Daily Inspiration: Meet Orvel Ray “Sticks” Wilson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Orvel Ray “Sticks” Wilson.

Hi Orvel Ray “Sticks”, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2014, after playing in a community big band for seven years, I was feeling frustrated by the lack of give-a-shit. This was not a “community” band or a “rehearsal” band or a “workshop” band, but really just a “kicks” band; an excuse for a bunch of old guys to get out of the house on a Tuesday night. At 60, I was one of the youngest. We played the same charts and made the same mistakes month after month.

On the side, the guitarist, Jim Lichens, the bass player, Darren Wagner, and I were hosting a weekly open-mic at a nightclub in Longmont that ran for 60 consecutive weeks. One night, we got to talking about starting a more serious project. That’s when we realized we had a year’s worth of names and emails of all the musicians who had sat in with us.

So I rented a rehearsal room and sent an email inviting them to join “The Flatirons Jazz Orchestra.” On January 17, 2014, eleven people showed up. We opened a bank account, filed for an LLC, and started meeting weekly. Soon, we were joined by the excellent singer, Deborah Stafford, and started playing charity events and festivals around Boulder. Our goal was to build a traditional 18-piece DANCE band, because that’s where the gigs were. We set out to authentically recreate the great Swing-Era dance music of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Diane Schuur, Buddy Rich, and more.

We’ve had great support from the swing-dance community. Soon, we were playing in consistent rotation at all of the large-enough-for-a-big-band dance venues in town. The press called us “One of the 10 Best Jazz Bands in Colorado”

Today, we play in regular rotation at all of the major dance and jazz venues in the Front Range:
· Avalon Ballroom
· Buffalo Rose Event Center
· Dazzle Jazz
· Dickens Opera House
· Denver Turnverein

plus festivals, fundraisers, and corporate events, including:
· Winter Park Rendezvous Summer Concert series
· Keystone Wine and Jazz Festival
· Boulder Jazzfest
· Estes Park Big Band Bash
· Longmont Jazz Festival
· Capitol Hill People’s Fair
· WWII Ball
· 1940’s White Christmas Ball

Now in our 11th year, the band has grown into a network that includes some of the area’s most accomplished musicians and music educators. As the band has gotten better, it’s attracted more professional players, who in turn make it even better still. As the drummer, I have to work RILLY hard just to keep up, taking lessons and practicing daily. And at 72 I’m playing better than ever. The biggest challenge is moving all the gear in and out of the venues.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not been a smooth one. At first, we struggled to book gigs, even for free. The first couple of years, I put about $20,000 of my own money up to pay musicians, buy charts, and rent rehearsal space.

As our reputation grew, so did our following. Thanks to Jim Borzym and American Vernacular Dance, we became twice-a-year regulars at the Avalon Ballroom in Boulder. We got a big break in 2017 when the new owners of the Buffalo Rose Event Center invited us to do a monthly Sunday Swing show, with dance lessons and live music. Having a consistent musical home makes a big difference. We’ll be there on the second Sunday of every month at least through 2026.

We’ve also had great support from the Rocky Mountain Center for the Musical Arts in Lafayette, which generously rents us their beautiful concert hall for rehearsals for practically a song.

Since 2020, we’ve also had the privilege of playing what is perhaps the most prestigious stage in Denver, Dazzle Jazz. Their’s is a sophisticated and demanding audience. We combine music and artists’ stories to produce two or three sold-out shows a year.

Recruiting musicians was also a challenge in the early days. With 18 mouths to feed, we’re lucky if everyone gets gas money. But as we’ve expanded our calendar and our book, FJO has become a magnet for top-shelf musicians, without the pressure of working in a symphony. These people are SO good, I sometimes ask, “What’s someone as talented as YOU doing in a band like THIS?” What I hear most often is, “Because it’s FUN! I rarely get a chance to play this music.” As long as I keep hearing that word, I know we’re on the right track. If the band’s having fun, then the dancers are having fun, and the bar is selling a lot of beer.

A band this big has a lot of moving parts, and between bi-weekly rehearsals and more than 30 shows a year, herding all these cats is a challenge. We use an online scheduling tool, Muzodo.com, that provides a repository for all our events, all our members and subs, and centralized communication. That was a gamechanger. Today, Section Leaders coordinate the people in each section.

It’s still a lot of work, negotiating venues, picking music, planning rehearsals and shows, and handling the money. As a business, we’re back in the black, earning out the startup costs and building a comfortable stash of cash. We’re actually a commercially viable enterprise, with no outside support. And in the music business that’s rare.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m no stranger to the stage. As one of the authors of the “Guerrilla Marketing” series of books, I spent 30 years on the international speaking circuit, living in hotels and racking up millions of miles on multiple airlines. I was doing these thousand-people-at-a-time-in-a-ballroom seminars with the likes of Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, and Seth Goden. In that world, I was an international celebrity.

While helping a neighbor fix his roof, I took a high fall and broke my back, my leg, and shattered my left elbow. I couldn’t walk, couldn’t travel, couldn’t work. And I couldn’t hold a drumstick. The surgeon who rebuilt my left arm said it would be paralyzed for life. I owe the late trumpet player, John Hoffman, a great debt for inviting me to join his big band. That’s where I fell in love with this music and worked my way back to the drumset. Today we’re covering Buddy Rich.

These days, I still do the occasional private seminar, but mostly I coach other professional speakers and executives on presentation skills, authoring and promoting books, and marketing their business.

This all carries over into the music, bringing the highest standards of showmanship and stagecraft to FJO. In my old job, a gig might entail flying to New York, then an overnight connection to Paris, work on stage all day, then take a cab straight back to the airport for the return. So I have very little patience with musicians who complain that Colorado Springs is too far to drive.

I’m having the time of my life with this band, and I get great satisfaction from being able to share this great art with the community. Last week we played a fundraiser for the Longmont Museum and helped them raise $150,000. That’s the most fun you can have with clothes on.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a nerd in school. Always played in the school band, but was most interested in science, especially biology. All books; no friends. In college, I was a Psychology/Pre-med major, but when the scholarships ran out, I took a job in sales. The psychology served me well and I was really good at it, and made it my career. My first book, “Guerrilla Selling,” became a best-seller, opening doors to consult with companies like IBM, Apple and Marriott. So I didn’t get serious about music until I joined the Boulder Big Band in 2009.

Now that I’m semi-retired, I have enough time and money to afford an expensive hobby, like sports cars or sailboats or a big band. It’s been a marvelous laboratory for learning about leadership. When you can get 18 ridiculously talented people to show up to work, week after week, and collaborate to create great art, when you have no formal authority and pay less than their expenses, that’s something special.

The music is not the art. The music is a by-product of the art. The art is the organization. And FJO is my life’s masterpiece.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.FlatironsJazzOrcheatra.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flatironsjazzorchestra/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flatironsjazzorchestra
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orvelray/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/flatironsjazzorchestra
• soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/flatirons-jazz-orchestra