This piece is a part of our Q+A series. Know someone we should interview? Nominate them here.
As the co-founders of Nashville Jazz Workshop, Lori Mechem and Roger Spencer have been embedded in the local jazz scene for over 3 decades. The musicians started the organization in 1998 with a mission to expand access to jazz music education + performance in the Nashville area.
We recently caught up with Lori and director Eric Dilts to discuss the nonprofit’s brand new location in the Buchanan Arts District, the workshop’s Jazz Cave, and programs and classes available to the community.
Q: Can you explain to us what you do, and how you got to where you are today?
Lori: Before we started the Nashville Jazz Workshop, I was teaching at Belmont University. We started on a shoestring budget with a handful of students I was teaching at the time. At the very beginning, we started with 2 classes and 11 people, so it was something we created from the ground up to what it is today.
Q: Is it possible for non-musicians to get involved with Nashville Jazz Workshop?
Eric: If you don’t sing and you don’t play an instrument, we do offer several history and music appreciation classes. We have everything from classes about the history of jazz and how it relates to other genres of music to bringing in speakers to talk about the lives and careers of some of the Great American Songbook composers.
Q: We’re dying to know: What is the Jazz Cave?
Eric: The Jazz Cave is our in-house performance venue. We actually carried the name over from our former location, but it was a little smaller and underground at the time. It’s here where we bring in local, national, and even international talent to perform concerts here on the weekends.
Q: With the new location officially opening in August, when do you plan to start hosting in-person shows in the Jazz Cave?
Eric: We’ll have our very first performance here in the Jazz Cave in August, and then we plan to have about 70 shows over the next 12 months. After that, we’re hoping to ramp it up to about 90 shows a year.
Q: You mentioned earlier that Nashville Jazz Workshop celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. What was it like navigating programs through the pandemic?
Eric: We’ve always played around with the idea of online classes, and with the pandemic, we had a necessity to do online classes. Within 30 days of shutdowns, we were up and running, offering online music education classes that were live, not pre-recorded. Before COVID-19 hit, everybody referred to us as Nashville’s best kept secret, but we were a little bit of a night school. Now we’re teaching in over 35 states and over 15 countries. That’s one of the most exciting things that happened to us during the pandemic was just branching out to this new national and international audience.
Q: How would you describe the jazz scene and how it’s changed over time in Nashville?
Lori: Roger and I have been here about 34 years now, and it was essentially nothing. Now, I think there are a lot more musicians here, and there are a lot more opportunities to hear jazz out in the city. We’ve got places like Rudy’s Jazz Room and City Winery, and we also work with Char Restaurant to provide piano players for their jazz programs. I love seeing more and more restaurants offer jazz at least one night a week, and with more places starting to do it, I think it’s starting to kind of take a hold.
Q: What types of classes do you offer at Nashville Jazz Workshop?
Eric: The good thing about being a workshop is that we don’t really have a set curriculum, but we do have a very extensive catalogue of classes. Lori mixes it up so that every session is a different class, and the students get to pick and choose which classes they want to take. The other part of the workshop is that we don’t have a set faculty because we live in Nashville and have so many musicians. We have professional musicians come in and teach a class that’s specifically for their expertise.
Q: Could you talk about some of the local musicians and educators that have worked with students over the years?
Eric: Drummer Chester Thompson who has worked with Santana and Frank Zappa lives here in Nashville, so we’ll have him come in and teach a class. We’ll have a guitarist from The Time Jumpers come in and teach a class on jazz guitar or a variety of things like that. We do that so our students get to learn from the best of the best. Students can ask these musicians, “What’s it like being a professional?” or “What’s it like auditioning for a gig or passing an audition?” The experience is a win win for both students and teachers.
Q: What would someone be surprised to learn about jazz in Nashville?
Eric: One of my favorite things to spout off these days is that earlier this year the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce released a Music Industry Report, which was divided into a consumer survey and a music executive survey. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that people’s reaction to jazz was very favorable — In fact, we are holding strong in the middle of the pack. That just shows that the jazz scene is growing, and I think it’s a combination of folks coming in from out of time who are seeking jazz and the amazing musicians we already have.
We see so many musicians come here who play and teach jazz, but country music is what pays the bills. These amazing jazz musicians are playing country by day, but when they come here, they’re just phenomenal.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like for readers to know about the new space or upcoming community events?
Lori: Some of our community programs are coming back inside, so that’s something we’re looking forward to. With Jazz AM (a children’s program held outside at Hadley Park over the past few months), kids can learn about jazz and see the puppets up close while their parents hang out in the back.
