Rhythm & Roll: So Goes the Music of Stephanie Nakasian

Like rock and country, jazz encompasses a sea of sounds.
For those who love classic jazz with swing attached, there’s Stephanie Nakasian.
She headlines the 9th Annual Highlands Jazz Festival on April 25 at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Va.
Backed by her husband Hod O’Brien and his trio, Nakasian’s sumptuous singing conjures up jazz of bygone eras.
“It’s melodic music,” Nakasian said by phone recently from her home near Charlottesville, Va. “I’m linked to Ella Fitzgerald, the styles of the songbirds from the swing era, everybody from Rosemary Clooney to Peggy Lee to Ella Fitzgerald.”
Nakasian sings snap-your-fingers jazz. Had we lived during the 1940s, her style of jazz could be found in hep-cat clubs with names like the Cotton Club, yet also along the so-called chitlin’ circuit in venues with names like The Hippodrome.
Equal parts class and cool, rhythm and roll comprise the jazz of Nakasian.
“It’s got swing. It’s got improvisation,” she said.
She rarely if ever sings a song the same way twice. Such improvisational jazz emerges from an on-the-fly feel attached to a musically educated background that makes sense of the free flow of words and music.
“I’d go crazy if I had to do [songs] the same way [all the time],” she said. “There’s a lot of rhythmic approach to it. It’s melodic music.”
For Nakasian, rhythm and melody in concert with improvisation leads into scat singing. Therein, lies her deepest connection to Fitzgerald, a pioneer in jazz scat singing.
But what is scat singing, some may wonder. Imagine a voice mimicking a soloing horn, and you’ve got a good idea.
“It’s very complicated to do,” said Nakasian, who also teaches voice at the University of Virginia. “It’s not just a bunch of nonsense. They are improvising on the lyric.”
Think of the voice as an instrument. Indeed, the voice belongs right alongside a piano or guitars or horns, something that can be manipulated or played musically and thus is an instrument.
“It’s the ultimate instrument,” Nakasian said. “The voice can do everything. It’s the most direct exposure of a soul. That’s why people are insecure about singing. It’s your soul.”
That’s jazz. Like all music, jazz is a product of one’s soul, yet given its enormous scope, traditional jazz such as performed by Nakasian typically sounds totally unlike its alien counterpart on the experimental opposite end of jazz.
Yet, jazz like rock and blues and country music is all-American. It’s ours.
“It’s the most individual music form I’ve ever experienced,” Nakasian said. “It’s America’s greatest art form. It’s a black form, it’s a white form, it’s a Latin form and it’s mixed all in.”
Some may wonder, jazz in the Mountain Empire? Jazz fits because it fits wherever humans walk, talk, and interact with one another.
“Jazz is complicated. It has constant change and yet it’s free,” Nakasian said. “Jazz is America.”

IF YOU GO
What: 9th Annual Highlands Jazz Festival featuring Stephanie Nakasian & the Hod O’Brien Trio featuring Veronica Swift and Southwest Virginia Community College Big Band, and also area middle and high school bands
When: April 25, noon
Where: Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, Abingdon, Va.
Admission: $15; though students with ID are admitted free
Info: (276) 676-2282 or (800) 435-3440
Web: http://www.stephanienakasian.com
Audio: http://www.jazzconnect.com/mp3/

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .