Around and About in Music City, Part I
Checking out the new Nashville Jazz Festival
Nashville isn’t exactly a jazz town, although plenty of high-profile jazz musicians — including banjo wizard Bela Fleck, guitar heavy hitter Larry “Mr. 335” Carlton, bass guitar master Jeff Berlin, saxophonist Jeff Coffin of the Dave Matthews Band, pianist Jon Cowherd (Brian Blade Fellowship), drummer Danny Gottlieb (ex-Pat Metheny) and late big band drummer Duffy Jackson — have lived in or near Music City at various points in their careers.
Jazz musicians in the area, including some A-list players with day jobs working for the country artists who have long defined the Nashville sound, tend to play Rudy’s Jazz Room from time to time. The smartly appointed, intimate basement bar and New Orleans-style restaurant, which opened in the city’s Gulch area in 2017, is named for late saxophonist Rudy Wooten. His better-known siblings, bassist Victor Wooten and drummer/drumitar player Roy “Future Man” Wooten, came to national prominence as part of Fleck’s Flecktones band; their brother Joseph Wooten is a keyboardist who has worked with the Steve Miller Band, and oldest brother Regi Wooten is a guitarist who toured with Ginger Baker. The four perform together as the Wooten Brothers.
Jazz is also on tap at Skull’s Rainbow Room in downtown Nashville’s Printers Alley district; the Nashville Jazz Workshop, which offers performances and classes; swanky new three-night-a-week club Marquee Nashville, home to a big band; and such venues and events as Char Restaurant (solo piano nightly, trios on Sunday afternoons), the outdoor Jazz on the Cumberland shows and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Western swing is afoot when the Time Jumpers, veteran Nashville studio aces, play Monday nights at the sprawling 3rd and Lindsley in the Melrose neighborhood; country star Vince Gill, demonstrating his chops as a virtuoso guitarist, was part of the Time Jumpers lineup when we caught the group a couple of years ago.
The new Nashville Jazz Festival, the first jazz-focused fest in the area since the late ‘60s, was created by the Nashville Jazz Workshop (NJW) and co-director Coffin with the goal of showcasing the city’s jazz talent, alongside a few outsiders.
“Improvisational music is a big part of Nashville and always has been,” Coffin told Craig Havighurst of Nashville radio station WMOT, 89.5 FM. “It’s woven in and through the culture here and it continues to make its way to the top.”
As pianist-composer David Rodgers, the NJW’s executive director, told Havighurst, “Our guiding value was connection – uniting Nashville’s many sectors of jazz under one banner. Jeff and I wanted the lineup to reflect the full spectrum of our city’s scene: from veteran artists who’ve shaped the sound of Music City for decades to younger innovators who are redefining it for a new generation.”
The fest’s debut edition, held Oct. 25-26 at 3rd and Lindsley, seems to have met and maybe exceeded the expectations of Coffin and Rodgers, at least evidenced by the five locally based groups that I heard on the event’s second day (my schedule didn’t permit me to hear evening headliners including Coffin, Cowherd, saxophonist Tia Fuller, guitarist Cory Wong and trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick).
Sophisticated modern jazz, emphasizing Latin grooves, hard-driving swing and colorful guitar/sax/piano textures, characterized the creative originals offered by high-end journeyman pianist Pat Coil’s quintet, featuring tenor saxophonist Don Aliquo, with guitarist Hunter Strasser, bassist Brian Allen and drummer Wes Little. A gospel-jazz throwdown followed, with soulful B3 organ player Ralph T. Lofton jamming on a set of praise-oriented originals and hymns, including “Love Lifted Me.”
Next up were the talented younger musicians of the NJW (Nashville Jazz Workshop) Jazz Stars, with bracing arrangements of Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay,” the standard “After You’ve Gone” and Joe Henderson’s “Recorda Me,” among other familiar pieces.
New-generation talent was also on the bill with Vanderbilt University’s Blair Big Band, an A-list college jazz ensemble that turned in fiery improvisations and original arrangements, including bassist Ian Nussdorfer’s “Sunrise in the Spring,” replete with jagged rhythmic edges and some textures and harmonies that reminded me a bit of Snarky Puppy. Also: Two-sax feature “High Altotude,” “Mean to Me,” Mario Bauza’s “Mambo Inn” and Coffin’s slinky, bluesy “Sweet Magnolias,” with the saxophonist — co-founder and co-director of the fest — romping hard out front.
The Chris Walters Ensemble Nouveau offered the afternoon’s most unusual instrumentation, with the well-traveled leader, on piano, joined by bassist Zev Baskin, drummer Chris Brown and two acclaimed string players — violinist Alicia Enstrom and cellist Emily Nelson Rodgers. Walters’ intriguing set, variously ambitious and quirky, included Chano Dominguez’s “Oye Como Viene,” from the “Calle 54” soundtrack, the jaunty, tongue-in-cheek “I’m on the Cutting Edge” and a bebop-ish tune titled “Witherspoon” (named for celebrated Nashville resident Reese, I presume).
Fest organizers, including Coffin, were uniformly thrilled by the inaugural Nashville Jazz Festival, reporting that 800 tickets were sold and more than 3,000 folks tuned in for the livestream.
“I was honored to be part of these incredible two days showcasing the diversity of improvisational music in Nashville,” Coffin wrote in a post on Instagram. “Both days sold out! I’m honored and grateful and thrilled and moved and really tired too.”
Thirteen different musical acts, featuring 70 musicians, played the 3rd and Lindsley stage during the fest. Here’s to an even bigger and better event in 2026.
Copyright 2025 by Philip Booth. All Rights Reserved.