Name: Nicole Glover
Instrument: tenor sax, soprano, drums.
Early Years/Education: Born in the LA area but was raised in Portland. My dad got me into jazz in elementary school which was when he was getting into it. He is not a musician but he really has a great feeling for music. A friend of his was giving him records to check out so I was hearing them too. The two earliest records I remember hearing were John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Sonny Rollins’s Saxophone Colossus. At that time I also heard Miles Davis, and a little later Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. Even at a young age jazz always sounded good to me. Particularly the sound of the saxophone pulled me in.
I went to Durham Elementary School in Tigard. In elementary school I figured out a couple of songs on the piano and sang in choirs, but it was not until the 6th grade that I started playing an instrument. For as long as I can remember, I knew I wanted to play an instrument, and in particular the saxophone. When I got to the 6th grade I was not allowed to play the saxophone. For whatever reason, clarinet, trombone, trumpet and flute were the only instruments offered to 6th graders at Twality Middle School. I picked the clarinet because it was the closest to the saxophone.
For me, as a kid I had a hard time making friends, but when I started playing the sax and getting into music it gave me a purpose and a friend base. I started spending time before school, after school and lunches in the band room practicing or playing with other kids. That is when I started dabbling in the drum set, too. I would work on repertoire, on solo saxophone classical pieces, and also listening to other kinds of music. I always had this interest in jazz but did not have a real understanding of how to play it.
In 8th grade I was in a jazz band and got this little solo over a blues tune. I have a vivid memory of taking my little solo and playing a diminished triad during my solo. One of the other kids said, “What was that?!” It was so exciting to me. It made me want to further investigate how sounds affect how other people feel.
I attended Tigard High School and got involved in as many of the performing ensembles as I could. I was mostly playing saxophone and was on the drum line playing bass drum. A formative experience was when I was a sophomore and made friends with brothers Noah Hocker (trumpet) and Elliott Hocker (guitar). They were the only kids in the band program who were really into jazz in the way that I was. They started inviting me over to their house to jam. We would be learning jazz standards but at the same time we would be playing thirty minute solos that were Pink Floyd-inspired odysseys. That was the first time I explored improvising with people and finding other people who were into this music.
The Hockers also introduced me to the community jazz programs and we all went. Noah was in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Jazz Program and he got me into that. All three of us tried out for Thara Memory’s program and joined Thara’s band. This was a turning point for me because I was really thrust into the jazz community for the first time. I realized there were a lot of people my age who were into this music and seriously studying it much longer than me. Jazz was still this unattainable mystery to me. I had not cracked the code. Thara welcomed me in and at the audition told me they were going to the Monterey Jazz Festival in two weeks. He added that if I learned the book I would be in the band. That was the most serious practicing I had ever done in my life up to that point. The next two years we traveled the country and the Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra won everything. This gave me a new awareness of the jazz world. This all happened before I graduated high school.
In my senior year I met Alan Jones and got involved with his school Alan Jones Academy of Music (AJAM). Meeting Alan had a huge impact on me. At the end of my second year at AJAM, Alan got invited to play a jazz festival in France and he opted to bring a student group. He picked me, John Lakey on bass and Noah Conrad on trumpet. We played a festival in Vannes for a week and were in Paris for a week. They named us the “Portland Oregon Band.” After my third year I started teaching at AJAM. It was at Alan’s jam sessions at the Blue Monk that I met George Colligan. He gradually got me into Portland State University (PSU), then he hired me for his group. He was hiring me for his gigs way before I was ready. His music had a new harmonic vocabulary for me, it was a new skill set. I finished at PSU with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance.
William Patterson University: Toward the end of high school I took private saxophone lessons with David Valdez and he introduced me to Rich Perry’s music. When I was looking at where to go for college, Valdez advised me to look at the places where some of my favorite players were teaching. I really loved Rich Perry, I had never heard anyone like him before, his unique sound and concept of the instrument. I applied to William Patterson University because he was teaching there. Also, the music I had heard from the students jamming was the best at any campus I had visited. I went to William Patterson for two years. It is an incredible jazz school started by Thad Jones and Rufus Reid. Mulgrew Miller was there...they have an impressive faculty and devoted student body. It is a hidden gem of the jazz education world, about a thirty minute drive to NYC.
Portland: Being at Patterson was my first time away from home. After two years there, I decided I needed to work on myself. I felt I needed to retreat so I returned home to Portland with no plans at all. I knew I wanted to keep playing the saxophone and needed to forge a path for myself. I called Alan Jones and we would get together and talk. Through his guidance I became committed deeper than before. I had a highly organized study routine method. For about a year I practiced eight hours a day, five days a week. By having weekly lessons with him and weekly ensemble with him, I got a chance to meet and record with young people in Portland who were into jazz.
After being back in Portland for four years, traveling and working for the first time, I wanted to challenge myself and move to New York. Alan, George and Darrell Grant pushed me to make an album before moving to NY. We recorded at Kung Fu Bakery and Bob Stark did a great job. I had artistic control and learned by doing it. The whole process was emotionally intense. There are nine songs, five of them originals. It was so unbelievable hearing it coming to life in a band, hearing people play my music. They brought it to places I never could have imagined.
Musical Influences: John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Joe Henderson, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Maurice Ravel. Also, people I have studied with like Mulgrew Miller, Rich Perry, Alan Jones, George Colligan, and Ural Thomas. I think my mentors and peers have influenced me even more than the greats on record.
Most Satisfying Experience: Besides the incredible experience of playing with Alan Jones and George Colligan was the release of my debut album. It was the culmination of all my musical experiences thus far... everything that began with my dad buying me records when I was six to the day it was released. I will never forget opening the box and holding the CD in my hand for the first time. Incomparable to anything. So grateful to all the people that helped.
Favorite Recordings: John Coltrane – A Love Supreme, Transition; Sonny Rollins – A Night at the Village Vanguard, Saxophone Colossus; Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil; Charlie Parker - Bird at St. Nick’s; Maurice Ravel - Solo Piano Works; Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come; Miles Davis - Kind of Blue; and The Complete Billie Holiday/Lester Young 1937- 46.
Discography: First Record (2015) self-produced; w/ Alan Jones Sextet - Storyline (2015); w/George Colligan & Theoretical Planets - Risky Notion (2015); w/Not Bitter - If Only For a Moment (2015); w/Barra Brown Quintet - Dreaming Awake (2015) and Songs For a Young Heart (2013); w/ Esperanza Spaulding - Radio Music Society (2012).
Upcoming Gigs: With Ural Thomas and the Pain, Eagles Lodge, SE Hawthorne, Portland, December 31st, 9:00 pm.; Portland Jazz Festival Presents: Nicole Glover Quartet, CD release Party, February 23, Jimmy Mak’s (221 NW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97209); With The I-5 All-Stars featuring Rob Scheps, February 24, Art House Designs (420 SE Franklin, Olympia WA).
Future Plans: Starting to think about what I am going to do with the next album. Started writing again, thinking about the conception. I am in the early stages of that process. Another future plan is to keep rooting myself in New York and meeting people and playing in different situations; being present there, being open to new experiences and getting involved in the culture of the music there. All of this takes time. My ultimate plan is to work professionally in New York.
When asked about the different teaching styles of her teachers: With Alan Jones it was more structured, it was not student and teacher. That was not the dynamic he wanted. He wanted it to be more person-to-person. We would analyze things together. He would have me put things into words. He had specific assignments for me. It was very structured, organized study. With George Colligan it was more informal; like jump in with two feet. They were both essential. If I had not studied with Alan I would not have had as much to apply when I was playing with George. They totally complimented each other.
-- by Rita Rega