Rod McGaha and Mike Floss Come Together With Regeneration at The Blue Room

Improvisation is at the core of both great jazz and vibrant hip-hop. It’s a union that’s been explored many times by a host of musicians, from Olu Dara and his son Nas, to A Tribe Called Quest teaming with Ron Carter, to Guru mining vintage Blue Note tracks. But despite local rappers often working with live bands, jazz hasn’t been a major ingredient in many area artists’ sounds. That’s what makes the evolving Nashville group Regeneration, featuring the father-son duo of jazz trumpet great Rod McGaha and outstanding rapper Mike Floss, so creatively intriguing.

The word had already begun circulating about this group, as both McGaha and Floss have hefty credibility from their respective efforts in the jazz and rap worlds. Folks were lining up outside The Blue Room at Third Man Records at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and the place was packed by the time Regeneration hit the stage roughly an hour later. When the doors opened, the crowd was greeted by a superb drummer and dancer who drew on traditional African styles. Brief individual sets from McGaha and Floss followed, leading up to Regeneration’s live debut.

“This is a work in progress,” said McGaha during the Regeneration set. The ensemble left no doubt that they’ll be even sharper in a couple of months. They are still clearly working out the right mix between funk-infused instrumental support and Floss’ dynamic raps, many of which touched on such topics as relations between Black communities and police, unemployment, gun violence, unrest and uneasiness among youth — and the general feeling of restlessness and dismay many in the generations that have followed the baby boomers are encountering.

Labels being what they are, Regeneration is definitely stretching (some might say detonating) the boundaries of jazz. What this group is doing is more about sonic textures, rhythms and fluidity. Other than one nice rendition of the Gene McDaniels classic “Compared to What” — as immortalized by Les McCann, another instrumentalist who often pushed the envelope in jazz — there weren’t any standards or covers of show tunes as you might be accustomed to hearing in a jazz presentation.

Rather than putting an emphasis on crafting solos or intricate harmonic and rhythmic exposition, the group is focused on propelling Floss’ continually vivid, pointed political and social commentary. He is a forceful, exciting verbal performer who remains animated while he fires off exhortations, calls to unity, questions regarding commitment and even the occasional romantic interlude.

The social protest element is vital. McGaha addressed the crowd, lamenting the senseless deaths of young people and imploring folks to get involved in doing something about it. (Floss, for his part, has been active with racial justice-oriented organizations like the Southern Movement Committee and the Black Nashville Assembly.) The set incorporated photos and footage highlighting the continuing importance of family, as well as the ongoing tragedy of misconduct by police that led to the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that came after. 

It was also wonderful to see the closeness between father and son, even as the differences in approach occasionally popped up onstage. At one point McGaha asked Floss to say what the next song would be; “I just want to get into it,” Floss responded. “Can you imagine what it was like raising him?” was McGaha’s rejoinder, to lots of laughter.

McGaha’s trumpet playing remains impressive, and those few moments throughout the set when he got a chance to demonstrate his melodic skills displayed the range, tone and striking sound that has enabled him to thrive working under the likes of Max Roach. However, this new setting lets him showcase different aspects of his personality — flashy showmanship via inventive use of mutes and wah-wah to imitate a guitar, similar to Miles Davis’ playing on albums like Agharta and On the Corner. Even though the set ran nearly 90 minutes, it didn’t drag or ever lose steam. 

In spirit and sensibility, what McGaha and Floss are doing with Regeneration resembles the directions taken by others in the improvisational world, like Robert Glasper. The structure comes from jazz and its improvisational modes, but the pacing and power come from hip-hop. There will be, no doubt, those in the jazz world unhappy at the lack of time given for straight musical exposition, while some hip-hop fans might prefer even less melody and more rhythmic push. But Saturday’s crowd at The Blue Room saw a group whose potential is unlimited.

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