Music looks like Heaven Part I
By:
Raven Ekundayo
Editor@excapthematrix.com
Photos taken By: Quill Wordsmith
Conversing with Raquel Razan is like talking to someone you’ve known all your life, even if you’ve only known her for a day. Being in her presence feels great and you can honestly talk to her all day long. Most of her listening public doesn’t get a chance to get that close to her so let me tell you if you haven’t seen her, the sister radiates with beauty. Her energy is so positive I couldn’t wait to sit down and talk with her. Ok, so the listening public I spoke of earlier tune into her from 10 am to 2pm weekdays on WEAA 88.9 FM. That’s Morgan State University’s radio station here in Baltimore. She’s host of “Infinite Possibilities”. This show combines Soul and Jazz in a way that simply isn’t done on radio these days. She gives you artists to listen to that you’ve either never heard of before or wish a radio station would play but they never do. She gives you Coltrane while giving you Jill, she gives you Sade while giving you Ellington, She gives you Roy Hargrove and of course she gives you Amel Larrieux….But I digress….
We decided to meet in Columbia, MD. We agreed on Starbucks. It was a BEAUTIFUL November afternoon so we sat outside. Fall was showing its butt off. Beautiful trees everywhere. Along with Head Photographer Quill Wordsmith, we sat down to talk music and the mission she has to keep giving us good vibrations and fight the good fight to keep great music relevant. This is Part I of the II part interview.
Raven – For the Readers of eXcape the matriX magazine and the listeners of “Infinite Possibilities” can you give us a little background on who Raquel is.
Raquel – Who is Raquel? Raquel is a lover of music
first and foremost; the
creative process, the lyrics, the message. I try to live my life in a peaceful
manner. I try to be an example of what I would like to see in others. That’s a
tricky question. I’m a woman, I’m a daughter, I’m a lover, I’m a friend. Raquel
is also a woman who believes that change is necessary especially when it comes
to our people. But the change has to come from within us. We have to stop
looking for leaders outside of ourselves. We need to become our own leaders.
Everyone needs to figure out what their purpose is. Take time to tap into that
and then unification can truly occur. Raquel is a semi-Philosopher, but I would
say 1st a lover of music.
Raven – Ok. So what started Quels (My nickname for her) on her journey to broadcast radio?
Raquel – (Laughs and then pauses for a second to think) Change. I’d been in the IT field for a long time and I wasn’t in it because I felt like it was something I was motivated to do, but everybody else was doing it and it seemed like it fit. As I did it for awhile I realized it wasn’t gratifying. I wouldn’t typically follow the masses, but it’s what I did. I changed jobs and that one wasn’t any better. I guess the pinnacle moment was when Michael Jackson’s “Invincible” came out. I’ve always been a person that when a cd is hot to me I’ll carry it around and make people listen to it….
Raven – That cd was a lot better than people gave it credit for.
Raquel – Come on now, “Butterflies”? So yeah, I remember taking the cd to a friends house and we were listening to it. I said to him “Man I feel like I’m about to go through a change. I don’t know what it is but I know where I am now is not where I’m suppose to be.” So he replied “Well Raq, what would you do if you had the chose to do anything in the world?” And without hesitation I said to him “I’d be the female Donnie Simpson”.
Raven – Mhm.I like that.
Raquel – He said “Why don’t you do it?” I said, “You know brother, if it’s meant for me to do and if that’s where God leads me then I’ll do it.” Saying that was uncharacteristic of me because I’ve always been a planner. Everything has to be a certain way with me. Never leave a job before I have another one, things like that. I never leave myself open. So about 3 weeks after that I was laid off of my job, something that has never happened before. So I was so happy because I knew a change was coming.
Raven – Lol. Right I feel you.
Raquel – So I said God I’m ready. I embraced it.
Raven
– You got out the matrix.
Raquel – Exactly! So I just chilled. About 6 months of unemployment, then Bush passed some kind of Bill and 3 more months were added on. 9 months not working. So during this time I began to cleanse myself spiritually and physically. So from 2002 until 2004 I just chilled. Read a lot and spent a lot of time by myself. One night I was listening to the radio; now this is something I had gotten out of doing completely because radio was just not doing anything for me. I had purchased a little cell phone that had a radio on it. So I had fallen asleep one night and around 11pm I woke up and wanted to see what was on the radio. I’m flipping around and I land on 88.9. I still remember the combination of songs. It was Musiq Soulchild’s “I miss you” from Soul Singer, Jill Scott’s “Better at home” from Beautifully Human, a group called Blue 6 with a song called “Music and wine”. There was also a girl named Aya. She sounds a lot like Amel Larrieux. I knew it wasn’t Amel so I got the number to the radio station and I figured nobody would answer at that time of night. So a young lady answered the phone. I told her I can’t believe anyone answered the phone. I told her that what I was listening to sounded like my own play list. I ran down the list and I told her I’ve always wanted to do radio and if I had a show I would do exactly what she’s doing. Now mind you I had no idea who she was, I’d never listened to the show and never listened to the station….
Raven – What? Are you serious?!
Raquel – Nothing, had no idea who I was listening to, I just knew I loved the music. We just talked and talked. She said “You know, if you want to come up some time you can”. I said “What”? I said “Are you serious”. She told me I can come up and chill with her at the show. So we exchanged e-mail addys and conversed for a couple of weeks and then we finally got it together and I came up there. I’m not sure if she knew, but I knew I was going to make this happen. So I meet her and her name is Ebony Brown by the way. We go into the studio and I’m sitting there thinking “Yeah” (nods her head like she’s pleased). She told me she’s been thinking of getting an assistant to help her out with the show. I told her “You got that.” We started that night and the rest is History. That’s my homegirl. She’s my Gale, or I’m her Gale (Oprah’s Best friend). Whoever makes it we know that we have each other. So that’s how it went. I never went to school for it, I have no radio experience. Nothing. It was all because God had something special planned for me. So many people would tell me I should do radio, I simply wasn’t ready to hear it when they said it. Change is what brought me to broadcasting. It was definitely God driven, Purpose driven. not me.
Raven – I like that. Purpose Driven. It’s of great importance in my eyes that people find out why they were put here. That’s beautiful sister. Ok, So how did “Infinite Possibilities” come along and what has been the response from the 88.9 audience?
Raquel – “Infinite Possibilities” came along in 2005. They had a space in the midday that hadn’t been filled in awhile and they needed to get someone. They actually hired a female for the position and she was suppose to start in that space. I came up to the station on a Friday to help another personality record and he wanted to introduce me to the new midday host. I believe her name was Miesha. I wasn’t there anymore for the Friday night jazz club and someone else had taken over it. So I met her and welcomed her and we vibed for a minute. I didn’t think much of it. So that Monday she contacted the program director and informed them that she didn’t want the position.
Raven – WHAT!?
Raquel
– She had been struggling with taking the job because she knew that she wanted
to become an actress. So for her it was a matter of her not wanting to look a
gift horse in the mouth and not take it. However it wasn’t in her heart. She she
told them she didn’t want to do it, but said she meant someone on Friday who
can….
Raven – Stop playing games with me!!!!
Raquel – I’m not lying. She said I met this lady, Raquel and she seems like she’d be perfect for it. Now I didn’t know any of this. So later in the week the program director called me and told me that the position was now open and if I wanted it I just needed to come meet with the general manager. They said other than that the position was pretty much mine. I was like what? So I meant the general manager and that went well and a couple of weeks later I started. I saw Miesha later when she came to the studio to pick something up. This was when I found out everything I just told you. She informed me of everything. She said she’d wrestled with taking the position but when she talked to me she knew I was the one for the job. So it was a divine thing. It blew me away. I know that that is where I’m suppose to be. Everything has been orchestrated for me to be there.
Raven – Right right.
Raquel – So we struggled with the name of the show for awhile. “Infinite Possibilities” came to me immediately because I love Amel Larrieux.
Raven – You’re not the only one. Lol.
Raquel – Lol. Right. So I thought it was a meaningful title for anything honestly. I mentioned it and the staff wasn’t feeling it too much. I opened the airwaves for folks to tell me what they thought we should name it. I let folks e-mail suggestions. Nothing stuck. After a couple of weeks I still felt like infinite possibilities was still saying something to me. So I brought it back up and everybody was like “eh, yeah, that’s cool”. So that’s how the name came about. The message of Amel, the spirit is what touches me. Her approach to music. She was definitely in my mind the entire time.
Raven – Tell it. You know her music is the music for the magazines theme right?
Raquel – Yup. And I close out each show with the song. I didn’t do that at first, but I had a chance to meet her and that changed my mind. She was so gracious.
Raven – So what have the listeners thought?
Raquel – I’d be a liar if I said that I came into this show knowing a lot about jazz. Jazz is not my 1st love. I’ve fallen in love with jazz. So the more I’ve gotten into the show and my purpose for having the show the response has overwhelmed me. This is why you’ll always hear me thank the people on air because I’ll receive letters from people telling me how my show has made a difference. I had someone tell me that he calls people on his cell phone in Alaska so they can listen to the show because they can’t get it. So knowing that people are listening to me that intently and they’re going with me, I take that very seriously. I didn’t expect to impact people, and not this soon did I expect them to get it. I didn’t expect people to act the way I did towards Ebony Brown. I don’t know a lot of people like that and….
So this ends part I of the conversation. When I tell you it gets MUCH better….whew, check back in January for part II of this conversation. It takes an emotional turn that nobody expected.
Check out Raquel on Myspace and let her know what you think of her show or this interview: http://www.myspace.com/usn_raquel
BE PEACE
Raven