Last year, saxophonist and composer Ted Nash concluded his final season with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, ending a wildly productive tenure of more than 25 years. “Just as I was finishing up there,” Nash recalls, “Terell wrote, and said: ‘Hey, would you consider teaching at Temple?’”
That note, from Terell Stafford — Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, where he also serves as Department Chair of Instrumental Studies — was a validation, but hardly an instant sell. Nash was on the threshold of new freedoms as an artist, and disinclined to swap one institutional affiliation for another. But he also knew Boyer to be a special case. Its reputation for producing first-rate talent was a tangible reality: one of Nash’s more recent section-mates in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was saxophonist Chris Lewis, a Boyer graduate.
After Stafford brought Nash down for some workshops, he was sold. “Seeing the commitment of the faculty and the level of the faculty, and then starting to really reflect on who I’ve seen come through that program who have become top professional musicians, I said this is something I really need to do.”
“I don’t think there’s a better program in the States,” adds Nash, who has previously taught at the Juilliard School, among others. “Juilliard’s fantastic, they’re great, and definitely one of the greatest jazz programs — but I don’t think Temple is any less than. So I’m really excited to be associated with them.”
The admiration is certainly mutual. “Ted is a great fit for Temple because his strengths fit well with our jazz department,” Stafford tells WRTI, in an email. “He is a versatile saxophonist, a fantastic doubler, an astonishing improviser, composer and arranger, and on top of that an accomplished educator who has been teaching for Jazz at Lincoln Center and Juilliard for many years. In addition to being a world-class musician, he is a team player who is always striving to do better and get better. He is a seasoned veteran of this music in every way!”
Extending a Legacy
Nash, who will turn 65 at the end of this year, has more than a dozen albums to his name, and many more created in collaboration with others. More than a seasoned veteran, he is part of a considerable jazz legacy: his father, trombonist Dick Nash, was a prominent Los Angeles session player and first-call Hollywood studio musician. Ted was named after his uncle, also a saxophonist, and like Dick, a regular contributor to projects by the composer Henry Mancini.
The younger Ted Nash was already working professionally in Los Angeles as a teenager, and he had a crucial lead when he moved east, out of high school. “My father and Mel Lewis were roommates on the road in the early ‘50s,” Nash explains. “So when I came to New York at 18, the first thing I did was go to the Village Vanguard to say hi to Mel. There I met Dick Oatts, and heard him play. He was so sweet: he would get together with me, and we would play and talk about music, and then he started having me come and sit in with the band.” Nash later joined the Mel Lewis Orchestra, in 1982, and spent almost the next decade sitting in a saxophone section between Oatts and Joe Lovano — “basically, my favorite player on alto and my favorite player on tenor,” he says. “And they both had such an amazing influence on me as a player.”
Oatts, who continued to make history with the band after its refashioning as the Vanguard Orchestra, happens to be Nash’s predecessor at Temple; he retired from the Boyer College of Music last year after a distinguished tenure of almost 20 years.
“Dick has had that opportunity for 20 years to be able to influence somebody — but it’s more than that, because he’s not the type to try to get somebody to play like him, or play a certain way,” attests Nash. “He recognizes people’s talent and their individuality. And I think that’s something that I'd want to keep in mind as I try to fill his shoes. To be open to people, and listen to them, and understand who they are as we work together, and try to bring out who they are in their playing, rather than trying to impose some ideology on them. And so thinking about Dick as I move into this role is going to be very helpful.”
Playing it Forward
One vivid illustration of Nash’s investment came in late August, as the Temple Jazz Ensemble performed a free midday concert in the heart of the city — the final installment of the summer-wide Arts on Center Stage series, presented by the Center City District at Dilworth Park, in the shadow of City Hall.
The band features current members of Boyer’s jazz studies program: Jesse Deems on trumpet, Ray Kaneko on alto saxophone, Anthony Aldissi on electric piano, Graham Kozak on bass and Mekhi Boone on drums. They opened with a minor blues by Kaneko, “One for Duke,” and went on to play Joe Henderson’s tricky tune “A Shade of Jade” and the John Coltrane ballad “Soul Eyes,” arranged as a bossa nova. Their group rapport was crisp and clear, and their sound filled the air even as the occasional police siren came wailing around the Broad Street curve.
Then Nash, making his first appearance as a new faculty member, walked out to join the rhythm section for a version of the Billy Strahorn standard “Chelsea Bridge.” He prefaced the song with a solo cadenza, imbuing his phrasing with breathy presence. His interpretation of the melody was sensitive and sure — and not without surprises, as when he began one phrase with a low, braying harrumph, and then traced an oblique shape to arpeggiate a chord.
Addressing the audience, Nash mentioned his new appointment. “I’m so excited about it, because this is really one of the greatest jazz departments in one of the greatest cities,” he said. Then he counted off a tune of his own: “Ida’s Spoons,” which he originally recorded on the 2003 album Still Evolved.
A contrafact of the jazz standard “Stella By Starlight” — meaning it follows the same form but with a different melody — ”Ida’s Spoons” put the Temple Jazz Ensemble through its paces. The horns negotiated its shifty, syncopated melody with sleek aplomb, as the rhythm section toggled between a grooving two-feel and walking swing. Nash soloed first, sounding every part the master, but subsequent turns by Deems, Kaneko and Aldissi were more than respectable. As the students played, Nash stood off to the side, responding to every satisfying turn of phrase.
“You know, things come to you at the right time,” he tells WRTI. “Ten years ago, I would not have been ready to do this.” He adds: “I’m really ready to give to young people. I’m ready to hopefully inspire and direct them, because this is the future, and I’m excited to share what I know. I’m going to be teaching a composition class. I’ve done a lot of workshops and lessons and things like that, but this is the time to organize myself in a way that I think I can really benefit some young people. The only way to do that is to be dedicated to it, and I couldn’t do that before.” In the immortal words of Charlie Parker, one among many of Nash’s own heroes: Now’s the Time.
