String Theories, Inbox Edition
Women in Jazz in Nashville; Jerry Garcia Bluegrass; Giving Musicians Credit
Hello Friends. Happy Summer. Where does the time go? I’m diving right into to some new commentary, with a summary of recent journalism to follow.
Women In Jazz In Nashville
I attended two shows in Nashville in the space of a week that told me several things.
After all these years and after all this music, I’m still emotionally available to be split open by new sounds and intensely creative people. Two: based on attendance at both of these concerts, I can hold on to hope that some people in Music City (maybe a growing number?) care enough about instrumental and improvised music to get out and support it with ears and dollars. And finally, I was reminded that women are in the vanguard of instrumental innovation, and more of my women-supporting Americana friends need to shift their focus sometimes from artists who paint with words to women who paint with sound.
With that, remarks on brilliant and very different performances by Sofia Goodman and Molly Miller.
Sofia Goodman is a drummer, composer, and band leader who’s lived in Nashville for more than a decade, a stretch that’s included a master’s degree in jazz composition at Belmont University to go with her undergrad degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Not that her diplomas are the reason to pay attention, but they’re indicative of her focus and intent. The reason to pay attention is her ambitious and succulent composed music and her crafty assembling of young Nashville musicians who play it at world class levels.
I first read about Sofia in the Scene during the pandemic, when she had one album available, 2018’s Myriad of Flowers, and I was impressed with its embrace of the kind of early 70s jazz fusion I love. It was a promising debut. But since Goodman got back into the swing of writing and recording post 2020, she’s been on a creative tear, releasing the immersive Secrets of the Shore in 2023 with a stellar new release coming later this year.
I’ve heard her newest music because I was honored to write the bio for the project, which is called Receptive. Here’s a preview of that: “Goodman writes in bright and cohesive melodies, inventively stacked horn harmonies, and savvy use of timbre. She’s apt to follow up staccato, stabby passages with contrasting stretches marked by ease and flow. Her use of dissonance is spare and beguiling. With techniques like these, she makes a mid-sized group sound like a big band.”
That was vividly on display in late May when the Sofia Goodman Group played Analog, one of the only venues in Nashville with a sound system and production values that can convey the dynamics and nuances of such an ensemble. I can’t name everyone in the photo above, but the front line includes four horns - tenor and alto sax, trumpet and trombone. The rhythm section brings a brilliant keyboard player, bass (upright and electric depending), Sofia on her drum kit and - boldly and magnanimously - a second percussionist who adds textures and counterpoints to Sofia’s intense but tightly controlled drumming. The new pieces, which I’d come to know pretty intimately from my early copy of the album, glowed with tuneful melodies, deep colors and some passages of exploratory sound. This is powerful, inventive stuff, and let’s hope the glowing review she received in the jazz bible Downbeat for Secrets of the Shore is just the start of more international attention. I strongly suggest watching her calendar for shows. The one coming up Aug. 22 at the Blue Room looks like a great opportunity to see this extraordinary artist and ensemble.
Then a few days later, a show materialized that couldn’t have come at a better time or place. Thanks to a publicist’s email, I learned about Molly Miller from Los Angeles who was coming through town to play two shows. I investigated her recordings, and what I heard was the most distinctive and novel electric guitarist I’ve encountered in years - a major discovery for a guitar maniac like myself.
Speaking of degrees, Miller earned a mighty jazz guitar education culminating in a PhD from the University of Southern California. Then she became a working player and chair of the guitar department at the Los Angeles College of Music. She’s played pop on tour with Jason Mraz and done session work. And in 2016 she formed a trio with bass player Jennifer Condos (Ray LaMontagne, Sam Phillips) and the awe-inspiring drummer Jay Bellerose. I began gorging on the second trio album St. George while I waited for the group to land in Nashville on release weekend of their third LP, The Ballad of Hotspur (she must be an Anglophile).
The show was at Nelson Drum Shop on Riverside in East Nashville, and it was a surprise to me that they’re hosting excellent improvised music. In a great space surrounded by hundreds of drums and letting in sundown light, Miller’s Trio took a captivated audience of about 75 people on a ride.
Instead of Jim Hall or Wes Montgomery as the foundation of her vibe, think more about the late great country twanger Duane Eddy or surf guitar hero Dick Dale. I don’t even have to stretch to call her an Americana artist. She composes big sturdy tunes that lodge in the memory. Then from her relatively simple frameworks, she spins out improvisations that can be limpid and lyrical, or gnarly and dark, or fiery and raw. She scrapes and rakes and spanks the strings with passionate dynamics. Her inner dialogue between rough chordal passages and spidery single note lines is so fresh. She grimaces and contorts and tenses like a rock guitar player. And she’s in constant conversation with her trio-mates. For a time I stood up front only a few feet from Jay Bellerose to watch him own his improbably small, vintage drum kit. He’s a mighty foil for such a rhythmic guitar player, using every possible surface and timbre one could imagine. He wears a shaker on his left ankle so besides controlling his hi-hat, he can blast off fusillades of rough-hewn rhythm that seem to come from nowhere. And he’s a fountain of infinite grooves. He must be so fun to play with.
The band said good night after only about 80 minutes, but it was the perfect dose for me. I walked out into the darkened sky and lovely late Spring air and was just overwhelmed by the magic that happens in this town. When that magic comes from genres and genders beyond the country and the male, I feel an extra sense of reward and discovery.
For more on Sofia and one of her peers in today’s jazz drum scene, check out my episode of The String from early this year featuring the great Allison Miller. Other women I’ve been listening to in jazz in the past few years, including some I’ve written about here: pianist Carmen Staaf, the Blue Note collective Artemis, English composers/trumpeters Laura Jurd and Emma Jean Thackary, Grammy-winning drummer Terri Lyne Carrington (a particular role model for Goodman), harpist Brandee Younger, the wild hip-hop fusion of Domi & JD Beck, and 25-year-old vibes player and compose Sasha Berliner, who is just amazing and a vibrant figure on social media. And as we end this segment, let us raise a glass to the great composer and pianist Carla Bley, who passed away last Fall.
The video below presents Molly Miller not with the trio described above, but this is so intense - a great illustration of her range and ferocity. With Beth Goodfellow on drums and JP Maramba on bass.
RECENT WORK
Part of my busy spring was attending the opening weekend of a remarkable new exhibit at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY called Jerry Garcia - A Bluegrass Journey. Because his influence in the evolution of newgrass and jamgrass can’t be overstated. It sure influenced me. I’d been following this project as it came together over the past four years by way of my friend Cliff Seltzer, who was a key advisor and researcher, building the web of trust with the Garcia family and the Grateful Dead organization that made this possible. I was delighted to write a deep dive into Garcia’s life and legacy in traditional music for Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, but it is behind a paywall and in the print edition. As for the link below, I recommend the audio edition of this story especially. There are some remarkable voices herein. As always, click on the preview image to go to the full feature.
I spent many weeks reporting this special report for WMOT.org. You may have read my writing here about my dismay at the weak state of credits and liner notes in the digital streaming ecosystem. I’m profoundly concerned that generations are growing up in a music world that erases the contributions of working musicians, producers and engineers - along with the connections between them that help guide a journey deeper into music. Anyone who grew up in a time of abundant liner notes on albums and CDs will understand. So I investigated the implications for Nashville’s studio and stage musicians and tried to figure out why this is such an intractable problem. To quote some clickbait, the results will shock you! Please read and share this one. NPR Music told me they were interested in picking it up but were then too incompetent to assign it to an editor or even link to it.
Here’s one of my favorite essays of recent months for WMOT. You know how much I love Béla Fleck. Well his latest adventure gave me a wonderful excuse to revisit Gershwin and his mighty and timeless Rhapsody In Blue.
Recent guests on The String include veteran solo troubadour Chris Smither, powerhouse Nashville singer and fresh roots/pop songwriter Maggie Rose, country star Suzy Bogguss, and jamgrass pioneer Vince Herman. But I’ll share this one, because it’s among my favorite conversations in some time. Charlie Parr is a reluctant interview, but you’d never know it. He’s warm and curious, and I’ve grown ever closer to his mystical take on the blues. If you love Bob Dylan, here’s another master folk artist from Duluth you need to follow.
