Ritchie Pratt & James Zollar

From Olathe to KU to the NFL and New York and then to Honolulu. Playing with Gale Sayers
to playing on Broadway and with the New York Jazz Quartet. It has been quite a life’s worth of experience for Richie Pratt.
“The first time I got to see paradise was at KU”, Richie told me from his home in Honolulu, where he has lived since 1990. “In the second semester of my freshman
year I auditioned for a musical with a USO troupe, called The Boyfriend. Some friends in the Fine Arts Department urged me to audition, so I did and was lucky enough to make it.”
“The New York Giants brought me to New York, to play in the NFL. As I look back I’m saddened that I didn’t make it, I had plans of making All Pro. But then again, it (injuries) happens to the best.
“Sir Roland Hanna and Frank Wess formed the New York Jazz Quartet long before I came around. Ben Riley was the original drummer. I was doing Raisin’, there were other jazz musicians in the show band, and I got recommendations from them. Victor Gaskin was the bassist when I joined, and then George Mraz came.”
“I got a job in the (NFL) off season as a host at the Top of the Gate. Stan Edwards, the manager of the club, is the guy who pushed me in front of the musicians. I was too shy. He introduced me to Major Holley, the bassist. I was a rookie with the Giants, and everybody was fascinated physically, this was as close as they had been to a football player. I found out later on that that accelerated my start as a musician. It’s Richie Pratt: “I’ve Been Blessed”typically about a ten year period for a musician to get established in New York. A rookie with the Giants who played drums, and then they find out I am an educated musician.” It was a powerful calling card.

The KU experience includes being an offensive lineman that opened the holes for the great Gale Sayers. “Gale Sayers, he could see the entire field all at once, it was an uncanny talent. I was really saddened when he got hurt with the Bears and shortened his career. He only played about seven years, but is still in the Hall of Fame.”
So Richie Pratt had a couple of phenomenal experiences:
blocking for Gale Sayers at KU and then sharing a bandstand with jazz greats Roland Hanna and Frank Wess. “Both experiences are blessings.”, Richie says. “Prayers were answered. I was lucky. I knew what I wanted to be very early in life, when I heard the drum lines as a kid. And God brought people into my life that helped answer my prayers.” People who helped Richie get the KU football scholarship, go to the music and art camp at KU, and helped him grow.
Richie recorded with the NYJQ twice, on Song of the Black Knight and Surge, which includes the Pratt composition “87th Street”. He is also on the Hanna trio record Time for the Dancers. The records, and Richie’s playing, are excellent. The NYJQ was one of the finest groups in that era (a decade starting in the early 1970s).
Some important lessons were learned from KC musicians like Jimmy Spears and Jay McShann. “They gave me the proper attitude about music. They taught me that music is about love, it’s about God. We show appreciation of God giving us the talent by doing the best that we know how. not to use is as a weapon or to put people down.”
The politics and conflicts in the New York scene ultimately wore thin. “There were a lot of cut-throat things going on, and this is isn’t the way it should be.” There was also the steady deterioration of the club scene. It resulted in the decision to relocate to Hawaii.
“But I was n New York at the right time. I associated with giants.”
So what is the music scene like in Honolulu? “There really isn’t much going on,” Pratt says. “It’s about sand and the beaches here. Music is more of a hobby for people.” Richie is a part of the scene, and also works security “to keep bread on the table”. He is working on a new CD, to be recorded in Honolulu (“I need to get the logistics figured out”), and he plans to name in Drumosaurus. He has another available now, called The New York Jazz Sessions. It was released on ASR Records here in Kansas City, and available through Richie’s Web site richiepratt.net.
Richie’s brother, by the way, is saxophonist Chris Burnett. “He plays down at the Drum Room, and sends be some things he has recorded. He sounds pretty good!”
—Roger Atkinson