Taken from an article in the march 2008 San Diego Troubadour
Written by Annie Dru.
We’ll start with my newest acquaintance of the bunch, and the youngest, Gerard Nolan. I met Gerard about five years ago, while contributing to the album of local fiddler and composer Beverley Heising, in a band called Zepher. We had just about completed tracking when her producer suggested she add a bit of saxophone; she agreed, and they called in Gerard. In just a couple of hours, several tracks of more or less traditional sounding jigs and reels were transformed into something resembling a folk/jazz fusion masterpiece. We were all delighted, and not a little bit infatuated with the talent of this Dublin transplant.
In light of that experience, and over several more years of acquaintance and collaboration, I came to perceive Gerard as shy and reticent to engage in any conversation naming himself as the primary topic, so I was completely charmed if somewhat surprised to hear him recount his story leisurely, and quite animatedly over a couple of cups of coffee.
Recently, I had an opportunity to hear him perform in a Celtic setting when his band Cashel performed a very traditional Irish set at a very traditional Irish pub here in San Diego called The Field. I was only familiar with Gerard’s playing in a jazz-like context, so it was amazing to hear him on pennywhistle and bodhran, and singing all the familiar pub songs. I asked him if he felt that he was as much of an expert on traditional Irish music as he was on jazz, and he responded that it was a very different thing to be studied in something, as opposed to knowing it on a cellular level.
“As far as the whole Irish thing; you were saying a lot of the Irish guys here are playing American music. I didn’t play a lot of Irish music in Ireland, but always heard it, because you grow up with it; it’s your music. It’s in you. I always tell people, you never feel as nationalistic or patriotic as when you’re not in your own country. I really feel Irish here, because I sound different, am different, everybody knows I’m different. It’s like you have a hypersensitivity to your own country, because you’re not in it, and you’re reaching back for it. So that’s when I really started to get into Irish music. If I was in Ireland, I wouldn’t be playing Irish music, I’d be playing jazz.”
His musical training did not begin in school, as funding constraints didn’t allow for Dublin’s public schools to provide for a dedicated program. Gerard details his earliest musical experience, like that of many other Dublin boys (including a young Larry Mullins Jr. of later U2 fame) as being the nationally recognized Artane Boys Band. Apparently, at one time the school served as a sort of Oliver Twist-like home for the destitute and displaced (complete with dark Dickensian overtones) but later became more of a trade school run by The Christian Brothers. The crowning achievement of which, was a much sought after band. According to Gerard, any local young man under the age of sixteen, regardless of which school he actually attended, could participate for the price of a bus ride and a nominal monthly fee. The band was then, and is still, famous for many public and televised appearances at Irish sporting events and other events of state. It was playing clarinet in this band that the earliest seeds of his musicianship, and discipline were sown.
From first recollection, Gerard was determined to be a soldier. Enamored of GI Joe from a wee lad, yet lacking any real understanding of the meaning and purpose of the Army, his eventual entrance into and nearly decade long career in that institution seems somehow divinely guided. Just one year before the end of his Artane tenure, a fellow student confided that he was about to apply to the Irish Army School of Music. Only ten young men were to be taken, and Gerard, risking the odds, decided to apply as well. Much to his family’s delight, and his buddy’s dismay (he wasn’t accepted) at only fifteen years old, Gerard became the band’s second youngest member.
Eventually stationed in the western command in Athlone, nine years of study, Army discipline, and constant touring honed his talent, but left him hungry for more music, and greater challenge. Wednesdays off duty would find him hopping the train back to Dublin to study jazz; a discovery of his late teen and early twenties, and to hang out with guys who “…knew more than I did.”
The Army band was considered a career position, and the expectation was that a musician once accepted, would be in for life awaiting pension. Musically however, it was limited “Guys got to a certain level of musicianship, and that was it then, it was a job. They knew the material; you showed up, did your gigs. But I just had this desire to know more.”
An issue of Downbeat magazine advertising American universities offering music majors in jazz, was about to open up a whole new world to Gerard. “I knew I wanted to end up in New York, because I had always known; that’s where the jazz was, so I applied to a handful of schools there. I could barely blow my nose; I was a full time clarinet player, and I had only just started taking up the saxophone. But that’s what I wanted to play, so that’s what I made my audition with.”
He was ultimately accepted at The New School; a progressive university with a jazz and contemporary music division located in Greenwich Village. “Very expensive; I got a part scholarship, but boy it was expensive, I think it was like twenty-six thousand a semester or something. But the thing was, I didn’t have a clue. If I knew then what I know now, as far as how the system went; I could have gone to community college… just to get over here, then figured it out.”.
At that point he went to The Army Band and asked for a four year leave of absence to study music; something he had heard some of the other guys had done. It required jumping through some hoops, but determined, he eventually had his leave granted, obtained his four year student visa, and in 1995, at twenty-four, finally arrived in New York City.
All the years of saving his Army income allowed for the first year’s tuition, but soon it became apparent that, regardless of the quality of education he was receiving, it was just too expensive to continue there. “That school was awesome. In fact, you’d be walking down the hall and just see all these famous people that you’d be listening to on their CD; like ‘Holy Cow! That’s freakin’ so and so, and that’s so and so… he played with Coltrane… he played with Miles… It was a real ‘who’s who’ in the jazz world. It was a great school. It was like getting dropped in the deep end.”
Broke, but inspired, he left school, and began taking private lessons, working odd jobs, and saving money. He eventually returned for one last semester, but finally determined that it just wasn’t financially feasible. “New York is tough man. I was broke. I remember walking around with like no money. Not only that, most of the players I knew were in the same boat as well. These great players I knew, with like, holes in their shoes… playing in places like this… for tips.”
At that point he made the decision to do something else. “I considered going back home, or going to England. I wanted to continue to study music, but I knew there was no way I could keep going there. My buddy in LA, Frank Fontaine, said ‘Why don’t you come out here. I know some people in colleges, and I might be able to get you hooked up.”
“So I came out to LA. It was a gas you know, I think I arrived on the fifteenth of July 1997. We went to a few colleges; eventually ended up at this place called Citrus College, it was a community college, and all I was interested in was staying here, keeping my student visa, you know. We went in, and sat down with the head guy. Frank was talking me up like ‘this guy’s from New York, great player, you gotta hear him… gotta get him in here.’ So he says ‘Alright, let’s hear him.’ So Frank sits down, starts playing the piano; I start playing the saxophone… he says ‘Okay, you’re in.’ I got a free ride there. So they paid for everything you know, which was fantastic.”
Gerard found LA a very different experience... “I liked LA; it was totally different from New York, and I started working a lot. I was playing Salsa. I got in with The Johnny Polanco Band; they’re still on the go actually. I was playing with those guys every night; sometimes two, three times a day we had gigs. It was busy. We’d go up to San Francisco, come back to LA… we toured to New York… all that kind of stuff. And salsa was a gas, because people were like ‘what’s an Irish guy doin’ in a Salsa band?’ you know. So that was great. I started having a bit of a life. I could buy a car, started having money, you know what I mean… it was good.”
Working pretty much constantly with Johnny Polanco, somehow he managed to get another year of school under his belt before circumstances moved him down to San Diego. The band was playing at Café Seville when Gerard met his future wife Jennifer. “She was about to have knee surgery, and was out on the town to dance one last time before she’d be off her feet for six months. I went up to the bar to get a drink at the break; we started talking, exchanged phone numbers, and that was it.”
That brings us to December of 1999. With Y2K looming on the horizon, Gerard’s passport and visa expired. Thinking he would go home to Ireland to sort it all out, and come directly back, it came as unhappy surprise when he wasn’t allowed back into the United States. “I went into the embassy to try and get back, but they turned me down. They said I’d overstayed my visa, because I’d been in America for five years. I’d only been in school for three years, so they were like ‘you’re a bad boy’ an automatic ten year denial access to America right? And I had a life here; I had a girlfriend, a car, an apartment I was renting… so I just went to the airport anyway, and tried to just get on the plane. They didn’t let me on. They stamped like ‘bad boy’ on my passport, but I was gonna try.”
Eventually they decided to have Jennifer fly to Dublin so that they could be married there, and sort it out that way. Gerard was just waiting on the final paperwork to go through when 9/11 happened. “I thought oh no, I’m screwed now, you know?” But November eleventh of 2001 saw Gerard, green card in hand, on his way back to San Diego, and he’s been here ever since. “So… came back, then I went back to school at San Diego State and finished off my degree in jazz studies. Since then, I’ve just been working around town, and I teach.”
And lucky students they are. From my own limited experience, Gerard Nolan is one of the very most talented, professional and versatile musicians I have ever had the good fortune to work with. Others feel the same way, and he is as much sought after for his creative, precise and quick studio work, as he is for his gorgeous performances and easy like-ability on stage. He has appeared with The O’Jays, Gilbert O’Sullivan, and Lewis Stewart, and performs regularly with his band Cashel; an Irish/jazz/funk-groove ensemble, as well as The Gerard Nolan Jazz Quartet who are set to record their second original album in the coming months.
He also founded Cashel Entertainment; a production company offering professional quality Irish as well as other genres of music here in Southern California. The production company recently saw its second annual performance of “A Celtic Christmas Celebration” at The Mandeville Auditorium in La Jolla; produced and directed by Gerard himself.
The arrival of baby number two last November now finds Gerard double booked, along with the role of daddy. The baby’s due date happened to coincide with the release party for The Flimz debut album; his lovely wife was kind enough to humor us until after the show. And during a recent phone conversation, I could hear the little ones in the background vying for a very different kind of performance. Congratulations!
Hello Gerard, thanks for the comment. Yes, I clearly remember meeting you on The Cliffs of Moher while I was busking. You were too modest to tell me what a great musician you are! As my old friend, the legendary Tenor Sax player, Jimmy Skidmore used to say: "Sometimes you just don't know who you're talking to!" Good Luck to you! Benny The Busker
Hey Gerard, just sayin' hi. I had my audition today and I nailed it. We'll see if I get some scholar ship money. I've been practicing a lot and hanging out with some cool cats. There are some really happening players out here. I'm in the tower of power ensemble and it's killin. We get a 45 minute set in the main berklee auditorium which is pretty sweet. How are things on your end? Hear from ya soon, take it easy.
Hey Gerard Nice to meet you . Thanks for the request and checking out my site. I have new music posted from my newly released CD. Maybe we can play music sometime. Thanks Joseph
Hello Gerald Nolan Thank you for being a positive force in this world. Music is one of the few things left that still has the power to bring people from different cultures together in harmony. Always feel free to contact me.
Thanks so much for the Add–and your friendship. We enjoyed your music very much. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. It's a pleasure having you among our friends!
We hope you and your friends enjoy our music, too. We've just added four new compositions and two new blogs about Umano.
We wake up every morning and play the music of the new MySpace friends who have arrived at our site during the night. It occurred to us that these friends (you are among them) are almost universally positive, whether they be novices or legends, and without regard to their station in life or the country they occupy.
It also occurred to us that we couldn’t hold a verbal conversation with most of these friends, but we have bridged that gap by expressing our art honestly with each other.
We all have been filling the world with our music and art, in the hope that our messages of love and human understanding will have an impact on the world at large.
What a gift and what an opportunity we have received from this technology!
