We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole McCabe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nicole, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
i am still in the process of developing these things, but something that really helped me was truly understanding that we have all walked a different path of life and have a story to tell that can connect with others. Music is a career that revolves around community and connection, and to show up in that space authentically I had to connect more with the reasons I feel that playing music is important and how I want to show up for other people. I also have been working on disconnecting my entire self worth on my musicianship (how much I practice, someone else got a gig that I wanted) and tell myself that my path is unique and I am exactly where I need to be.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Nicole McCabe is a saxophonist and composer from Marin County, California. She works and lives in Los Angeles, where she earned a Master’s from University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, studying with Vince Mendoza, Patrice Rushen, and Russell Ferrante. She previously earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at Portland State University, where she received the William Bradford and Janet Hughes Mersereau Jazz Scholarship.
McCabe recently released her sophomore album as a bandleader, Landscapes, on the Spanish label Fresh Sound. Inspired by picturesque drives up the West Coast, the record features her first Los Angeles quartet, including Paul Cornish, Myles Martin, and her partner Logan Kane, as well as Knower’s Genevieve Artadi. It stretches McCabe’s hard bop roots into soothing and stylish new territory, informed by an expansive melodic sensibility.
Moving to Los Angeles has shaped McCabe’s approach as a composer and player, as she’s embedded in the city’s interdisciplinary scenes brewing outside the academy and around jazz boundary-stretching labels like Brainfeeder, Leaving, and her home base Minaret Records. She’s a mainstay at local hotspots Sam First, Altamira Sound, and ETA, where she’s performed with Rachel Eckroth, Tina Raymond, Dave Harrington, and more.
McCabe’s 2020 debut, Introducing Nicole McCabe, featured her Portland teachers Alan Jones, Jon Lakey, and George Colligan, in whose band Theoretical Planets she performed. The album helped launch the underground label Minaret, which later released Mini Giraffe, the 2021 album from McCabe and Kane’s electro-jazz project Dolphin Hyperspace. More recently, McCabe released the EP Orbit with beatmakers 10.4 Rog and Vooo, and featured on Jacob Mann Big Band’s Greatest Hits Volume 3.
A prolific collaborator, McCabe has also played with David Binney, John Escreet, Anna Butterss, Henry Solomon, Sasha Berliner, Louis Cole, Thumpasaurus, and more. She recently completed Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead residency at the Kennedy Center, where she studied under Jason Moran. While at USC, she received the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s Jeff Clayton Memorial New Note Award and the Keep an Eye International Jazz Award.
McCabe has taught music since she was in high school. She currently teaches undergraduate students at California State University, Northridge, as well as Los Angeles public school students through the Musicians at Play Foundation and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz program Jazz in the Classroom. She owns a one-eyed dog named Buster.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
self love, self awareness, and honesty. I have practiced a lot of hours in my profession, and I have found I am the most effective when I really look at my weaknesses with kindness and attack them head on. I had to get through a headspace of insecurity, not feeling like enough, and feeling like I would never reach the place that I wanted to reach. Telling myself that I am as capable as anyone else of accomplishing my goals, being aware of areas of improvement and taking criticism with a positive attitude, and creating a consistent routine were the things that helped me the most.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
Someone who wants to be a part of what I am doing, understands my message, and can contribute their own story to that narrative. Someone that is a good communicator when it comes to scheduling, emotional needs, and within the music. Someone who deeply cares about their own journey and has worked hard to become an individual.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nicolemccabejazz.com/
- Instagram: @nicolemccabe_
Image Credits
first photo: Adrian Dizon
