Dara Tucker and Greg Bryant
The husband-wife duo of electric bassist and composer Greg Bryant and vocalist and songwriter Dara Tucker have made vital contributions to the Nashville music community for many years. It's been both a personal and professional pleasure to see them continually growing as artists and gaining more recognition, both locally and nationally.
In two excellent bands, the Greg Bryant Expansion and Concurrence, Bryant has sought to broaden the vision and scope of what listeners consider improvisational music. Tucker is a superb interpreter of standards and the Great American Songbook, but also has resisted being stylistically pigeonholed. She's at home with folk, R&B, blues and gospel, and enjoys merging theatricality with soulfulness. Over the years, she's also gotten more involved in songwriting, presentation and ensuring that versatility and flexibility are just as important elements of her approach as technical expressiveness and vocal range.
While it's somewhat sad to note that that they're New York bound on Jan. 5, it's also exciting. It’s long been a part of jazz tradition for greats from other regions to eventually make their way to the city, whcih remains the prime spot for improvised music's finest. The Bryant-Tucker duo is looking forward to making their mark there in 2020 and beyond. Before their departure, you have a chance to see Concurrence tonight, and there will be a farewell gig for the pair on Jan. 2. Appropriately, both events will be at Rudy's Jazz Room, a place where Bryant and Tucker have done wonderful things both separately and together. Both artist spoke to the Scene about the impending move and reflections on their time in Music City.
"Nashville is my hometown," Bryant says. "I saw right away as a young adult that there are a lack of opportunities and few forums for creative black music to be showcased, supported and expressed. It’s been a burden of mine to make sure that this music is represented here. Ultimately, I'm a curator, and a city like Nashville has allowed me to occupy that niche of helping to be a conduit for improvisational music. I’ve been an on-air DJ, I’ve been a concert promoter, I've hosted a podcast and I’m a musician.
"It’s been frustrating to see the lack of support for improvisational music by the greater Nashville community,” he continues. “Culturally, I think that the gentrification of areas like Jefferson St. and even East Nashville makes things more difficult for creative musicians to be matched with diverse audiences. People have some pretty different connotations about the word ‘jazz’ but, the fact is, in towns like Nashville, a large population of working improvisers are band members in all of these Americana, country and indie-rock groups. You'd think that the multi-genre festivals here would wake up and start allowing a few slots for improvisers’ groups. But, that still isn't the case, and it won't change if there isn't a real conversation about this issue."
"New York is exciting. I’m familiar with it, on one hand, having played there and visited many times over the last six or seven years. There’s no place like it, and even though it’s not what it once was, it’s still No. 1 when you talk about audiences, players and outlets for creative, improvisational music. I look forward to becoming a part of that community and further contributing to the music and culture that’s been a part of me since early childhood."
"When I first came to this city, I didn't know where I would fit in," says Tucker. "All of the billboards, the Halls of Fame, the awards, the museums, were dedicated to country musicians. They still are. But I knew that writing was respected in Nashville. I came here to write — I just didn't know I came here to write for myself. I ended up falling into singing as a way to communicate my songs. I didn't know I'd end up traveling the world as a performer.
"I have no idea what's on the horizon in New York,” she continues. “Maybe that's the best way to go there — with zero expectations. I think life has placed its blinders on me right now, maybe to protect me from too much projection or speculation. I'm really open to seeing what this experience has in store for us. I suspect my life will continue to be a hodgepodge of creative endeavors — writing for myself and others, producing documentaries on musicians, and of course, making records and touring."
"Nashville has been the incubator I needed to get my footing and hone my skills as a writer and performer. It's made me ready for New York, I hope. I'm looking forward to taking everything I've learned and executing it on a larger stage."
Though the news is bittersweet, all local fans of great music wish them the best.
