Giovanni Rodriguez
At the end of 2019, the Nashville Jazz Workshop concluded a tenure of almost two decades on Adams Street in Germantown. Last summer, despite being delayed by the pandemic, the organization finally got to have its grand opening celebration in its new home at 1012 Buchanan St., amid a growing arts district in historically Black North Nashville.
Because of COVID, both the 2020 and 2021 installments of Jazzmania, the NJW’s annual fall fundraising gala concert, were virtual. But on Oct. 22, the NJW returns to The Factory at Franklin for its first in-person Jazzmania in three years. Historically, the event has been a showcase for talent from Nashville and the rest of the Mid-South. This year, all the musicians who’ll be performing are locals, including the Workshop’s Young Artist Ensemble and its All Star Ensemble as well as the Midtown Jazz Quartet and Giovanni Rodriguez and 12 Manos.
As Roger Spencer, who co-founded the NJW with wife and fellow musician Lori Mechem, tells the Scene, “We wanted this year’s Jazzmania to be a homecoming, a celebration of the music and the local community, and the fact that we’re doing it live once more.” In mid-September, we sat down to discuss Jazzmania, the impact of the organization’s move and more.
What are your overall feelings about the move and how things have worked out?
It couldn’t be better. … We’re a lot more accessible. People come in all the time off the street and ask us questions about the place, what’s going on, the music, et cetera. Our mission has always been to present all types of jazz to a diverse audience, and we’re far more able to achieve that in this new space.
What about the audience? Have you been able to both add new people and retain your old fans?
Without a doubt. We’re getting new people in every concert, and we also have people who have been with us from the beginning. We’ve been steadily seeing fresh faces, and it’s rewarding. At the same time we’re happy that we’ve still been able to get the people who came to the other location to move with us.
How are the classes going?
This last session we had eight in total, four live and four online. We’ll have 11 or 12 in the next session, which starts in October. The online classes have become successful in expanding the workshop’s reach around the globe. Lori has students in her cabaret class from Europe, and the master classes have gotten people from not only Europe but South America and Asia. Sometimes we really have to be careful in scheduling due to the time changes internationally. But we’re happy to work around that.
You seem to be bringing in more national acts to the Jazz Cave as well as the local and regional artists.
Yes, we’re trying to do more of that, and we’ve been able as a 501(c)3 organization to get some grants to do that. You really need to have that base to do national acts, because it’s really hard to try and bring in national acts to play for the door. That’s not really fair to them. But we’re definitely looking to do more of those types of concerts. We also don’t have a beer and liquor license, but we’ve been able to work around all that.
At Jazzmania 2014
What things haven’t you done here that you’d like to do in the future?
I think the biggest thing is developing the next generation of jazz teachers. Lori and I are well known, and we’ve established our credentials as educators. Now sometimes it’s a bit difficult at times to convince people that they can take classes from other people. Both of us are really busy, and we’ve got some good young teachers now. It’s just a matter of getting people to believe in them.
What changes have you made this year to Jazzmania?
We’re paring it down a bit. We’ve had up to 400 people at past events, and that’s just too many. We’re looking at 250 this year as the optimum number. We’ve also raised the prices a bit … but there’s a lot of things going on. And we’ve tailored the show to showcase the best in Nashville jazz from our youth ensemble to our All-Star group and Latin jazz with Giovanni Rodriguez and his band.
You and Lori have been here so long it seems you’re native Nashvillians, though you aren’t. What are the biggest changes that you’ve seen since you arrived?
We came here in 1988, and the changes have been extensive. For one thing, we’re getting a lot of people coming to our shows who’ve recently moved to Nashville from other cities that had jazz scenes, and they’re really happy to know that there is one here as well. We’ve completed the work on the Jazz Cave, and we’ve got the sound and setting the way we like it. We’re very comfortable here in this community, and we’re excited to see the things happening around us and excited to see the things that continue happening with jazz here in Nashville.
