From South Central to the world he’s extraordinary

As a young child attending what was then Twentieth Street Elementary and now known as Tom Bradley School, I remember Rickey Minor, the genius musical maestro to the stars of stars.

Not I or anyone else had any inkling that the smart, bright skinned kid who dotted all of his Is and crossed all of his Ts would someday be recognized as a modern day African American Beethoven.

Minor, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles and later attended Jefferson High School before being awarded a music scholarship for UCLA, will return near his humble beginnings when he directs the music for the annual Compton Soul Jam on August 16 at Par Three Golf Course.

To the naked eye he may be as unfamiliar as snow on a bright summer day, but to those that have ears, the composition of his unique gifts will sound as a symphony that has all too often lifted the soul to solar stars.

For Minor, his life and his music has been interwoven into the strings of a bass guitar and the pinging of a grand piano, headset and director cue in hand during an illustrious career that has kept him so busy that time is evaporating at warp speed.

Last year while producing the music for the Grammys, he had to juggle that act with his commitments for American Idol.

When Whitney Houston was at the peek of her excellence, Minor was behind the music that carried her phenomenal voice. Beyonce, Prince, Alicia Keys, Quincy Jones, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige, Anita Baker, Jill Scott, Usher, Aretha Franklin, the late Ray Charles and Luther Vandross would all be hallow pitches in a cave if Minor weren’t calling the shots behind the scenes.

Houston once said: “The young man keeps it all together for me, the best musical director in the world.”

Another songstress, Natalie Cole, compared him to icon Quincy Jones. “He’s like Quincy. He leaves his ego outside the door and it’s all about the music.”

Minor, told Sentinel Entertain-ment editor Stephanie Fredric last year that his meteoric rise in the forever changing music industry was, “divine order.”

How else could one explain Minor’s journey that took flight at just 19 years of age when he left his scholarship and UCLA and began touring Europe with Gladys Knight.

He was working on the musical “Dreamgirls” when he received a call from Stephanie Mills’ musical director John Simmons who needed a band to back a church singer.

The young church singer was seeking a record deal and she turned out to be Whitney Houston.

“And the rest is history as they say,” Minor stated.

However, for him that history seems to continue to unfold every time he takes on a project or each time he applies “the Minor touch”.

“Music saved my life. It gave me a passion and something to look forward to,” he said.

It has also created lives for many others, such as the 30 people who are employed for his Minor Production company and the countless others who have performed on shows that he either produced, directed or composed music for.

To list all of Minor’s many credits would take our breath away, all of them are on the major scale such as musical director for the NAACP Image Awards, BET Awards, Jamie Foxx’s NBC special, and he received an Emmy nomination in 2005 for “Genius Loves Company: A Night with Ray Charles,” a tribute concert featuring Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Norah Jones.

He’ll come to Compton to play on Par Three Golf Course, and teeing it up will be the likes of Anthony Hamilton, Jody Watley, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Barbara Morrison, Charlie Wilson and The Sai Whatt Band.

They all sounded good before, and with Minor behind them they will sound great. He makes that much of a difference. He’s Extraordinary.