This event is a co-bill show and part of the 2024 Biamp Portland Jazz Festival presented by PDX Jazz
Nicole Glover + Nicole McCabe + Hailey Niswanger with George Colligan on piano, Logan Kane on bass, and Alan Jones on drums
Nicole Glover
Nicole Glover is a saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and educator currently based in New York City. Growing up in Oregon, she was introduced to the music through her father’s record collection, and studied in programs dedicated to learning jazz music and priming students for touring and performing, such as the award winning American Music Program and Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.
She moved to the East Coast to attend William Paterson University, where she studied with Mulgrew Miller, Harold Mabern, and Rich Perry, and assumed permanent residence in NYC in 2015. She established herself as a rising saxophonist and indemand sideperson, performing throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and working with esteemed artists such as with Christian McBride, Al Foster, Victor Lewis, George Cables, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Billy Hart, Esperanza Spalding, Renee Rosnes, Kenny Washington, Reggie Workman, Gene Perla, George Colligan, Ben Wolfe, Ulysses Owens, Mike Clark, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Joe Farnsworth, Allison Miller, Joel Ross, Geoffrey Keezer, David Weiss, Luis Perdomo, Aaron Diehl, Jason Brown, Rodney Green, and Bill Goodwin. Additionally, she joined Latin Grammy winning artist Buika for her 2019 world tour, and was invited to join Blue Note supergroup ARTEMIS beginning in 2020.
Nicole McCabe
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. A prolific collaborator, McCabe has also played with David Binney, John Escreet, Anna Butterss, Henry Solomon, Sasha Berliner, Louis Cole, Thumpasaurus, and more.
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. 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.
Hailey Niswanger
MAE.SUN, alternately known as Hailey Niswanger, is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer. In 2016, Niswanger started branching out from her jazz roots, and through meditation, began to channel music that was inspired by a multitude of influences and sounds. “My music started to come from a place that felt so much more than just ‘me’. I wanted to depart from my birth given name, and put music out under a new moniker. MAE is my middle name, and SUN, was chosen from inspiring words by Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, who said, “The sun is our second heart…[the] great heart outside of our body.” Essentially, our universal, collective heart.” MAE.SUN’s music is mindful and eclectic, pushing boundaries and defying genres. Her music taps into the collective consciousness, serving as an engaging mediation for all. Though she can be primarily heard playing her saxophones and flute, MAE.SUN also plays clarinet, piano, and guitar. MAE.SUN’s cosmic debut album ‘Vol. 1: Inter-be’ was released in 2017, followed by ‘Vol. 2: Into The Flow’ in 2019.
Before 2016, MAE.SUN recorded 3 albums under ‘Hailey Niswanger’, and received many accolades in the jazz community; including winning first place at the Mary Lou Williams saxophone competition at age 19, charting on Billboard, plaudits from esteemed writer Nat Hentoff in the Wall Street Journal, rave reviews in JazzTimes, Jazziz, NPR, and DownBeat, as well as being listed on their critics poll for rising star on alto and soprano saxophone for the past 8 consecutive years. She has toured and performed with a number of notable artists including, Esperanza Spalding, Kenny Barron, Harvey Mason, Wolff & Clark Expedition, Mulatu Astatke, Ralph Peterson, and Terri Lyne Carrington. She also recorded flute on Carrington’s GRAMMY award winning album, The Mosaic Project. In the pop realm, she has performed with Demi Lovato, Sleigh Bells, and most recently her flute playing can be heard on Beyoncé’s ‘Black Parade’. MAE.SUN has performed at notable venues in NYC, including Music Hall of Williamsburg, National Sawdust, and Bowery Electric. MAE.SUN has also performed at the BRIC Jazz Fest, San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, and New York’s Winter Jazz Fest. She performed a live set on WBGO’s The Checkout, and most recently was the featured demo performer for Roland’s new Aerophone Pro.