Nicole McCabe is an alto saxophonist, composer and educator from Marin County, California who works and lives in Los Angeles. A rising star in the city’s interdisciplinary scenes, she recently released Mosaic, her fourth album as a bandleader, on Ghost Note Records. The LP follows Landscapes on the Spanish label Fresh Sound and her 2020 debut Introducing Nicole McCabe on Minaret. What Is My Porpoise?, the latest album from her electro-jazz duo with bassist and partner Logan Kane, is forthcoming on Dox.
Mosaic, executive produced by Jeff Parker, showcases McCabe’s complex tone and expanding structural sensibility in a post-bop tradition that she plies with studied creative verve and surprise. To record these through-composed works, she formed a new band featuring Kane, drummer Tim Angulo and pianist Julius Rodriguez, with appearances by Jon Hatamiya on trombone, Aaron Janik on trumpet and Parker on guitar. The album features music that McCabe wrote during Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead residency at the Kennedy Center under the tutelage of Jason Moran, as well as that workshopped with mentor Patrice Rushen for the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s New Note Jazz Award.
McCabe has otherwise performed or recorded with Ari Hoenig, Dan Weiss, David Binney, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gerald Clayton, Sasha Berliner, Genevieve Artadi, Dave Harrington, and 10.4 Rog, to name a few. Frequent collaborators Louis Cole and Justin Brown appear on Dolphin Hyperspace’s new album. McCabe’s constellation grew further with a 2023 residency at Los Angeles improvised music hub ETA in its final months, and she is a regular presence at Altamira Sound, where she recorded Mosaic and 2022’s Improvisations, a solo work for saxophone and pedals. Earlier this year, Fresh Sound released McCabe’s Live at Jamboree, a performance in Barcelona with Kane, Iannis Obiols and Ramon Prats.
A teacher since high school, McCabe is currently an educator and jazz ensemble director at Loyola Marymount University and a mentor in California State University, Northridge’s Jazz Studies program. She also teaches at Los Angeles public schools through the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz program Jazz in the Classroom. She earned a Master’s from University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at Portland State University.
“There is humility and respect in her playing, a true cognizance of the tradition from where her art comes from, and a feeling of surrender to where the music is directionally headed.”
All About Jazz
“It’s a strong debut from McCabe, and at a time when jazz’s evolution has taken it far from its origins, it’s a nice reminder that the past still has plenty to say.”
Bandcamp
“A surprise win for the Nicole McCabe Quintet in Amsterdam was the first of several career boosts for the saxophonist.”
Deanna Gasparyan
” Nicole’s saxophone tone is full, rich and self-assured with balance and
Patrice Rushen
nuance in all ranges of the alto saxophone. Her improvisations are
creative and informed by the jazz tradition in their substance and
daring.”
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November 12- DOLPHIN HYPERSPACE AT ZEBULON, LOS ANGELES
November 21-RHYTHM ROOM, LOS ANGELES
November 22-SF JAZZ WITH JIMMIE HERROD
November 23- HEALING FORCE OF THE UNIVERSE PASADENA CA
November 25- KUUMBWA JAZZ WITH JIMMIE HERROD
December 2-ZEBULON WITH SPENCER ZAHN AND DAWN RICHARD
December 6- GUEST ARTIST AT BAKERSFIELD COLLEGE
December 14- 1905 PORTLAND WITH GEORGE COLLIGAN
December 15/16- CHARLIE BROWN/DOMO BRANCH BIG BAND PORTLAND
December 20- SAM FIRST LA WITH GEORGE COLLIGAN
December 27- NICOLE MCCABE/DARYNN DEAN QUINTET AT SAM FIRST LA
December 28/29- DOLPHIN HYPERSPACE GOLD DIGGERS RESIDENCY
Nicole McCabe 