's in Cincinnati now for two wonderful projects at musical. I'm back for Aida. We did that back in 2013, but it's *** new production. This was originally supposed to happen in 2020 and as everyone knows, the whole world came crashing down for everyone, especially the arts community. So we've had to postpone some things. So this was in the makings back then. Were able to bring everybody back together and come back and do it now. We're happy to be *** music hall, happy to be back on stage and I'm excited for the opportunity to do so. But yeah, it is *** wonderful. Opera is one of the most loved operas, is part of what we call the ***. B. CS of opera's just *** and I'm excited to be back on music hall stage. This stage has been very, very, uh, dear to me over my entire career and I've done *** lot of first hear *** lot of seconds here and uh, I'm looking forward to doing Aida here and I'm looking forward to the Morris Robinson and Friends concert as well. So, okay, so my name is Morris Robinson. Um, I'm *** base probably gonna get set. Yeah. Really, you told me the story of how you became an opera singer. Tell that story again because it's always fascinating. So I went to high school performing Arts Atlanta Georgia and you know, the irony of the story is I was in the marching band and I went to the first football game and realized I didn't want to be the marching band. I want to be on the football field. So in order to be at that school and remain at that school, I had to take two periods of performing arts. So I quit the band and join the chorus. So I play football and that's been my life story. My uh, my junior year, we did Mozart's requiem and I got the bass solos for that. My senior year, we did the robert shaw edition of the Haydn's creation, I got the bass solos for that. So I was *** pretty decent singer in high school, but after high school I didn't want to go in, major in music. Um in fact, I could have come to systemic conservatory, but I wanted to go and hit people without going to jail. So I was able to do that for *** few years. I went and played football in college. I had *** wonderful career at the citadel, playing football in college and then I graduated and went right into corporate America and that's when I was *** fish out of water. I wasn't doing anything musical except for singing at my teammates weddings. You know, it's, it's wonderful when you find out what you've been put on earth to do, I think, and I think that, you know, you can't write my story and make it happen, you can't plan that story, make it happen. All things have to be pre aligned or lined up in place and that's what happened with me because, you know, I profound me, I found operating, it's been like, you know, the marrying of two worlds that were meant to be together. So very blessed and yeah, I've seen all over the world Morris and friends, explain to people what Morris and friends is all about Morris and friends is like *** dream come true. This is an opportunity, *** rare opportunity for us to combine the talents that the lord has given us in the classical sense and then take it back to the talent that got us here. So in the first half of the program, we're gonna have the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which is the best band in the country and you know, we're fortunate to have him and looking forward to making beautiful music with him. And in the second half we're going to have uh, hbCU and gospel Church mega choir uh, with *** lot of their musicians and their voices. They're gonna lead some songs, we're gonna lead some songs, will be playing *** lot of the instruments during their songs. They'll be backing us up with their, when we're singing solo. It's just gonna be like *** good old fashioned church service where everyone just kind of pitches in and does their thing and I'm looking forward to. It will be fun. I'm looking forward to it as well because I'll actually be emceeing that program at Music hall on the 27th of july well up next, the cultural and economic impact of the Cincinnati Music festival when let's talk cincy continues and finally today the entertainment is only part of what makes the annual music festival such *** big successful event. It's proven to be an investment that just makes good sense dollars and cents, good thing. From an economic perspective, it has always been the largest revenue producing weekend consistently throughout the history of Cincinnati. There is no other event that brings in as much revenue as the actual festival does. Period. I think from *** morale perspective, it shows that our city is one to be reckoned with. Not only do we have *** musical background, but we also have an event that is um, solely an economic driver for our industry, um, solely an economic driver for tourism dollars that are recycled throughout the community that sustains jobs. It is *** morale booster to those people who live here to say this is our city for this particular three or four days specifically with the activations that support the festival to come here and to see black people spend money to celebrate black culinary experiences, to celebrate black stories and black music um is something that the entire city, whether you're black, white hispanic, asian can all be proud of because what that means for us. So I think economically it is *** win. Um for moral perspective, it is *** win and just to be proud of who we are as *** destination, it is *** win. I always in the tourism industry, it is business and R. O. I. It's what's important And selling the culture and expressing or elevating whom the destination is. But it's always rooted in what is the R. O. Y. and so in 2017, we lead an effort with you see economics when Dan Lincoln was the ceo here and we talked about what are the changing demographics for the country as one but two. How are you talking to these individual markets and how do we get people who may not be of color To listen and what the value is. And so we did *** study and that study came back that the festival produced $107 million dollars in 2.5 days. Which again supports um than what I just said in the beginning that there is no other event or revenue producing weekend like this. And so it changed the trajectory of how we see it ourselves. And so when we see it as *** business model, when we see it as an investment to get into our oi for jobs and investment for tax dollars and investment when money recycled throughout the community and investment has *** stake in the ground that we are *** destination that folks should look at. Then it changes the trajectory of whom we are our own self esteem. And it puts it into finite numbers. That yes, the county or the city makes money with parking lots. Yes. The city, the county even Kentucky makes money with hotel taxes. Yes. That jobs are sustained here. Those jobs whom people who work with, they go and spend money for school supplies. They buy hamburgers, they get ubers, they spend money on houses and homes. So it is *** destination that supports that. The festival is *** component that supported tourists coming into the city. In addition to us earning black conventions again, where destination has earned 20 of the top 25 black um multicultural conventions when N. ***. C. P. Came in 2008 national baptist we wanted in 2006, the festival came back after the boycotts in oh five. And so if we look at the trajectory of how our business model has grown in securing black and multi cultural conventions is on the same path as the growth of the festival. So we're now *** world class destination where we're attracting multicultural conventions were attracting an increased number of people coming all over the world to come to our festivals, particularly this weekend. And also we have an emergence of persons interested in doing business downtown with, since he saw the black taste with the untold speaker series, um, with all kind of activations happening around that particular entity that allows us to foster culture allows us to foster self respect and *** sense of pride amongst that. And I don't think that was the case prior to the unrest and post post that between now between 0401 and 05. Well, the music festival is *** wonderful event for our city and this entire region again, congratulations to the SAn Tangelo family. Well, that does it for now. Thanks for joining us. I'm Curtis fuller. I'll see you next time for another edition of Let's Talk Cincy.