Nicole Glover

Profile

Nicole Glover’s journey in music began when her father introduced her to improvised music at a young age.  She began playing the clarinet at the age of ten, transitioning to tenor saxophone the following year.

Her interest and curiosity for music began to blossom in high school. Nicole was one of 19 students from across the nation to be selected for the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, who embarked on a national tour that involved performances with Bobby Watson and Julian Lage, concluding with a performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Wynton Marsalis.

After studying at William Paterson University, Nicole returned to Portland, Oregon in 2011. Upon arrival, she was invited to record on Esperanza Spalding’s Grammy-award winning album Radio Music Society. She now performs in multiple groups with multi-instrumentalist George Colligan, as well as ​with ​her own jazz trio and several other improvisational ensembles such as the Alan Jones Storyline Sextet, Thomas Barber’s Spiral Road, and the Kerry Politzer Quintet. In 2013, Nicole was invited to travel to France to play in the Vannes Jazz Festival in an Alan Jones Academy of Music Quartet. Nicole is also member of Ural Thomas and Pain, ​​voted Willamette Weekly’s ​’​Best New Band of 2013​’​, and has opened for Parliament Funkadelic and Booker T. Jones with the Pain.

Throughout her musical career, Nicole has had the pleasure of performing with​ esteemed ​musicians ​such ​as Mulgrew Miller, Wynton Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, Kenny Garrett, George Colligan, Geoffrey Keezer, Bennie Maupin, Jeff ​’​Tain​’​ Watts, Bobby Watson, Gene Perla, Mike Clark, Bill Goodwin, Bill Stewart, Mel Brown, Rob Scheps, Red Holloway, Terell Stafford, Helen Sung, Dana Hall, and Scotty Barnhart.

In August of 2015, Nicole released her debut album First Record, featuring George Colligan (piano and trumpet), Jonathan Lakey (bass), and Alan Jones (drums). All About Jazz gave it 4.5 stars, calling the album “a sonically and emotionally powerful one,” and states that Nicole is “making quick approaches to sole propriety of her own sound, which, especially for her age, is as important as it is rare.”

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